Wagner Farm Arboretum's first Harvest Festival is Saturday, September 26, and NextHome Premier is the presenting sponsor
The inaugural Harvest Festival and Artisan Market runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, September 26, at 197 Mountain Avenue. Free admission, rain or shine.
Wagner Farm Arboretum holds its first Harvest Festival and Artisan Market on Saturday, September 26, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 197 Mountain Avenue. Admission is free and the day runs rain or shine. The arboretum describes a curated marketplace of artisans and makers, local food vendors and food trucks, its gardens open to walk, and activities for all ages, set beside the farm's red silos. The foundation has named NextHome Premier, the brokerage I own, as the festival's presenting sponsor. Vendors and performers are still being accepted.
NextHome Premier is my brokerage, and it publishes Warren, Local. It is the festival's presenting sponsor, which makes this a story about my own firm. Nobody paid for this post, the arboretum did not see it before it went up, and every fact in it is sourced below so you can check it yourself.
What the day is
The festival is new. The Wagner Farm Arboretum Foundation, the organization behind the Brite Nites Halloween walk at the same farm, is running it as the start of an annual fall event and pairs it with an artisan market.
The arboretum's own description of the day is a curated marketplace of makers, seasonal food from local vendors and food trucks, its gardens open to explore, and activities for all ages. Its event listing places the crafters, artisans and food vendors next to the farm's red silos. Admission is free for everyone, and the listing says the festival happens rain or shine.
The date sits on a busy Warren Saturday. The township's mini dump at the Department of Public Works runs 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. the same morning, so if you are doing both, the dump closes three hours before the festival does.
What the arboretum said about the sponsorship
The foundation announced the sponsorship twice, on the sponsors page of its website and in a post on its Instagram account.
The sponsors page says the arboretum is "proud to recognize NextHome Premier as the Presenting Sponsor" of the inaugural festival, and thanks the team for investing in an event that brings local families, businesses, artisans and community organizations together. It describes the brokerage as locally owned, based in Warren Township, and led by me as broker and owner.
The Instagram post opens on the same idea. "When we say local supporting local, this is exactly what we mean," it reads, before running through the same description of the firm and closing with the festival details and a note that the NextHome Premier team will be on site during the day. That last part is accurate. We will be there.
I am not going to pretend to be neutral about a festival my own company is paying to help put on. What I can do is report the parts that are checkable, which is what the rest of this post is.
If you want to be in it
Three roles are still open, all of them through the arboretum rather than the township.
- Vendors. The festival is taking artisans, makers, specialty food vendors and food trucks. The arboretum says spots are limited and applications are reviewed as they arrive, so an early application is worth more than a late one.
- Performers. It is looking for local musicians, dancers, theater groups, school ensembles and other community performers.
- Sponsors. The arboretum's sponsorship page is still open to other businesses.
All three go through administrator@wfafnj.org or 908-350-7383. The arboretum office answers Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The foundation putting it on
Wagner Farm Arboretum Foundation runs the community gardens, the children's garden and the giving garden at 197 Mountain Avenue. In its 2025 impact figures it reports 5,124 pounds of organic produce grown on site, another 80,674 pounds harvested from the Rutgers Snyder Farm, and 1,907 volunteer hours donated across 28 organizations. Jen Shankar is board president and Stephanie Dahms is the administrator.
The rest of the arboretum's September
One more event at the same address comes first. NASA International Observe the Moon Night is Friday, September 18, 7:30 to 10 p.m., free with advance registration through the arboretum, with a cloud or rain date of Saturday, September 19. Registration is by vehicle, one ticket per car, and parking is capped at 100 vehicles. I wrote about it on September 7. Both dates are on the Warren calendar.
The festival first turned up here as one line in the Labor Day weekend roundup, when the only source for it was the township calendar and the arboretum's own site had nothing. The arboretum has since published the date, the hours, the admission and the presenting sponsor, which is what this post is built on.
The township's notice about the festival would not load when I checked, so nothing here comes from it. The vendor list, the food trucks and the performer lineup are not published yet, so I cannot tell you who will actually be there. Neither the event page nor the festival page gives parking instructions, and neither says anything about the rain plan beyond the words rain or shine. Corrections are welcome at john@nexthomepremier.com.
- Wagner Farm Arboretum, Harvest Festival page, read September 10 and again September 14, 2026, for the description of the day, the free admission and the vendor, sponsor and performer calls. https://www.wfafnj.org/wfaharvestfestival
- Wagner Farm Arboretum, Harvest Festival and Artisan Market event listing, read September 14, 2026, for the date, the 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. hours, the 197 Mountain Avenue address, free admission and rain or shine. https://www.wfafnj.org/events/-inaugural-wfa-harvest-festival
- Wagner Farm Arboretum, Our Sponsors, read September 10 and again September 14, 2026, for the presenting sponsor statement. https://www.wfafnj.org/our-sponsors
- Wagner Farm Arboretum, sponsor spotlight post on Instagram, for the quoted line and the note that the NextHome Premier team will be on site. https://www.instagram.com/p/DdEyKgDjZUF/
- Wagner Farm Arboretum, About Us, read September 14, 2026, for the 2025 impact figures, the board president and the administrator. https://www.wfafnj.org/aboutus
- Warren, Local. calendar, for the September 26 mini dump hours and the September 18 Moon Night entry. The Moon Night registration and parking details are from the arboretum's events listing, read September 14, 2026. https://www.wfafnj.org/events https://blog.johnmangini.com/calendar/
John Mangini
Broker / Owner, NextHome Premier
Warren Township resident and full time broker, licensed in New Jersey since 2002. Warren, Local. is written from live Garden State MLS data, township records and primary sources. Every figure is traceable to a source listed above.
