Fort Hays State's homecoming Saturday is 3 October 2026, and it is two events on one day rather than one. Oktoberfest runs 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Hays Municipal Park, the homecoming parade comes down The Bricks in downtown Hays at 11:00 a.m., and the football game against Missouri Southern kicks off at 7:00 p.m. at Lewis Field Stadium with pre-game ceremonies from 6:30. A day that opens at ten in the morning and finishes under lights after nine is a two-night stay for anyone driving more than an hour. The good news is that you can still get a room: we measured five matched windows and homecoming weekend returned sixteen bookable properties, level with its control weekends. Fort Hays State describes this schedule as tentative, so confirm times before you fix travel.
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One Saturday carrying two crowds
Most homecoming weekends on this site are a football game with events built around it. Hays runs two things at once, and only one of them belongs to the university.
| Saturday 3 October 2026 | |
|---|---|
| 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. | Oktoberfest, Hays Municipal Park, South Main Street |
| 11:00 a.m. | Homecoming parade, The Bricks, downtown Hays |
| 6:30 p.m. | Pre-game ceremonies, Lewis Field Stadium |
| 7:00 p.m. | Football vs Missouri Southern, with royalty coronation at half-time |
Oktoberfest is a tribute to the Volga German heritage of Ellis County, and it pulls people into Hays who have no connection to Fort Hays State whatsoever. The parade and the game are the university’s. They land on the same day, in the same small town, and they bracket it from mid-morning to after nine at night.
The homecoming week around it runs Monday 28 September to Sunday 4 October, with royalty elections on TigerLink between the Wednesday and the Friday.
The two-night case, argued from the clock rather than from scarcity
Here is the honest version of the booking advice.
We measured whether homecoming empties Hays. Five matched two-night searches, one session, 16 August 2026:
| Window | Bookable properties |
|---|---|
| 18 to 20 September | 14 |
| 25 to 27 September | 16 |
| 2 to 4 October (homecoming) | 16 |
| 9 to 11 October | 16 |
| 16 to 18 October | 16 |
Homecoming weekend is level with every control around it. Sixteen of sixteen properties still had availability. Whatever this weekend does to Hays, it does not take its hotel rooms off the market seven weeks out.
So the case for two nights is not that you will lose a room. It is the shape of the day. Oktoberfest opens at ten and the parade is at eleven, which means a Saturday arrival misses the first half of the weekend. Kick-off is at seven, which means a Saturday departure is a drive that starts after nine at night. Book Friday and Saturday and you are there for the whole thing.
That is a weaker claim than most lodging pages make. It is the one the numbers support.
Where the pressure actually sits
Hays is not short of rooms. The ring behind it is.
Russell, 39 minutes east on I-70, carried seven bookable properties for this window. WaKeeney, 38 minutes west, carried three. Between them, both directions, inside forty minutes: ten properties. Great Bend is 76 minutes by road, longer than its distance suggests because the route leaves the interstate. Salina, the first market with real depth, is 101 miles and about an hour and three quarters away.
A Division II homecoming does not fill a town of this size, and the measurement says so. But if this weekend ever does tighten, there is no second market to absorb it. That asymmetry is the thing worth understanding about Hays, and it applies to the December graduation weekend as much as to this one.
Before you book anything non-refundable
Fort Hays State labels its own schedule tentative. The dates are settled and the structure is clear, but the university says more detail is still coming, and the Alumni Association runs a fuller programme on a separate site.
The two facts most likely to move are the kick-off time and the exact Oktoberfest hours. The two least likely to move are the Saturday itself and the fact that both events share it.
Live availability near campus
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Frequently asked questions
When is Fort Hays State homecoming 2026?
Saturday 3 October 2026 is the main day. The wider homecoming week runs Monday 28 September to Sunday 4 October, with royalty elections on TigerLink from Wednesday 30 September to Friday 2 October. We checked the weekday: 3 October 2026 is a Saturday.
What time is the homecoming game?
Kick-off against Missouri Southern is 7:00 p.m. at Lewis Field Stadium, with pre-game ceremonies from 6:30 p.m. and the homecoming royalty coronation at half-time. That is a late finish for a town where the nearest alternative hotel market is more than half an hour away.
Is Oktoberfest the same weekend?
Yes, and that is what makes this weekend different from an ordinary home game. Oktoberfest runs 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Hays Municipal Park on South Main Street, on the same Saturday as the parade and the game. It is a tribute to Ellis County's Volga German heritage and it draws people who have no connection to the university at all.
Do we need two nights?
If you are driving more than about an hour, yes. The day starts at ten in the morning with Oktoberfest and the parade follows at eleven, so arriving on the Saturday means missing half of it. It then runs to a 7:00 p.m. kick-off, so leaving the same night means driving after nine. Friday and Saturday nights covers both ends.
Will we get a room?
On the evidence, yes. Five matched two-night searches in Hays on 16 August 2026 returned 14, 16, 16, 16 and 16 bookable properties, with the 2 to 4 October homecoming window one of the sixteens. Homecoming here does not empty the town, which is worth saying plainly rather than implying a squeeze that we could not find.
How firm is this schedule?
The dates are firm; some times may move. Fort Hays State heads its own schedule "a tentative schedule of events, more details to come soon". The Alumni Association keeps a fuller programme separately. Confirm the kick-off time before booking anything non-refundable.
How we verified this
Last verified:
This page is verified in two stages. Every fact is checked against the primary sources listed above, then the page is reviewed and signed off by our editor, A. Hassan. Corrections and enquiries: hello@graduationstay.com