"We selected Danville because (of) its charming and walkable downtown, local merchant community, and proximity to major cities around the Bay Area." That was Small Town Venture, the organizer of the first Flannel & Foliage festival, explaining to the Mercury News why a Gilmore Girls event is coming to Hartz Avenue this month.
Being close to major cities brings in people from out of town. Being walkable means the whole thing fits on the few blocks around Hartz and Prospect, the same blocks that hold the Saturday farmers' market and the restaurants along Hartz. So for the next three weeks downtown Danville has two calendars. One is a daytime weekend built for fans driving in. The other is a set of weeknight and edge-of-weekend events, run by the Chamber and the Town, that the festival doesn't touch. If you know which is which, you can plan your October.
Why a TV town ended up on Hartz Avenue
Flannel & Foliage runs October 23 through 25, 2026, and the Town calendar lists it at Historic Downtown Danville, Hartz and Prospect Avenues. According to a Town staff report, this is a new event produced independently by Small Town Venture. Its first weekend uses the Village Theatre, the Danville Community Center, the Veterans Memorial Building and Hap Magee Ranch Park.
General admission is free and the festival runs 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day. The free side includes live music, trivia, scavenger hunts, artisan booths, local merchant pop-ups and screenings of the show. VIP tickets add hosted panels and meet-and-greets with Scott Patterson, Kelly Bishop, Sean Gunn, Emily Kuroda, Yanic Truesdale, Todd Lowe and John Cabrera.
The numbers show how much of the crowd is coming from elsewhere. The Mercury News reported in early September that the waitlist was over 15,000 people. Cast panels are expected to cap at about 245 people a day, and photo ops at about 1,500. Those ticketed sessions can't hold most of the interested crowd, so many visitors will spend the weekend in the free part of the festival. That part happens on the sidewalks, in the coffee lines and in the shops.
The organizer's published schedule gives a sense of the opening day. The Friday plan includes:
- 9:30 a.m. Town Hall welcome
- 11 a.m. Scott Patterson panel
- Noon picnic lunch
- 4 p.m. concert
The schedule is labeled tentative, and the copy captured for this post carries a note dated October 6. Times could still change before the 23rd. The Town report says local businesses were brought in and the organizer applied for a Town Business Promotion Grant. No list of participating merchants had been published when we checked.
The late-October calendar, side by side
Set the festival next to everything else on the Town and Chamber calendars and you can see how they fit together. The festival takes the daytime hours of one weekend. Nearly everything else is on a weeknight, a Saturday morning or a different weekend.
| Date | Event | Where | Hours | Who it's for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sat., Oct. 17 | Preschool Performance: Magician Brian Scott | Village Theatre | 11 a.m.–noon | Young kids |
| Sat., Oct. 17 | Art in the Dark Opening Reception | Village Theatre art gallery | 5:30–7:30 p.m. | All ages |
| Thu., Oct. 22 | Spooktacular Celebration | The Ballroom, 3005 Stone Valley Road | 4–7:30 p.m. | Families |
| Fri.–Sun., Oct. 23–25 | Flannel & Foliage | Hartz & Prospect, plus Town venues | 10 a.m.–6 p.m. | Free GA; VIP tickets for panels |
| Wed., Oct. 28 | Crawloween | Downtown, check-in at Prospect Park Plaza | 5:30–8:30 p.m. | 21+, ticketed |
| Fri., Oct. 30 | Halloween Improv Night | Village Theatre | 7–9 p.m. | Evening crowd |
The Spooktacular is the day before the festival starts, and the next festival-free night downtown is the Wednesday after it ends. Before any of that, the Village Theatre's calendar has Katha Munch's Have You Seen the Sharmas? on Sunday, October 11, at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Saturday, October 24, is the one real overlap
The Danville Farmers' Market is at 205 Railroad Avenue, at Railroad and Prospect. It runs Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. all year, according to the state's certified-market roster as of October 1, 2026. On October 24, the festival opens at 10 a.m. at Hartz and Prospect, while the market is still running at Railroad and Prospect.
This is the only time in the next three weeks when the resident schedule and the visitor schedule share the same downtown at the same hour. A 9 a.m. market run comes before the festival gates open. By late morning, expect festival crowds on Prospect. The other two festival days don't conflict with the market, because it meets only on Saturdays.
Crawloween takes back the Wednesday
Three days after the festival leaves, the Danville Area Chamber of Commerce runs Crawloween on Wednesday, October 28, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. It's a 21+ tasting crawl, not trick-or-treating. The Chamber's page says it comes "from the folks who brought you the Spring Sip & Stroll," with wine, beer and spirits tastings at more than 20 businesses, plus costumes encouraged.
Ticket details from the Chamber page:
- $55 early bird, rising to $65 after October 20
- $20 designated driver ticket
- All tickets non-refundable, with a 3% processing fee
- Included: a commemorative glass, strolling map, sweet and savory bites, a tote bag and live music
- Check-in at Prospect Park Plaza, at the corner of Prospect and Hartz
The Chamber's event map names 12 stops so far: Camellia Cabinetry and More, Diablo Barber Company, Auburn Lounge, Norm's Place, Cottage Jewel Antiques, Love You More Collection, Ella J Boutique, Forward Motion Sports, Wallbeds n More, Whim House, Kaia's Island Kitchen & Tiki Bar, and Danville Brewing Company. That's fewer than the 20-plus the main page promises, so more names may be added before the night.
Many of these businesses aren't bars. A barber, a cabinet showroom, an antiques shop and a sporting goods store are pouring tastings for one evening. A visitor at the festival weekend's merchant pop-ups gets a sample of the same downtown that the Chamber's crawl walks through stop by stop. The crawl is set on a weeknight, after the out-of-town traffic has gone home.
One room opened on Hartz, one went dark
Hartz Avenue isn't the same street it was in the spring. In late August, Rancho Cantina soft-opened at 501 Hartz Avenue, in the former Cocina Hermanas space. Bay Area Telegraph put the soft opening on Monday, August 24. Owners Nico and Alice Tzikas brought the concept over from Lafayette. The menu centers on wood-fired carne asada, chicken and seafood, along with Vaquero platters, tacos, enchiladas and fajitas, plus tequila and mezcal cocktails. The restaurant's Danville page describes the food as wood-fired Californio cooking. Patch lists hours of 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Those late weekend hours run well past the festival's 6 p.m. close.
Down the street, Virtue + Vice at 267 Hartz Avenue served its final meals in mid-September. It had opened in spring 2022 under owner and culinary director Sarabjit Bajaj. Danville San Ramon reported that in about four years it produced 14 menus and more than 100 cocktails. Its Wednesday night Dine for a Cause program raised more than $100,000 for local nonprofits. No new tenant for the space had been announced in local coverage as of this writing.
Both stories connect to the festival. Small Town Venture named Danville's "local merchant community" as one of its reasons for coming. That community is a set of specific storefronts that change over time. In late October 2026, it includes a new wood-fired dinner spot at 501 Hartz and an empty room at 267 Hartz. Either one could look different next year, if the organizers do make Flannel & Foliage the annual event they've said they hope for.
If festival weekend has you wondering what Danville's walkable downtown is worth to a homeowner, or whether quieter weekends near Yosemite could suit your household, Tchukon Shanks is glad to talk it through. We work with East Bay owners looking at second homes in the foothills, and we can show you what splitting your time looks like in practice. Schedule a free consultation.
