Every year on the fourth Saturday of September, the crossroads at Webster Church and Farrell Roads outside Dexter fills with hay wagons, fiddle music, and the smell of coffee, cider and donuts. This Saturday, September 26, is the 43rd Webster Fall Festival, and Home Helpers Home Care of Ann Arbor is honored to be one of this year’s sponsors.
We won’t have a booth there, because that isn’t what this day is for. It belongs to the neighbors who put it on and the families who come out for it. I will be there helping out, though, and you’ll see our name among the local businesses that help keep the festival free for everyone. If you see me, please come and say hello.
The details
The festival is co-hosted by Webster United Church of Christ and the Webster Township Historical Society, and it runs almost entirely on volunteers.
- When: Saturday, September 26, 2026. The grounds open at 10 a.m., and most activities run until 5 p.m.
- Where: 5583 Webster Church Road, Dexter, at the corner of Webster Church and Farrell Roads.
- Cost: Parking, admission and the music are all free, and donations are welcome. Hay rides are $5 for adults and $2 for children.
- From I-94: take exit 169 and go north on Zeeb Road about 3.6 miles, east on Joy Road for a mile, then north on Webster Church Road for a mile.
- From US-23: take exit 49 and go west on North Territorial Road about 3.5 miles, then south on Webster Church Road for a mile.
- The festival grounds are alcohol and tobacco free.
What you’ll find there
The schedule reads like a day borrowed from another century, in the best possible way. There are blacksmithing and wool-spinning demonstrations, antique tractors and equipment, hay rides along tree-lined farm lanes, and sheep-herding demonstrations at 11, 1 and 3:30. The old one-room school holds sessions at 11, 12:30, 2 and 4. Children have old-time games, face painting and farm animals, and at 1:30 two local clubs play a baseball game by the rules of 1860. The festival suggests bringing a blanket or a lawn chair for that one.
The Taste of Webster, in the Boy Scout cabin, has homemade baked goods and preserves, and the coffee, cider and donuts start at 10 and last until they run out. Food trucks arrive at 11, including Raterman Bread Haus & Bistro and Whiskey Jacks BBQ. Bluegrass and string bands play the Dieterle Corncrib Stage through the afternoon, and the RFD Boys close the day there from 4 to 5. This year’s festival will be dedicated to Erik Pedersen at 3 p.m.
If you’re bringing Mom or Dad
Many of the families I work with are looking for good reasons to get an aging parent out of the house while the weather still allows it, and a day like this can be a lovely one.
Some of the gentlest moments may be the small ones. The Dexter Senior Citizen Dulcimer Group plays on the Taste of Webster porch at 11. At 2 p.m., Mel Clark, a music therapist from Webster, plays acoustic songs from the 1940s to today in the Webster Church sanctuary, where local artists’ work hangs through the afternoon and there is a quiet place to sit indoors.
For someone living with memory loss, familiar music, old tools and a one-room schoolhouse can open doors that ordinary conversation sometimes cannot. One of our caregivers once brought his own keyboard to a client’s home, because music meant so much to that gentleman, especially on his harder days. A festival like this one has a good many of those doors.
A few things that tend to make the day easier:
- Pick two or three things to see rather than trying to see everything, and plan around the time of day your parent is at their best. For many older adults that is late morning.
- Bring a folding or lawn chair, so there is a place to rest wherever you stop.
- You’ll be walking outdoors between historic buildings and across open ground, so shoes with good grip matter more than usual.
- Hay rides can be a delight, but climbing onto a wagon is not easy for everyone. Watching them go by from a chair with a cup of cider is a perfectly good way to enjoy them.
- Bring a layer and some water. A September day in Michigan can change a good deal between morning and afternoon.
- Leave while it’s still fun. Going home a little early with a bag of donuts is far better than pushing through to the point of exhaustion.
If getting Mom or Dad out for a day like this has started to feel harder than it used to, that is worth paying gentle attention to. Our piece on when it may be time for in-home care walks through the signs families most often notice first. And if you would like to talk it through, you can schedule a free in-home assessment whenever you are ready. There is no pressure to decide anything that day.
Mostly, though, I hope to see you on Saturday at Webster Corners, under the trees, with a cup of cider in your hand.
Elizabeth Snyder Corman, owner, Home Helpers Home Care of Ann Arbor
Festival details are from the official festival website, websterfallfestival.org. Times can change on the day, so check there before you go.
