Helicopters in the Morning, Flashlights After Dark: Murfreesboro’s Busiest Family Weekend This Fall

<p>Mid-October delivers Murfreesboro's densest family weekend of the fall. Three separate events across two days, and with a little planning you can do all of them without anyone melting down.</p>

<h2><a href=”https://murfreesboro.com/event/murfreesboro-airport-steam-festival-2026/”>Tennessee STEAM Festival at the airport</a> — Saturday, October 17, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.</h2>

<p>Murfreesboro Municipal Airport hosts its STEAM Festival morning alongside the Discovery Center, and the pitch is refreshingly simple: a field full of aircraft and emergency vehicles, with exhibitors letting families climb in and put hands on the controls.</p>

<p>On display: an AH-64E Apache from the 101st Airborne, a UH-60 Blackhawk from the Tennessee Army National Guard, a Vanderbilt LifeFlight helicopter, member-owned experimental aircraft, jet and piston engines, and Murfreesboro Police and Fire and Rescue vehicles. The Experimental Aircraft Association chapter runs a how-airplanes-fly station and flight simulators. MTSU brings its DA-40 along with its aircraft maintenance lab and drone operations.</p>

<p>Science, technology, engineering, art and math, delivered in the only format a seven-year-old actually wants it: sitting in a helicopter.</p>

<h2><a href=”https://murfreesboro.com/event/cannonsburgh-village-after-dark-friday-2026/”>Cannonsburgh Village After Dark</a> — Friday, October 16 and <a href=”https://murfreesboro.com/event/cannonsburgh-village-after-dark-saturday-2026/”>Saturday, October 17</a>, 6 to 9 p.m.</h2>

<p>Cannonsburgh is a good afternoon any time of year. After dark in October it is something else entirely. Bring a flashlight, work through the hunt in the dark corners of the log cabins, and stop for hot drinks and sweet treats between the fall crafts, games and music. Costumes are welcome.</p>

<p><strong>Cost:</strong> $5 per person, free for ages 5 and under. Tickets are available online in advance for either night, or at the gate.</p>

<p>Worth saying plainly, because parents of small kids always want to know: this is a flashlight hunt, not a haunted attraction. It plays well for elementary age and younger. Nobody is jumping out at anyone.</p>

<h2>How to stack them</h2>

<p>The clean version is Friday night at Cannonsburgh, then Saturday morning at the airport — you get the after-dark event when there is no school the next day, and the tarmac in the cooler part of the morning.</p>

<p>If Friday is out, Saturday can absolutely hold both: airport from nine to one, a long afternoon gap for lunch and a nap, then Cannonsburgh at six. That is a full day, but the gap in the middle is what makes it survivable.</p>

<p>Everything above is on our new <a href=”https://murfreesboro.com/calendar-of-events/category/family-fun/”>Family Events calendar</a>, which we are building out with kid- and all-ages-friendly events across Murfreesboro and Rutherford County.</p>