Deutschen Pfest 2026 in Pflugerville: Your Weekend Guide

At 5 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 16, the 50th Deutschen Pfest begins at Pfluger Park. The same day, at 2505 W. Pecan St., Springhill Restaurant serves its last shrimp and catfish platters after more than 40 years.

One date holds both events, and so does one road. Festival parking is on West Pecan, and so is the restaurant. The newest places in town, an indoor golf simulator and a charcuterie shop among them, have opened in the same few blocks. In October 2026, one stretch of Pecan Street holds Pflugerville's longest-running traditions next to its newest arrivals, and a single week shows both.

A festival and a park, both turning 50

Deutschen Pfest started in 1976 to honor the German immigrants who settled Pflugerville. Community Impact calls it the city's longest-running community tradition. For most of those years, residents ran it themselves. Jonathan Hanson, recreation superintendent for Pflugerville Parks and Recreation, said the city took it over six years ago to put more resources behind it.

Pfluger Park, the festival's home, is also marking its 50th anniversary this year. The tagline is still "Guten tag, y'all," and Hanson's description of who belongs is broad. "You may be a cowboy-type person; you're welcome at Deutschen Pfest," he told Community Impact. "You could be someone who is neither of those and just wants to celebrate what Texan culture and German culture looks like."

He also said why the city keeps putting effort into it. "We don't get a lot of time in these connected worlds to sit down and just talk with someone. We hope this is a space that we're creating."

The 2026 Pfest basics

The festival runs Friday, Oct. 16, from 5 to 11 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 17, from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. These are the prices listed on the official ticket page:

There is a cheaper way in. Admission is free if you wear German or Texan attire, according to Hanson. For many households that means a pair of boots, a dirndl or lederhosen. In Wunderpark, the family area with carnival rides, games, face painting, a petting zoo and pony rides, children 6 and under get in free.

Getting there. There is no parking at Pfluger Park during the festival. The official site points visitors to free parking at The Pfield, 1440 W. Pecan St., with a free shuttle downtown. ADA parking is at Gilleland Creek Pool, 700 N. Railroad Ave. The festival's main landing page still shows shuttle stops from the 2025 event, so go by the 2026 event pages when you make plans.

Who's on stage

Friday, Oct. 16

• Suede, 5:30 to 7 p.m.
• Red Not Chili Peppers, 8 to 10 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 17

• Mike & The Middletones, during the Pfun Run
• Austin Polka Band, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Bidi Bidi Banda, 2 to 3:30 p.m.
• Spazmatics, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
• EZ Band, 8 to 10 p.m.

The Biergarten has stein-holding and other contests, live German music and a 16-by-10-foot screen for football. The official site counts more than 50 craft vendors. Community Impact's list adds a German hair braider and a kids and teens zone with ax throwing.

The Pfun Run counts as a festival ticket

On Saturday morning, the Pfun Run starts at Pfluger Park and follows Gilleland Creek Trail out to Windermere Park and back. Check-in opens at 7:30 a.m. at the Pfluger Park main gate. The Kids 1K starts at 8:10 a.m. and the 5K at 8:50 a.m.

Registration costs $15 plus fees for the Kids 1K and $20 plus fees for the 5K. Each one includes a 2026 race T-shirt and festival admission for the whole weekend. The 5K costs the same $20 as a weekend pass and comes with a shirt and a morning on the trail. The Kids 1K costs the same $15 as a Saturday ticket and covers both days.

Pick up your packet at the Pflugerville Recreation Center on Thursday, Oct. 15, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. or Friday, Oct. 16, from 8 a.m. to noon. You can also pick it up on race morning at the main gate. Shuttles from The Pfield start at 7 a.m. for runners.

Springhill's last stretch on West Pecan

Carroll Humphrey opened Springhill in 1985. The restaurant takes its name from nearby Spring Hill Lane. Its menu of shrimp and catfish dinner platters, burgers, sandwiches and peach cobbler has run longer than all but nine years of Pfest. Co-owner Jack Payne told Community Impact that staff learned of the closing on Sept. 9.

"We appreciate the loyalty of the customers and all the people that have come here for years and years, all the different generations," Payne said.

Antiques, collectibles, memorabilia, décor and furnishings from the restaurant are being sold in an online timed auction run by FLS Auction. These are the dates the auction company has posted:

1. Now through Oct. 16: Springhill keeps serving at 2505 W. Pecan St.
2. Oct. 2, 9 a.m.: Online bidding opened.
3. Oct. 19: In-person inspection.
4. Oct. 20, 10 a.m.: Bidding starts to close.
5. Oct. 21 to 23 and Oct. 26 to 27: Winning bidders pick up their items.

If you plan a last catfish dinner on Friday, Oct. 16, you can still make the 5 p.m. Pfest opening. Parking for both is on West Pecan.

The new arrivals a block away

Springhill sits in the 2500 block of West Pecan, and the newest openings are right around it. Graze Craze, a charcuterie shop, opened July 20 at 2700 W. Pecan St. Back Nine Golf opened July 6 at 2606 W. Pecan St., Ste. 202. It is a 3,000-square-foot indoor golf simulator with four bays, open 24/7. A restaurant that set its hours for more than four decades of dinner crowds now has a neighbor two blocks down that never closes.

Downtown, on the east end of Pecan, Pfun Arts reopens Oct. 24 at 401 W. Pecan St. after an expansion. The reworked space has four parts: a fine art gallery with rotating exhibits, an open studio, art education and workshop areas, and an artisan retail shop that is coming soon. The grand reopening will have live music, a live art demonstration and free refreshments.

Gallery Director Candace Pruett described the goal as "a place where community members can learn, artists can show and sell their work, and neighbors can gather." It is the same aim Hanson described for Pfest.

The next downtown gathering spot is still in the works. Pflugerville City Council approved a lease for West Pecan Coffee + Beer to open a second location inside the new City Hall at 605 E. Main St., with a January target. The original location opened in 2018. On the first Saturday of November, the monthly Coffee & Pfuel Car Meetup returns to Downtown Pflugerville at 100 E. Main St. from 9 to 11 a.m. on Nov. 7, in partnership with the Pecan Street Collective Market.

Here is how the month lines up:

A 50-year-old festival, a 41-year-old restaurant, a gallery adding space and a coffee shop moving into City Hall all fall within about three weeks, and nearly all of them sit on or just off Pecan Street.

I love a town tradition with a good story behind it. I've owned and hosted short-term rentals, and that taught me how much the small details shape a visit, from where to park to which morning to save for a 5K. If you're hosting family for Pfest weekend, or thinking about how Pflugerville's growing West Pecan corridor fits your own plans, Claire Tatum Calhoun is happy to talk it through over coffee downtown. Let's Connect.