The Festus Farmers Market runs weekend mornings from spring through fall at 130 S 2nd Street, Festus, Missouri, with local produce, artisan goods, and the kind of unhurried community atmosphere that makes a Saturday morning in Jefferson County feel genuinely different. For guests at Next Home Stays with a full kitchen in their rental, it is also a practical resource for fresh local produce at prices that make the grocery store comparison obvious. Here is how to build your Saturday morning around it.

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Twice a year, the City of Festus closes Main Street for the Mayor's Car Show and Cruise, one of Jefferson County's best free community events. The 2026 Mayor's Fall Car Show and Cruise is Saturday September 19, with a display car show from 2pm at the Public Library lot, DJ music from 2pm to 8pm, food trucks including Messie Betty's Smash Burgers and Funnel King, and the Main Street cruise beginning at 6pm. Free to attend. Free to watch. And one week before the George Portz Traditional Music Festival. Here is everything you need to know.

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The George Portz Traditional Music Festival has been running for 36 years and brings nationally known bluegrass, Cajun, Irish, and country musicians to Festus, Missouri every September. The 2026 edition runs September 26 and 27 at Larry G. Crites Memorial Park, one mile from Next Home Stays properties in Festus. Founded by a national fiddle champion whose pupils included Alison Krauss, and continued by his son after his passing in 2023, it is one of the most genuine and least-known music festivals in the entire St. Louis region. Here is everything you need to know before you go.

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Missouri once had 30 covered bridges. Today only four remain. One of them, the 1872 Sandy Creek Covered Bridge in Jefferson County, sits 20 minutes from Festus in a 205-acre state historic site that most local visitors have never discovered. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, featured in a 1993 Hollywood film, and free to visit year-round, it is one of the most rewarding hidden gems in the entire St. Louis region. Here is your complete visitor guide.

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