18 Things We Can’t Wait to Do This Fall

Passengers at the American Repertory Teacher. / Courtesy of 7 Fingers

September

1. Take a Ride On the Existential Express.

Montreal troupe the 7 Fingers blends music, dance, astounding acrobatics, and masterful uses of metaphor into shows that showcase aspects of the human condition. In Passengers, coming to the American Repertory Theater from September 2 to 26, vibrant performers represent strangers on a train, where travel becomes a way to act out how their lives are passing by and their inner hopes moving through them. Visually stunning, the show promises to make audiences feel like they are emotionally riding along. americanrepertorytheater.org.

Cambridge Carnival. / Photo by Zhu Ziyu / VCG via Getty Images

2. Don’t miss the region’s hottest festival—seriously.

For more than 30 years, the Cambridge Carnival has been the place to be for a supercharged celebration of our region’s Caribbean culture and people from the African diaspora. From September 6 to 7, University Park will burst with vivid colors and brilliant music, including a steel-pan drumming extravaganza, tremendous food, and, of course, some of the most eye-poppingly flamboyant costumes north of the Bahamas. cambridgecarnival.org.

3. Attend the biggest Irish rock festival in the United States.

Liam Lynch has learned a thing or two about selling Boston on Irish music. One of the concert promoters behind the late-’90s Fleadh festival is back with Seisiún, a two-day Celtic celebration hitting the Stage at Suffolk Downs September 6 to 7. This time, he’s armed with the Pogues, Dropkick Murphys, and a lineup that spans Irish punk legends to the latest Eire-inspired indie rockers. Read our full piece about Seisiún here.

4. Feed your summer thriller addiction one last time.

Exeter, New Hampshire’s Dan Brown—who’s sold more than a quarter-billion books in more than 50 languages—returns September 9 with The Secret of Secrets, featuring globetrotting Da Vinci Code hero Robert Langdon saving the world by conquering conspiracies. This time, Langdon’s in Prague, searching for a scientist who studies how the mind works and may have found the secret to human consciousness. Powerful organizations and shadowy figures want to capture these discoveries, so Langdon finds himself enmeshed in another saga of intrigue, murder, and arcane knowledge. $38, Doubleday.

International pop superstar Dua Lipa glams up TD Garden for two nights in September. / Photo by Samir Hussein / Getty Images

5. Cure your Eras Tour withdrawal.

Just in case you’re hungry again to see a world-beating pop star perform her immaculate Top 40 catalog with a massive stage spectacular, Dua Lipa is here to the majestic rescue. So far, the reviews of her Radical Optimism Tour are off-the-charts rhapsodic, and over two nights, September 9 and 10, she’ll take the stage at TD Garden with a set that contains five acts, multiple set and costume changes, hordes of dancers and musicians, and enough energy to power half of Greater Boston for a week. tdgarden.com.

A divine dress from Andrew Gn’s “Fashioning the World.” / Courtesy of House of Andrew Gn

6. Get Your Fashion Fix.

Since opening his fashion house in 1995, Singaporean designer Andrew Gn has blended elegant Western shapes with opulent Asian decorative art patterns and intricate images. He’s created more than 80 collections and 10,000 ensembles. From September 13 through February 16, 2026, the Peabody Essex Museum hosts the North American debut of “Andrew Gn: Fashioning the World,” featuring almost 100 works—outfits, accessories, and original illustrations that will make you see clothing in a whole new way. pem.org.

October

Photo by Corwin Wickersham

7. Celebrate the spookiest month in Salem and beyond.

There’s no question that Salem goes full Halloween each October, drawing an estimated one million visitors annually to transform its historic streets into an epic costume extravaganza. The Witch City delivers with the grand parade on October 2 and the Salem Witches’ Halloween Ball at the Hawthorne Hotel on Halloween night, plus daily ghost tours and haunted houses. But if you prefer your spooky season with a bit more breathing room—or want to avoid the vampire nurse traffic jams—here are some equally thrilling alternatives.

