The Maryland State Fair closes out its run Monday in Timonium, which is why it leads this week. Charm City Live puts Boyz II Men on a free stage downtown Saturday, and Sunday brings $25-a-family apple picking at a Carroll County orchard. Underneath that: Aberdeen's free all-day festival and morning 5K, the Renaissance Festival open all three days, fossil hunting in Laurel, free symphony concerts in two Anne Arundel parks, and a 10:00 PM ET ghost tour downtown. Monday carries its own lineup, below.
Top Pick
Maryland State Fair — Maryland State Fairgrounds, 2200 York Rd, Lutherville-Timonium Through Monday, September 7 | All ages | $15 adults, $10 kids 6-11, free under 6
This is the last stretch of the Fair's run. It closes Monday and doesn't come back — the Renaissance Festival has eight more weekends after this one, and everything else on this list runs again.
Midway rides, livestock barns, a grandstand, and fair food. Ride wristbands are $38 each on Saturday and Sunday, sold 10:00 AM ET to 4:00 PM ET and good until 5:00 PM ET, plus a $2 activation fee. Carnival games are separate. None of the Fair's discount days fall on this weekend — the free-admission and college-night promotions landed on other dates, and advance online tickets closed August 27.
Quick Weekend Wins
Free, and you can just show up
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Charm City Live 5 at War Memorial Plaza, 100 Holliday St, Baltimore City Saturday, 12:00 PM – 9:00 PM ET. Free. The city's one-day music festival, fifth year, headlined by Boyz II Men with Case and Estelle plus a deep local DJ lineup. A Kids Zone sits inside the footprint, apart from the main stage, with food vendors.
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Aberdeen 250: Rails, Cans and Community at Festival Park, 60 N Parke St, Aberdeen (Harford County) Saturday, 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM ET, with the Freedom 5K starting at 8:00 AM ET. Free. A Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route march, the 5K, and open-plaza family activities running into the evening. The fireworks are Sunday night, not Saturday — a separate evening if you want both.
Ticketed This Weekend
Rosh Hashana Apple Picking — Baugher's Orchard & Farm, Westminster (Carroll County) Sunday, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET | All ages | $25 per family
A two-hour picking window run by the JCC of Greater Baltimore and the Network's PJ Library team: apple picking in the orchard rows, Rosh Hashanah songs with song leader Brian Singer, and a shofar sounding partway through. A shofar is a loud, sudden ram's-horn blast, not background music. Westminster is about thirty-five minutes out.
Maryland Renaissance Festival — Revel Grove, Crownsville (Anne Arundel County) Saturday, Sunday and Labor Day Monday, 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM ET | All ages | $31 adults, $17 kids 7-15, free under 6 (ticket still required)
Fiftieth season, open all three days including Monday. Armored riders on horseback trying to knock each other off with a lance, turkey legs the size of a forearm, and a full costumed village to wander. There's no clock on this one: RenFest runs weekends through October 25.
Budget-Friendly Finds
Dinosaur Park Open House — 13100 Mid Atlantic Blvd, Laurel Saturday, 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM ET. Free. Surface fossil hunting on a Cretaceous site, with paleontologists on hand.
Pops in the Park — Annapolis Symphony Orchestra Downs Park, Pasadena, Saturday 11:30 AM ET; Quiet Waters Park, Annapolis, Sunday 5:30 PM ET (pre-show from 5:00 PM ET). Free, and so are park admission and parking. The symphony opens its 65th season outdoors, with Maryland Poet Laureate Lady Brion narrating Copland's Lincoln Portrait alongside two original poems, plus Broadway and film music. Food trucks; bring chairs and blankets. Sunday's rain date is Monday at 5:00 PM ET.
Ring a Bell for the Rosies — Glenn L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum, Middle River Saturday, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM ET. $8 adults, $3 children. A short ceremony honoring Rosie the Riveter and the women who worked the WWII home front. It pairs with the B&O's labor-history tour on Monday.
2nd Annual MOM's Mini Market — Friendship Park, Abingdon (Harford County) Sunday, 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM ET. Free to browse. Local vendors and live music.
Labor Day Monday
B&O Railroad Museum — 901 W Pratt St, Baltimore City Monday, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM ET | All ages | $5 admission, Monday only (members free)
A roundhouse full of full-size locomotives, indoor from the door. The "Working on the Railroad: The B&O and the Labor Movement" guided tours run at 10:30 AM ET and 1:00 PM ET, included in the $5 — the one Monday event that's about Labor Day rather than merely scheduled on it. Mile One Express train rides are $4–$12 extra.
