With ski season approaching, Pennsylvania’s Liberty Mountain Resort is preparing to welcome skiers, snowboarders, and local families back to the mountain for its annual Fall Festival and Ski Swap. The event will take place on Saturday, October 17, 2026, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., featuring used equipment sales, discounted ski and snowboard tuning, live music, food trucks, local vendors, and activities for children.

The festival will be held at Liberty Mountain Resort near Fairfield, Pennsylvania, just north of the Maryland border. Visitors will have an opportunity to browse winter sports equipment, prepare their gear for the coming season, and enjoy an assortment of autumn activities at the resort.

Liberty Mountain in the Fall.
Liberty Mountain in the Fall. Photo by Liberty Mountain Resort.

For skiers and snowboarders, one of the main attractions will be the ski and snowboard swap. The sale offers an opportunity to purchase secondhand equipment or sell gear that is no longer needed. Sellers receive 80 percent of the selling price, according to information previously published in DCSki’s 2026 Mid-Atlantic Ski Swap Guide. The swap will run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Eastwind Room of Liberty’s Ski School Building.

Liberty will also offer quick ski and snowboard tunes for $25, providing an opportunity to get equipment ready before temperatures begin dropping. The Liberty Mountain Store will participate in the festivities as well.

Food trucks scheduled to attend include Blowfish Poke Hawaiian Grille, The Lucky Truck, Antietam Dairy, and Cramped Coffee. Local businesses and artisans will offer a variety of merchandise, including crafts, books, clothing, and other handmade products. Musical entertainment will be provided by Blackhand, performing in the base area from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Children’s activities will include an inflatable obstacle course, a Halloween bus, face painting, a pie-eating contest, and a variety of games. Young snowboarders will have an opportunity to try the Riglet Park Snowboarding Adventure. Liberty also plans to display snowmaking equipment, a winch-cat snow groomer, and other mountain machinery, giving visitors a closer look at some of the equipment used to prepare the slopes for winter.

Liberty’s fall festivities date back to the mid-1990s, when the resort hosted an annual customer appreciation barbecue. Over the years, the celebration has included everything from pumpkin decorating and scarecrow stuffing to live music, equipment swaps, and opportunities to preview improvements planned for the coming ski season. A 2006 DCSki report described families enjoying a barbecue while children participated in Halloween activities and visitors checked out the resort’s latest snowmaking and lift improvements. Two decades later, the Fall Festival remains a popular way to reconnect with the mountain before winter arrives.