The biggest ticketed fall farm in the Milwaukee metro, and priced like it — an October Saturday costs a family of four about $96 before tax, pumpkins or food, while the same four people pay $60 on a Monday for a thinner lineup.
Pumpkin Fest admission is $14.99 +tax on Mondays and Thursdays (with a reduced activity lineup), $17.99 +tax on September weekends and $23.99 +tax on October weekends. Infants 0-23 months free; $2 off for military and seniors with ID at the booth only. U-pick pumpkins are $4.79 each and apple blasters $10.00 +tax on October weekends - both extra.
Rough cost for a family of four: about $59.96 in admission alone at the posted starting rate, before pumpkins, food, parking or any add-on listed above. Most families end up well north of that once they are through the gate.
Basse’s is what happens when a Wisconsin farm commits fully to the fall-attraction business. The advertised count is 65-plus attractions, and the list backs it up: three mazes of different kinds, a ropes course, ziplines, pedal cart racing, bounce pillows, a hay loft barn, an animal barn, and a rotating slate of live shows including pig races, dog shows, a lumberjack show and a Wild West stunt routine. It is not a pumpkin patch with rides bolted on. It is a fall theme park that grows pumpkins.
That framing matters, because it explains the price and it explains who should go.
Almost everything about planning a visit here comes down to which of the three gate prices you pay. October weekends are $23.99 plus tax. September weekends are $17.99. Mondays and Thursdays are $14.99. For two adults and two children over 24 months, that is $95.96, $71.96 and $59.96 respectively, before tax and before you have bought anything.
The $36 spread between an October Saturday and a Monday is real money, and the farm is honest about why it exists: the Monday and Thursday lineup is reduced. Not everything runs. This is the most common way visitors here end up disappointed — they book the cheap day, arrive expecting the lumberjack show and the full attraction sheet, and find a quieter farm. If the shows are what you are buying, the weekend is what you should buy.
The September weekend tier is the underrated one. You pay $6 a head less than October for what is, in practice, the same farm with the same show schedule, on ground that has not yet had a month of autumn rain worked into it. The only thing you trade is peak-October atmosphere.
The exclusions list is long enough to change your budget. U-pick pumpkins are $4.79 each. Apple blasters are $10 plus tax on October weekends. Pony rides run only on select October weekends. Food, the beer barn and animal feed are all extra.
Run that through a real family. Four October weekend tickets at $23.99 is $95.96. Four pumpkins at $4.79 is another $19.16. You are at $115 before tax, before lunch, before anyone has fired an apple blaster. Two apple blasters adds $20. A food-truck lunch for four in southeastern Wisconsin realistically adds $50 or more. A full day here is a $180 to $200 outing for a family of four in October, and there is nothing dishonest about that — it is simply a bigger number than the $14.99 headline suggests, and it is worth knowing before you leave the driveway.
Last admission is 5pm, an hour before the 6pm close. That is the single most practical fact on this page. It rules out the tactic of showing up late to dodge crowds, and it means a Monday or Thursday visitor, who cannot get in before noon, has a five-hour window at most.
At the other end, arriving at 10am on a September weekend gets you the emptiest version of a farm this size, and by the time the mid-morning wave lands you will already have the ropes course and the mazes behind you. On an October weekend, a 10am arrival is close to mandatory rather than clever.
The season runs September 18 to November 1, which pushes a week past Halloween. That final weekend is worth thinking about: the corn is usually past its best by then, the light goes early, and the ground is at its wettest, but the crowds thin noticeably once the costumes are back in the cupboard.
Southeastern Wisconsin has free-gate farms where you pay only for the hayride and the maze. Judged as a pumpkin-buying trip, Basse’s loses to all of them. Judged as a full day of entertainment for children old enough to run at it, it is a different product entirely, and the per-hour cost of a five-hour visit with 65 attractions compares reasonably with anything else a family does on a Saturday. The mistake is buying the second thing while wanting the first.
