Naples Grape Festival

Naples, New York is a town of roughly 1,000 people at the southern tip of Canandaigua Lake, and it has an outsized claim: it calls itself the Grape Pie Capital of the World. Every September since 1961, the Naples Grape Festival has tested that assertion before crowds of up to 80,000 visitors who descend on a village barely a quarter-mile wide and walk away convinced. The 2026 festival runs September 26 and 27 on the grounds of Naples High School (136 N. Main St.) and Memorial Town Hall (135 N. Main St.), with activity spilling across Main Street from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. both days. Admission is free. Rain or shine. Proceeds benefit the Naples Historical Society and the Naples NY Rotary Club.

The Star of the Show Is Not Wine

Local wine has a strong presence at the Brahm Moore Craft Beverage Garden, which runs wine tastings and bottle sales from Finger Lakes producers alongside craft beer, cider, and distillery pours. But the grape pie is why people come, talk about it for years, and come back. Grape pie is a double-crust pie filled with Concord grapes — the dark, intensely aromatic variety grown on the hillsides above Naples Valley — and it was invented in the 1950s by Naples resident Irene Bouchard, whose family sold it from a roadside stand. Joseph’s Wayside Market (202 S. Main St.) sponsors the World’s Greatest Grape Pie Contest, held on Saturday afternoon. Entries are submitted anonymously and judged on taste, texture, appearance, and flavor. Watching the judging is a genuine community event. Buying a pie to take home in a cooler is, according to most repeat visitors, non-negotiable.

What Else the Festival Offers

Beyond the grape pie, the grounds are dense with food vendors offering kettle corn, cider doughnuts, artichoke French, portobello mushroom sandwiches, empanadas, Italian sausage, roasted corn, and steak on a stick. Two stages run original music from local and regional acts across both days, from solo songwriters in the folk tradition to full-band sets that skew toward country and Americana. Crafts and artisan vendors fill the remaining ground with jewelry, woodwork, pottery, photography, and candles. The overall pace is relaxed and slow; this is not a festival that rewards rushing.

Who This Weekend Is For

Wine enthusiasts and food-driven travelers make up the largest share of the crowd, but the festival is genuinely family-accessible. Children respond to the pie contest with more engagement than you might expect — the competitive tension is real, and the tasting samples that circulate in the crowd are memorable. The layout across two school-adjacent properties is flat and manageable for strollers and families with younger kids, though some grassy areas can be challenging for wheelchairs and mobility aids. Dogs are common at the event, though the dense Saturday crowds make Sunday the better day for pet owners.

Getting There and Parking

Naples sits on State Route 21, about 16 miles south of Canandaigua and 9 miles south of Bristol Mountain. Route 21 is the single road in and out of the main festival area, and Saturday morning traffic backs up 20 to 30 minutes starting around 9:00 a.m. Arriving before 9:30 a.m. or after 1:00 p.m. reduces that delay significantly. General parking is available on Lake Niagara Lane; handicapped parking is in the high school lot off Academy Street. Free or low-cost shuttles ($5 to $10 parking fee per vehicle) run from satellite lots on the outskirts of town throughout both days. In-town street parking is effectively nonexistent during the festival.

Where to Eat and Explore Beyond the Grounds

The Finger Lakes region is one of New York’s strongest culinary corridors. Arbor Hill Grapery (6461 Route 64, Bristol Springs), just outside Naples, specializes in grape-based products — wine, grape pie, grape jelly, grape mustard, and vinegars — and has been operating on this stretch of the wine trail since the 1970s. It is a logical stop on your way into or out of town. In Canandaigua, about 16 miles north, the Rheinblick German Restaurant (25 Lakeshore Dr.), opened in 2002, faces Canandaigua Lake and serves a full German menu — the Wiener Schnitzel and housemade spätzle hold up well against anything comparable in the region, and the lakeside patio is one of the better outdoor dining spots in the Finger Lakes. For a casual post-festival meal, Inn on the Lake in Canandaigua has a dining room with direct water views that works well for groups of any size.

Late September in the Finger Lakes

This is peak foliage season. Mornings can run in the 40s and afternoons in the 60s to low 70s, with the temperature swinging 20 degrees or more in a single day. Layers are the honest answer. The Festival runs rain or shine, so a light rain layer is worth packing. If the weather turns cold by Sunday, the Canandaigua Lake wine trail makes an excellent indoor option — many tasting rooms are open through the fall season and the autumn lake views from the western shore are worth the drive on their own.

Plan Your Stay on the Lake

Canandaigua Lake is the nearest significant body of water to Naples and offers a full range of vacation rental options — from modest cottages on the eastern shore to larger waterfront homes in the village of Canandaigua itself. Search Lake.com for rentals on Canandaigua Lake and you will find properties within 20 minutes of the festival grounds that also put you on the water for the rest of the weekend. Keuka Lake, another Finger Lakes option about 30 minutes southwest, has a quieter inventory that suits couples and smaller groups looking for something beyond the festival-weekend crowd. Book well in advance; the last full weekend of September is one of the most popular on the entire Finger Lakes calendar.