The Rhinebeck Crafts Festival returns to the Dutchess County Fairgrounds on June 6–7, and if you’ve never been, we’re genuinely a little envious of you. There’s something about experiencing it for the first time, turning a corner and suddenly realizing the scale of it, the quality of it, the sheer amount of strange, beautiful, one-of-a-kind stuff spread out in every direction, that’s hard to recreate once you know what’s coming. But honestly? It gets better every year.

tles in, and Upstate New York is packing it with everything worth leaving the house for. Think Broadway-level theatre in Schenectady, bluegrass legends in Albany, soup fundraisers that feed entire communities, wine trails trimmed in garland, and cozy lodge markets where cider steams in one hand and a handmade gift sits in the other. From pumpkin-launching festivals in the Adirondacks to Portuguese wine dinners on the Hudson, this month doesn’t ease in — it arrives with music,

Every fall, when the harvest moon rises high and the nights start to cool, millions gather around the world to honor one of Asia’s oldest...