"We're excited to see all members of the community come together at one of our beautiful parks in Town & Country," Alderman David Murphy said of Fall Fire & Ice, the event that opens the city's fall season on Saturday, October 3. It's a small line, but it points at something the calendar itself confirms: when Town & Country wants its residents together, it still reaches for the farm, not the plaza the city spent years building.

The Same 300 Acres, Not the New Square

Fall Fire & Ice hasn't always lived at one address. When Town Square opened in 2019, the festival split itself across both locations on purpose, timed so the plaza's grand opening and the annual celebration could share a night. Jazz pianist Ptah Williams played Town Square while a Nashville-based musician who grew up locally played Longview Farm Park, and the fireworks finale was staged to be visible from both.

That dual-site format is gone this year. The 2026 event runs entirely at Longview Farm Park, 13525 Clayton Road, from 5 to 8 p.m., with live music, food and drink vendors, family activities, and a drone light show closing the night at 8 p.m. in place of the fireworks finale that ran there for years. The city swapped fireworks for drones for the first time in 2025, as part of its 75th anniversary celebration, and Alderman Murphy says this year's version pushes the visuals even further. Town Square isn't part of any of it. The city built a second civic center and then, seven years later, pointed its marquee fall event back at the original one.

That's not a coincidence worth shrugging off. It's a pattern that shows up again over the next ten weeks, and once you see where each event lands, the split starts to look deliberate rather than accidental.

What's Actually Underneath the Grass at Longview

Longview Farm Park reads as a generic green space if you've only driven past it. It isn't one. The city purchased the property on March 30, 2000, and dedicated it as a park on September 22, 2002, and in the twenty-plus years since, it's accumulated the kind of institutional depth that doesn't show up on a map.

The gardens around the historic farmhouse are maintained by the Mason Ridge Garden Club, a group of Master Gardeners led by president Claire Chosid who have logged more than 10,000 volunteer labor hours on the property since 2002. The horse stables aren't decorative either. They house horses owned by Equine-Assisted Therapy, Inc., a nonprofit that runs therapeutic riding programs for people facing physical and developmental challenges. The lake allows catch-and-release fishing for anyone carrying a Missouri Department of Conservation license. The farmhouse itself dates to the 1940s, and the original section of the barn is old enough, roughly 120 years, that its logs were hand-hewn rather than milled.

Walk the property and you're on one of three named routes: the Woodlands Loop, a .65-mile branch through the trees near the pasture, the Pasture Loop, a .67-mile stretch that stays along the pasture's outer edge, or the longer Full Loop that both shorter routes borrow from. The playground got a full rebuild in 2024, now split into separate zones for kids five and up, kids two to five, and a hillside play section.

None of that happens at a plaza. It's the accumulated result of two decades of volunteer hours, a working therapy nonprofit, and a farm history the city chose to preserve rather than pave over. That's the asset Fall Fire & Ice, and the event after it, keeps returning to.

The Ten Weeks, In Order

Fire & Ice comes with logistics worth knowing before you show up. A free shuttle runs from 4 to 9 p.m., picking up at First Church of Christ Scientist, 750 S. Mason Road, and dropping at the Longview main entrance. The Longview lot itself is reserved for ADA parking and event vendors, so anyone driving in should plan on the shuttle rather than the park's own lot.

The Turkey Trot follows on Thanksgiving Day, back at Longview: a 3-mile course for adults starting at 9 a.m., a half-mile run for kids at 10 a.m. Registration runs $25 for adults and $10 for kids 13 and under, with a discounted rate for anyone who signs up before October 31 through the city's Turkey Trot registration page.

The One Event That Actually Lands at Town Square

Winterfest, on December 5, is the exception, and it's an exception that fits the pattern rather than breaking it. It runs from 1 to 5:30 p.m. with shopping booths from area businesses and crafters, food and drinks, fire pits, s'mores, and a Santa appearance with a kids' craft workshop. The evening closes with the city's tree lighting at 5:15 p.m.

Where Longview hosts the events built around open ground, movement, and a working farm, running a footrace, walking a shuttle line to an outdoor stage, Town Square gets the one event built around commerce and a lit tree: vendor booths, a market, a public gathering built for standing and shopping rather than trails and pasture. The split isn't random. It's two different kinds of public space being asked to do two different jobs, and the calendar shows which one the city trusts with the bigger crowd.

If you're planning your fall around this, the shuttle line for Fire & Ice and the October 31 discount deadline for the Turkey Trot are the two dates that actually require action before they happen. Winterfest needs nothing but a coat and a spot near the tree at 5:15.

Colleen and Team keeps an eye on what's actually happening in the neighborhoods we work in, not just the listings in them. If you're curious about how a specific block near Longview Farm Park or Town Square fits into the market, or you just want a local read on the area before you make a move, Colleen and Team is a good place to start that conversation.