Pumpkin Fest runs September 18 through November 1, 2026. The farm is open Friday through Sunday 10am to 6pm and Monday and Thursday noon to 6pm, and it is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays entirely. September weekends are the sweet spot: $17.99 plus tax instead of the $23.99 October weekend rate, with the full show schedule and warmer, drier ground. If price matters more than the full lineup, Monday or Thursday at $14.99 is the cheapest gate in the metro for a farm this size — but understand what you are giving up before you book.
Four to five hours on a weekend. With 65-plus attractions advertised and a rotating schedule of pig races, dog shows, a lumberjack show and a Wild West stunt show, anything under three hours means you are paying $24 a head for a fraction of what you bought.
Six operating days a week across seven weeks, which spreads demand better than a weekends-only farm. October Saturdays and Sundays are the crush; Mondays and Thursdays are quiet by design. Last admission is 5pm even though the gates stay open until 6pm, so a late-afternoon arrival is not the crowd-avoidance trick it looks like.
Not published in our record. This is a rural Washington County farm on County Road Q, so assume field or gravel parking and soft ground after October rain. Wisconsin farm lots do not drain quickly in late October.
Not published. A farm advertising ropes courses, bounce pillows, ziplines and a hay loft is built around climbing and running, so a visitor with limited mobility is paying full price for the shows, the animal barn and the market rather than the bulk of the attractions. Worth a call to 262-628-2626 before committing four tickets.
You mainly want pumpkins. U-pick pumpkins are $4.79 each on top of a paid gate, so a family of four buying four pumpkins on an October Saturday is at roughly $115 before a single corn dog. Skip it too if the only days you can go are Tuesday or Wednesday, when the farm is shut, or if you are booking a Monday or Thursday expecting the weekend show lineup.
Colgate sits in the Holy Hill corridor northwest of Milwaukee, where peak leaf colour and peak patch season overlap and the two-lane roads carry heavy weekend traffic. If you want a second, cheaper stop on the same weekend, the free-gate farms south of the city — Swan's in Franksville or Schuett Farms near Mukwonago — make a useful contrast to a day at Basse's, but they are a good 40 minutes to an hour away.
There are three tiers, all plus tax: $14.99 on Mondays and Thursdays, $17.99 on September weekends and $23.99 on October weekends. Infants 0 to 23 months are free. Military and seniors get $2 off with ID, but only at the ticket booth.
No. U-pick pumpkins are $4.79 each, and apple blasters are $10 plus tax on October weekends. Food, the beer barn, pony rides and animal feed are all separate as well.
Because not everything runs those days. The farm prices Monday and Thursday lower precisely because the activity and show lineup is reduced. If the lumberjack show or the pig races are the reason you are going, go on a weekend.
Before 5pm on any day. The gates close at 6pm but last admission is 5pm, so arriving at 5:15 on a Saturday means you do not get in at all.
September 18 – November 1, 2026. Friday-Sunday and Monday & Thursday; closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Hours: Friday-Sunday 10:00am-6:00pm; Monday & Thursday noon-6:00pm; last admission 5:00pm daily.
Admission starts at $14.99 per person. Pumpkin Fest admission is $14.99 +tax on Mondays and Thursdays (with a reduced activity lineup), $17.99 +tax on September weekends and $23.99 +tax on October weekends. Infants 0-23 months free; $2 off for military and seniors with ID at the booth only. U-pick pumpkins are $4.79 each and apple blasters $10.00 +tax on October weekends - both extra.
3190 County Road Q, Colgate, WI 53017, in Washington County. It is one of 7 patches we track in Milwaukee Region.
We track 7 patches in Milwaukee Region, 3 of which are free to walk into. At $14.99 a head this one sits above the regional median of $10.
Its season runs about 45 days against a regional average of 42, so it is broadly in line with the rest of the region.
There are 16 other patches we track in Washington County. All Milwaukee Region patches →
Map pin is set to the town centre. Navigate to the street address above, not the pin.
bassesfarms.com · zippopotam.us
Checked August 2026.