• 13th World Fright Park in Palmer offers genuinely terrifying thrills for those who find Salem too touristy. This sprawling site creates a makeshift “town” where citizens exist solely to traumatize you after dark, with monsters marching through deep woods every weekend. Fair warning: Some attractions are so intense they’re restricted to 18-plus crowds. Weekends September 27–November 1, 13thworld.com.
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show celebrates 50 years of campy glory featuring original star Barry Bostwick. Expect sing-alongs, outrageous costumes, and the kind of audience participation that makes theater purists weep at the Emerson Colonial Theatre. October 1, emersoncolonialtheatre.com.
• The Boston Haunted Walk at the Garden at Elm Bank in Wellesley lets families parade for pediatric charity. Shriners Children’s Boston hosts this wholesome event featuring cute costumes, face-painting, raffles, and snacks—plus the chance to help raise more than half a million bucks for kids’ healthcare. October 19, bostonhauntedwalk.org.
• Disney’s Hocus Pocus in Concert at Symphony Hall pairs the beloved 1993 Salem witch comedy starring Bette Midler with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops performing the score live. It’s like watching your favorite guilty pleasure get a symphonic makeover. October 30–31, bso.org.

8. Read an indie heartthrob’s second act.

Back in the early 1990s, Evan Dando blossomed from local indie-rock leader with the Lemonheads into an international heartthrob chosen as one of People magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People” in 1993. But beneath his casually handsome good looks and brilliant songwriting was a self-destructive streak lashed with substance abuse. After many lost years when people expected to read his obituary, Dando is thriving—releasing his memoir, Rumors of My Demise, on October 7, and Love Chant, the first Lemonheads album in almost 20 years, on October 24. He’ll also be playing the Wilbur on November 26. $30, Gallery Books.

9. Stop pretending Boston isn’t a fashion city.

Boston Fashion Week opens its 31st year from October 5 to 11 with a panoply of the finest couture and ready-to-wear from local designers. This year’s storytelling event, “GlamSlam,” will be hosted by comedian Bethany van Delft and dedicated to the late fashion doyenne Doris Yaffe, featuring monologues by such local luminaries as the Museum of Fine Arts’ curator of fashion arts, Theo Tyson, and Project Runway alum Sam Donovan. “Teen Talk: Fashion 101” offers practical advice to aspiring young designers. bostonfashionweek.com.

Mary Sully, Annie Stein, ca. 1920-40. Colored pencil on paper at the ICA. / Courtesy of the Mary Sully Foundation

10. Learn from indigenous artists reshaping contemporary art.

Most of us learned about North America’s indigenous peoples as distant history, but the Institute of Contemporary Art’s expansive “An Indigenous Present” exhibition (October 9 through March 8, 2026) brings that narrative up to date. Spanning some 100 years and focusing on 15 artists, the show boasts works that blend contemporary and traditional forms and mediums to fascinating effect—like Teresa Baker’s Knife River (2024), a deep-blue abstract tapestry made from yarn, buckskin, willow, and AstroTurf. The museum includes vital programming with musical performances and a film series. icaboston.org.

11. Skip the small talk—go straight to the literary giants.

The Boston Book Festival is back with a spectacular slate of top-shelf keynote speakers converging on Copley Square October 25. Pulitzer Prize–winning author Geraldine Brooks, bestselling crime novelist Patricia Cornwell, YA fantasy phenom Hafsah Faizal, lauded fiction master Kiran Desai, and New York Times opinion columnist Maureen Dowd headline the usual literary circus. As a bonus, the festival hosts pre-events: Julia Quinn, author of the original Bridgerton novels, on October 23; and Too Big to Fail financial writer Andrew Ross Sorkin on October 24. bostonbookfest.org.

