The Farm Festival Gets Two Days in November. Streetcar 390 Gets One.
November 5, 2026
November 5, 2026
Weather canceled the Bluebird Gap Farm Festival on Oct. 17–18, and the City of Hampton moved it to Nov. 14–15. That puts the festival on the same Saturday as the final open house for Streetcar 390 at Fort Monroe, the 1917 trolley that volunteers have finished restoring.
The farm is open both festival days, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The streetcar open house happens once, on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and its main event is at 11:30. With those hours, the easiest plan for the weekend is to spend Saturday at Fort Monroe and Sunday on Pine Chapel Road.
Every event that weekend lists set hours, so it helps to see them together:
The farm's hours and the streetcar's hours overlap almost completely, and the ceremony comes 30 minutes into both. Anyone who wants to see the volunteers recognized has to be at Fort Monroe late Saturday morning. The farm runs the same hours on Sunday, so moving it to the second day costs nothing.
The city calls this the last open house of the project. The restoration is finished, and visitors are invited to see the volunteers' work on a car that once ran across the lower Peninsula. A raffle will run during the event, and Streetcar 390 logo items will be for sale. Local artist Gloria Coker will offer limited-edition prints showing Streetcar 390 in downtown Hampton in the 1930s.
Philadelphia's J.G. Brill Company built the car in 1917. It arrived in Hampton in 1918 and seated 52 passengers. It ran for the Newport News and Hampton Railway, Gas & Electric Co. on routes linking Hampton and Newport News with Buckroe Beach, the shipyard, Hilton Village and the line along Electric Avenue, the street later renamed Victoria Boulevard. Buses took over in January 1946.
The car's second life is one reason the open house draws attention. According to 13News Now, a York County couple bought the retired car for $100, lived in it until 1977, and then saw it go to the Baltimore Streetcar Museum after a member spotted it beside Route 17. The museum offered it back to Hampton in 2013, and it came to Fort Monroe for restoration in 2017.
Greg Siegel chaired the effort. WHRO reported in November 2025 that 26 volunteers had put in hundreds of hours. The same story put the cost so far at about $300,000 and said the next goal was raising $1.5 million for an educational pavilion in front of the Hampton History Museum. The city has matched donations. WTKR's coverage from that month describes the same plan for a downtown home. Until the car moves, Saturday's open house is the public's chance to see it finished.
The rain date changed more than the weekend. The city's Oct. 21 notice explains it this way:
"With the new date later in the season, the festival will take on a harvest theme and a tribute to military veterans."
Admission is free. Plans include a fall marketplace, live music from the Storyweavers and activities for all ages, and the city says it will share more details as they are confirmed. The festival started in 2016, so the farm has hosted it for a decade.
Before you go, check two days and the parking plan:
On Sunday the festival's hours stay the same and the streetcar is no longer competing for your time. The city describes Bluebird Gap as a 60-acre farm with about 150 domestic and wild animals, including horses, cows, pigs, goats, llamas, alpacas, whitetail deer, birds of prey, tortoises, peacocks, rabbits and waterfowl. According to Visit Hampton, feed costs $1.50, and visitors can feed the goats, sheep, alpaca and cows.
The grounds go well beyond the pens. The city's facility page lists the antique display barn, the Powhatan Pavilion, the Azalea Trail, a duck pond, the Hampton Master Gardeners' Display Garden and Arboretum, a playground, picnic areas, a kayak and canoe launch and an events stage.
If you'd rather shop before the farm, the Bodacious Bazaar opens at 10 a.m. Sunday and closes at 5 p.m.
Saturday evening fills in the rest of the story. Streetcar 390 once carried riders to Buckroe Beach. The amusement park at the end of that line had a carousel, and it still runs.
The Philadelphia Toboggan Company built the Hampton Carousel in 1920 for the Buckroe Beach Amusement Park. It operated there every summer from 1920 to 1985 and went into storage when the park closed. After restoration in Connecticut, it reopened on June 20, 1991, in an enclosed pavilion at 602 Settlers Landing Road in downtown Hampton. It still has its original band organ, mirrors and oil paintings, along with 48 hand-carved horses and two chariots.
Rides cost $1. The carousel runs Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and is closed Mondays. Its season ends on Dec. 31, 2026, and it reopens April 1, 2027. A Saturday that starts at Fort Monroe at 11:30 can finish at the carousel before 8 p.m., with both of Buckroe's old rides seen in one day.
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