Art, cider and a neighborhood picnic on Washington Avenue led a Kalamazoo weekend

KALAMAZOO, Mich. — The Edison neighborhood invited visitors to walk Washington Avenue on Saturday, Oct. 10, for its fall Arts and Culture Crawl, an afternoon of art stops that ends at a picnic in an empty lot.

The crawl ran from noon to 2 p.m., with art shows along the avenue from Washington Square to Jerico, according to the Kalamazoo Poetry Collective, which listed the Edison Neighborhood Association, 816 Washington Ave., as the venue. Poets from the Kalamazoo Poetry Festival were scheduled to read along the route.

From 2 to 4 p.m., the walk ended at a picnic on the lot at Washington Avenue and Cameron Street, 1301 Cameron St., with free food, music, dance and hands-on art. Organizers promised cider and cider doughnuts, and the listing linked to a Facebook page for updates.

Two other Saturday stops fit around it. The Backyard of Kalamazoo, 10441 Stadium Drive, held a makers market with local artists and small sellers from noon to 4 p.m., with a $3 entry fee, according to NowKalamazoo. Families could also try Geek Fest, a free all-ages comic convention with robotics, games, comic books and cosplay, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Expo South, 2900 Lake St., the county calendar said.

Expo South filled up again on Sunday, Oct. 11, for West Michigan Oddfest, a pre-Halloween market of the strange and unusual. The county calendar listing said the fair would gather handmade oddities, from taxidermy, bones, insects and wet specimens to cryptid and Halloween art, paintings and books, with a costume contest awarding prizes. It ran from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and admission was free.

Ahead of the weekend, visitors were advised to bring cash or a card for the makers market entry and for Oddfest vendors, since events listed as free could still have items for sale.

Updated Oct. 12, 2026: These events took place Oct. 10-11. This guide was published before them, and its schedule language has been changed to the past tense.

Updated Oct. 13, 2026: The headline and summary were changed to the past tense for events that have already taken place.

Sources:
Kalamazoo Poetry Collective, “Washington Avenue Arts and Culture Crawl,” Oct. 10, 2026, https://kalamazoopoetrycollective.org/event/wacc-2026/
NowKalamazoo, “The Backyard of Kalamazoo Makers Market,” Oct. 10, 2026, https://nowkalamazoo.org/event/the-backyard-of-kalamazoo-makers-market/
Kalamazoo County calendar, “Geek Fest,” Oct. 10, 2026, https://www.kalcounty.gov/Calendar.aspx?EID=2189&calType=0&day=3&month=10&year=2026
Kalamazoo County calendar, “West Michigan Oddfest,” Oct. 11, 2026, https://www.kalcounty.gov/Calendar.aspx?EID=2456&calType=0&day=3&month=10&year=2026
Image: AI-generated illustration by The Mitten Daily.

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Tags: Kalamazoo · Michigan Travel · Arts and Culture · Farmers Markets · Festivals · Food and Drink