Herbie Hancock. / Courtesy photo

12. See the man who taught jazz how to time travel.

Herbie Hancock has done more for jazz over six decades than most artists manage in a lifetime. He played with Miles Davis’s Second Great Quintet in the 1960s, led electronic jazz-funk and fusion in the 1970s, pioneered the merging of jazz with hip-hop and African music in the 1980s, and redefined rock and R&B classics as straight-ahead jazz standards in the 1990s and 2000s. He brings these influences together on his current tour, coming to the Boch Center Wang Theatre on October 29, with a killer backing band highlighted by legendary trumpeter Terence Blanchard. bochcenter.org.

NOVEMBER

13. View fine art that’s been hidden for nearly 50 years.

Boston is lucky: The Museum of Fine Arts holds the world’s largest collection of Homer’s watercolors, and nearly 50 will emerge from storage for “Of Light and Air: Winslow Homer in Watercolor,” running November 2 through January 10, 2026. We’re especially fortunate considering these works are so fragile that they literally haven’t seen daylight in almost half a century. Read our full piece about Homer’s MFA show here.

Lia Cirio and Lasha Khozashvili in George Balanchine’s Emeralds, part of Jewels at Boston Ballet. / Courtesy of Boston Ballet

14. Catch dance history in motion.

George Balanchine has been revered as a dance titan over the past century, pivotal in merging classical ballet with modern forms. From November 6 to 16, Boston Ballet opens its season with Jewels, a three-part 1967 work inspired by jeweler Claude Arpels’s luxe showroom. Balanchine used each jewel to color the glittering costumes and reflect career stages: the classical Diamonds for his early years in Russia’s Mariinsky Ballet; the Romantic-era Emeralds for his time with the Ballets Russes in France; and the urbane Rubies reflecting his New York City Ballet years. bostonballet.org.

15. Relive the birth of a Legend.

It’s hard to believe John Legend was once just another Ivy League grad working for Boston Consulting Group, recording demos, and performing in his spare time. But he launched into global superstardom in December 2004 with his debut album, Get Lifted—and now he’s celebrating its 20th anniversary with a tour that comes to MGM Music Hall at Fenway on November 7. The powerful but intimate soul singer has certainly come back via a very wide circle, indeed. crossroadspresents.com.

Steve Martin and Martin Short in “The Dukes of Funnytown!” / Photo by Mark Seliger

16. Watch comedy’s odd couple take the stage.

Steve Martin and Martin Short have been massive pillars of comedy history for nearly half a century and best friends since the 1980s, making hit movies like Three Amigos through Only Murders in the Building. On November 7 and 8, they’ll hit the Wang Theatre with “The Dukes Of Funnytown!” featuring their wicked wit and surreal sensibility as they roast pop culture, current events, and each other. They’ll be accompanied by Jimmy Kimmel Live! keyboardist Jeff Babko and the bluegrass band Steep Canyon Rangers, who’ve collaborated with Martin’s wicked good banjo playing. bochcenter.org.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, at the Emerson Colonial Theatre. / Photo by Matthew Murphy

17. Get Onboard at the Theater District’s Platform 93/4.

The Harry Potter books have been a literary, cinematic, and merchandise juggernaut for generations, but the septology’s sequel, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, still surprised when the play whooshed into Broadway and London’s West End. About the sons of Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy overcoming differences to save the world by traveling through time, the play comes to the Emerson Colonial Theatre from November 9 through December 20, promising wizardly magic for the whole family. emersoncolonialtheatre.com.

18. Spend the Holidays with Someone Else’s Dysfunctional Family.

Back in 2006, Alison Bechdel took the literary world by storm with Fun Home, the true story of her dysfunctional childhood and complex relationship with her father, a funeral director—told with heartfelt candor and dark humor through a graphic novel. The 2015 musical won five Tony Awards, and now the Huntington stages it from November 14 through December 14. Warm, poignant, and funny without shying away from uncomfortable truths, it’s prep for awkward family meals this holiday season. huntingtontheatre.org.