Maryland Zoo: Wild Field Days — 1 Safari Place, Druid Hill Park Saturday through Monday, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM ET | Zoo admission $33 per person ages 2-64, free under 2, parking free
The field-day programming layers onto a paid zoo visit rather than standing alone: a 42-foot inflatable obstacle course, a bounce house, outdoor games, crafts, and animal locomotion stations, all three days.
Also open Monday: the Maryland State Fair's final day (see Top Pick), the Renaissance Festival (see Ticketed This Weekend), the Orioles at 1:35 PM ET (see Tween-Approved), and Story Makers (see For Toddler Families).
For Toddler Families
At the Maryland State Fair (see Top Pick), the covered ag barns and small-animal areas suit toddlers better than the midway — free under 6, and most ride wristbands don't apply at this age.
Little Leapers at Skyzone Crofton-Gambrills Friday, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET. A morning block scoped to kids 6 and under, with one free adult jump per paid child — a contained court rather than the general-admission floor.
School's Out Pop Up: Story Makers — Our House Baltimore, 1920 Greenmount Ave Monday, 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM ET | Ages 2 and up | $15
A stand-alone session — a story, songs, and a take-home craft — run by Common Tone Music, the same group behind the eight-week series in Mark Your Calendar below.
Charm City Live's Kids Zone (see Quick Weekend Wins) is a dedicated area apart from the main stage.
Tween-Approved
Lord Baltimore Hotel Ghost Tours — Poe's Magic Theatre at The Lord Baltimore Hotel, 20 W Baltimore St Friday and Saturday, 10:00 PM – 11:10 PM ET | $30 per person
A guided investigation through what the hotel bills as America's most haunted luxury hotel. At $30 a head and a 10:00 PM ET start, it reads as a parent-and-one-kid outing more than a full family night.
Orioles vs. Cleveland Guardians — Oriole Park at Camden Yards, 333 W Camden St Monday, 1:35 PM ET | Paid
The holiday game on the actual holiday.
Mark Your Calendar
- Who Stole my Sweater? An Intro to DNA Fingerprinting, ages 9-14 — BUGSS, Baltimore City. Saturday, September 19, 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM ET. A small-cohort hands-on lab with a real capacity limit.
- Annapolis Baygrass Music Festival — Sandy Point State Park. September 19-20. Béla Fleck and Yonder Mountain on a beachfront site with a KidZone.
- BFA Family Fest — Memorial Episcopal Church, 1407 Bolton St, Baltimore City. Saturday, September 19, 3:30 PM – 6:30 PM ET. A family package runs $50 whatever your size, or $25 an adult and $10 a child. Live entertainment, kids' activities, food vendors and a silent auction, benefiting Baltimore Family Alliance's free programming.
- Festival at Bel Air 5K — Bel Air. Saturday, October 3, 7:30 AM ET. Registration price climbs as race day gets closer.
- Story Makers with Common Tone, ages 1-5 — Natural History Society of Maryland. Eight-week series starting Tuesday, September 22.
Local Intel
If you're already in Anne Arundel for RenFest on Sunday, Quiet Waters Park has the free symphony concert from 5:30 PM ET, twenty minutes from Crownsville.
Two Harford County events pair up. Aberdeen's family day runs Saturday and MOM's Mini Market is Sunday morning in Abingdon, fifteen minutes apart — and Aberdeen's fireworks are Sunday evening.
If the weather turns, the Fair's livestock barns and exhibition halls are covered, and Skyzone and the ghost tour are indoors start to finish.
Also This Weekend
- Home Depot runs its free Kids Workshop Saturday, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET, at stores across the region — Owings Mills, Towson, Glen Burnie, Dundalk, Columbia, Annapolis, Bel Air. Registration required; build a wooden project and keep it.
- Charm City Live's hiring fair runs alongside the festival at War Memorial Plaza, connecting residents with Baltimore City government jobs.
- Frederick Douglass Freedom Days runs in Fell's Point, 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM ET, marking the 188th anniversary of Douglass's escape from slavery, with lectures and a book sale. Most of it is free; the walking tour carries a fee. Listings disagree on whether it opens Thursday or Friday.
- The Columbia Maryland Film Festival opens on Labor Day Monday at Howard Community College's Horowitz Center and runs through the 13th; programming varies by film.