Fort Langley Cranberry Festival

Five thousand pounds of cranberries arrive in Fort Langley every October, and by the end of one Saturday they have all gone home with somebody. That is the Fort Langley Cranberry Festival: Glover Road closed to cars, more than 125 vendor tents and 15-plus food trucks (Tourism Langley’s count for 2026), and a crowd the organisers put at about 35,000 in 2025. In 2026 they thought it might have been bigger still, though, as one organiser told the Langley Advance Times, nobody can count heads at a free event.

When it happens each year

The Saturday before Thanksgiving Monday, so it always lands between October 6 and 12. The festival runs 10 am to 4 pm, rain or shine. This year’s was October 10, 2026, the 31st. The organisers haven’t announced 2027, but the rule points to Saturday, October 9. We’ll put the date on What’s On as soon as they confirm it.

Getting there and parking

This is the part people ask about, and the honest answer is: early, or not by car.

• Road closures. In 2026, Glover Road was closed to all traffic from St. Andrews Avenue to Mavis Avenue between 6 am and 6 pm, and Mary Avenue was shut from Glover to Church Street. Glover’s parking lanes close the night before. The Township lists closures on its closures and impacts page, and we keep a running list on Langley road closures.
• The fort’s lot. Fort Langley National Historic Site, at the end of Mavis Avenue, is the biggest lot in the village. Since November 1, 2025, it has been pay parking through EasyPark for anyone not visiting the fort, paid by card at the machine or with the Zipby, HonkMobile or ParkMobile apps (no cash). Fort visitors get four hours free once they register their plate at the Visitor Centre. In 2023 and 2024 the festival also pointed drivers to the fort’s orchard lot and to Living Waters Church.
• Shuttles. Free shuttles from Trinity Western University and Walnut Grove Secondary ran in 2014 and 2017. We didn’t find one published for 2026, so watch the festival’s Instagram in the week before.
• Parking tickets. Back in 2014 the Advance Times warned that Township bylaw officers had handed out a lot of parking tickets at past festivals. Driveways, hydrants and no-parking signs are all fair game.
• Bus. Parks Canada’s directions use the 562 to the stop on 96 Avenue at Glover Road. Our transit page covers the rest.

What’s on through the day

• The cranberries. Ocean Spray donated 5,000 pounds in 2026. Volunteers, many of them local students and Lions, bag them to order outside the Community Hall, and the sales pay for most of the festival’s costs: security, road closures, permits and insurance. (A bag was $5 in 2022. We haven’t seen a newer price.)
• Pancake breakfast. The Fort Langley Lions start at 8 am and stop when the food runs out, usually between 10:30 and 11.
• The fort’s cranberry day. Inside the palisade, Parks Canada runs its own program from 10 am to 4:30 pm at regular admission (free for 17 and under): blacksmithing, cranberry bannock on a stick, a cranberry stomp with boots supplied, and the start of its scarecrow showcase, which runs through October. Details are on our Fort Langley National Historic Site page.
• Cranberry Races. The Fort Langley Canoe Club races 10-paddler canoes around a 1,000-metre loop on Bedford Channel. The afternoon finals include a pumpkin drop and a cranberry juice run.

Tips from the last few years

Treat 10 am as your arrival deadline, not your start time: parked, fed and holding berries before the midday crush. Can’t be early? The last hour is calmer. With small kids, the fort is a good place to get off the street for a while. More grumbling and advice in Fort Langley parking on a festival weekend.

A bit of history

The festival started in 1995, begun by local farmers. The Langley Advance Times reported in 2022 that it later passed to the Fort Langley Business Improvement Association, and then, after the BIA closed in 2020, to the Eric Woodward Foundation. By 2026 the paper was describing it as run by a volunteer community committee. In 2020 the festival was cancelled because of the pandemic, and cranberries went out to the doorsteps of people who had signed up instead. A smaller version came back in 2021, and the full layout returned in 2022.

The berry has been part of Fort Langley much longer than that. The Hudson’s Bay Company post shipped cranberries in barrels in the 1800s, a trade a Kwantlen leader helped start. That story is on our Whattlekainum page.

Related pages

• Fort Langley village guide: where to eat and what else to see in the village
• Langley’s annual events, month by month
• How to beat the parking next year, our 2026 write-up
• Grave Tales, the fort’s October night tours, which start the week after

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