Two addresses carry almost all of West Sedona's fall calendar this year, and they do it back to back rather than spread evenly across the month. Posse Grounds Park at 525 Posse Ground Road and Sedona Red Rock High School at 995 Upper Red Rock Loop Road host five separate city and community events across three consecutive weekends in October, which means the neighborhood gets two genuinely crowded Saturdays, one quieter one sandwiched between them, and very little else. Knowing which weekend is which changes how a resident plans errands, parking, and which road to take home.
The Two Addresses
Posse Grounds Park and Sedona Red Rock High School are West Sedona's default public venues for anything that needs a pavilion, a field, or a parking lot large enough for a few hundred cars. Here is how October 2026 actually lays out across them.
| Dates | Event | Venue | Key details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat, Oct 3 | WagFest & Fair | Posse Grounds Park Pavilion | 8:30 to 11:30 a.m., free, dog-focused vendors and contests |
| Sat–Sun, Oct 3–4 | Sedona Rock, Gem & Jewelry Show | Sedona Red Rock High School | Sat 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Sun 10 a.m.–4 p.m., $5 cash admission |
| Fri–Sun, Oct 9–11 | Sedona Mountain Bike Festival | Posse Grounds Park | Parking explicitly limited; organizers encourage riding in, with a free bike valet on site |
| Sat–Sun, Oct 10–11 | Sedona Arts Festival | Sedona Red Rock High School | Sat 9 a.m.–5 p.m., Sun 10 a.m.–4 p.m., $15 weekend admission, 125+ juried artists across 11 mediums |
| Sat, Oct 17 | Fest of Fall | Posse Grounds Park | City-run, with a $2 on-demand shuttle promoted specifically for this event |
Laid out this way, the shape of the month becomes obvious. The first weekend of October double-books both venues at once. The second weekend does it again, this time for two full days instead of one morning. The third weekend runs a single event at a single venue, and the city spends real effort trying to keep cars away from it.
The First Double Weekend
Saturday, October 3 is the only day this month when both venues are running simultaneously. WagFest wraps by 11:30 a.m., which means its overlap with the gem show is confined to a two and a half hour window on Saturday morning rather than the whole day. The Rock, Gem & Jewelry Show itself continues through Sunday afternoon on its own, with $5 cash-only admission at the door.
For anyone living along Posse Ground Road or the stretch of 89A near Upper Red Rock Loop, that Saturday morning window is the one to plan around. By early afternoon on the 3rd, Posse Grounds Park is back to its usual traffic, and the only remaining draw is the gem show through Sunday.
The Second Double Weekend, and Two Different Instructions for Getting There
The weekend of October 9 through 11 is where the calendar actually compresses. The Sedona Mountain Bike Festival runs Friday through Sunday at Posse Grounds Park, and the Sedona Arts Festival runs Saturday and Sunday at the high school. Unlike the first weekend, this overlap covers two full days, not a couple of morning hours.
The two events also send opposite signals about how to show up. The mountain bike festival's own site states plainly that parking at Posse Grounds Park is very limited this year, and organizers ask attendees to ride in rather than drive, backing that request with a free bike valet that watches bikes for the day. The arts festival, a few hundred yards away on Upper Red Rock Loop Road, runs on the standard model: a $15 weekend pass covering both days, more than 125 juried artists working in everything from painting and photography to ceramics and glass, and an assumption that most attendees are arriving by car.
That split matters for anyone driving through West Sedona on the 10th or 11th. One venue is actively discouraging car traffic. The other is drawing a car-dependent crowd less than a mile away. Weekday errands on Upper Red Rock Loop the following week are unaffected, but Saturday and Sunday traffic on that stretch during these two days runs heavier than the October 3 overlap, simply because it lasts twice as long.
The One Saturday the City Wants Off Posse Ground Road
Fest of Fall, on October 17, is the only event this month that has just one venue and no overlapping neighbor. It is also the one the city has built the most transit infrastructure around. Sedona's own event page for Fest of Fall promotes the on-demand Sedona Shuttle Connect service, priced at $2 per rider, as a way to reach Posse Grounds Park without dealing with parking. Riders who arrive by bike or by any form of public transit are entered into a raffle for a $100 Visa gift card, an incentive built specifically to pull cars off that road for the day.
That the city bothers to build a transit push around a single-venue Saturday says something about Posse Ground Road's baseline capacity. It is not built for festival crowds even when there is only one event happening. The shuttle and the raffle exist because the road fills up on its own, without a second venue competing for the same parking.
What This Means for the Next Four Saturdays
If Posse Ground Road, Upper Red Rock Loop Road, or the 89A stretch between them is part of a regular weekend routine, the practical windows to watch are narrow and specific rather than "October is busy."
Saturday morning, October 3, from roughly 8:30 to 11:30, is the tightest window of the month's first double-header, with WagFest and the gem show running at the same time a short drive apart. After that morning clears, the gem show alone continues through Sunday afternoon at a more normal pace.
October 9 through 11 is the heavier stretch. Friday the 9th is bike festival only, with limited car parking at Posse Grounds Park and a real incentive to arrive on two wheels. Saturday and Sunday add the arts festival at the high school, meaning both venues run concurrently for two straight days rather than one truncated morning. Anyone who needs to be on Upper Red Rock Loop or near Posse Grounds Park on those two days should expect the heaviest car volume of the month, driven mostly by arts festival attendees rather than the bike crowd.
October 17 is calmer by comparison. One venue, one event, and a city-run shuttle specifically aimed at thinning out car traffic. It is still a festival Saturday, but it is the only one of the three where just one road is absorbing the load instead of two events converging on adjacent addresses at once.
Running a grocery run, a dog walk near the park, or a drive down 89A around these specific windows rather than avoiding "festival season" broadly is the difference between a five-minute detour and sitting in a line of cars turning into a high school parking lot that was never built for 125 vendor booths and a juried arts crowd on top of it.
West Sedona pays close attention to details like this, which two addresses are carrying the weight of a month, which Saturday morning actually overlaps and which one only looks like it does. Liz Adams keeps that same kind of close, specific attention on the neighborhood, just applied to a different set of numbers. If you'd ever like that lens turned toward your own address, Liz Adams is glad to schedule a free consultation.
