This Weekend in the Neighborhood: Fall Color and a Lakeside Art Fair

Autumn hits its stride this weekend, and the neighborhood calendar follows the leaves right down to the lakeshore. With peak color settling over the parkways, the timing could hardly be better for a weekend spent outdoors.

There is a short window each October when the lakes neighborhoods are at their absolute best — the maples turning, the air sharp, the water still — and this is it. The events on the calendar are almost beside the point; the real draw is simply being outside while it lasts.

The main event

The City of Lakes Art Fair takes over the northwest shore of Bde Maka Ska on both Saturday and Sunday, gathering well over a hundred and fifty artists alongside live music and food vendors, all set against the season's best fall color. Admission is free, which makes it an easy outing for a whole family or a casual afternoon drop-in.

Parking near the lake is tight on a busy fall weekend, so this is one to walk or bike to if you can. Coming on foot or by bike also lets you take the long way along the shore, which at this point in October is reason enough to go on its own. The fair is juried, so the work runs original rather than mass-produced — the kind of pieces worth slowing down for between gusts of falling leaves.

Around it

The fair is not the only thing running. The Mill City Farmers Market is still holding its Saturday session down on the riverfront, now on its later, cooler-weather start time, so a morning of produce and a cup of something hot pairs naturally with an afternoon at the art fair. Fall is squash-and-apple season at the market, which suits the weekend.

And then there are the lakes themselves. The paths around Bde Maka Ska and Lake of the Isles are about as good as they get all year right now, the canopy turning and the water still. Whether you bookend the art fair with a loop or just linger on the shore, it is worth the walk before the leaves come down for good.

A season worth catching

Fall on the Chain of Lakes is short and emphatic. The same paths that hum with summer crowds quiet down in October, the light goes long and gold, and for a couple of weekends the parkways look like a postcard the neighborhood gets to live inside. An art fair on the water is a fine excuse to be out in it, but the leaves would be reason enough.

Make a day of it: a market in the morning, the fair in the afternoon, and a slow lap of the lake to close, all of it free except whatever you carry home.