On the last Saturday in October, the grass amphitheater on the Ridgefield Park side of Overpeck County Park will fill with the sound of barking, the occasional indignant meow, and a parade of dogs in costume. 4 Paws in the Park — billed on its own listing as the Bergen County Pet & Adoption Festival — runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on October 24, 2026, and admission is free. There is no ticket to buy, no gate to clear; the organizers ask only that people RSVP through Eventbrite so they can gauge the crowd.
The event is the second annual edition of what its sponsors call the Annual Dog & Cat Charity Festival & Pet Expo. It is hosted by Tenafly Veterinary Center and Overpeck Creek Animal Hospital — two Bergen County practices that operate under the same NJVet banner — in partnership with T.H. Experiences LLC, an events company that also runs gatherings like the Tenafly Night Market. The veterinary hospitals are not just lending their names. Their teams turn out in person, answering questions about wellness, nutrition and preventive care, which is a slightly different proposition from the usual festival vendor booth: the people handing out information are the same people who would see your pet in an exam room.
The first 4Paws in the Park was held on October 25, 2025, at the same amphitheater, running a shorter noon-to-3 p.m. window. In a recap published afterward, the organizers described it as drawing "hundreds of pet lovers from across the region," with pet contests, raffles, interactive exhibits and local pet vendors. Dr. Cynclair Scott, an associate veterinarian at Tenafly Veterinary Center, was quoted in that recap saying the practice was "absolutely delighted to see so many familiar faces and meet new friends," and that the event "truly showcases the compassion, care, and unity that make our community so special." The 2026 edition expands the hours to four and adds a fuller slate of activities, including a Halloween pet parade, an agility course, puppy yoga, and a Best Trick Contest.
The setting itself has a longer story than the festival. Overpeck County Park is Bergen County's largest recreational property, now spanning more than 800 acres around Overpeck Creek, a tributary of the Hackensack River. Its land is spread across Leonia, Palisades Park, Ridgefield Park and Teaneck — and, by the county's own count, five municipalities donated hundreds of acres to the county for a park more than fifty years ago, and some of that acreage had been serving as a landfill. The county's parks department describes the result as its premier recreational destination, with athletic fields, a canoe and kayak launch on the creek, five miles of walking and biking trails, and the grass amphitheater that will host the dogs. Bergen County's Fourth of July celebration and various charity walks and 5Ks use the same grounds, so the amphitheater is well practiced at holding a crowd.
For anyone hoping to leave with a new family member rather than just a costume contest ribbon, the adoption side is the point. Rescue and adoption organizations will be on site with adoptable cats and dogs, alongside pet-friendly vendors, local pet businesses and service providers. The event's own framing is that pet care takes a whole community — that the people who groom, board, train, feed and treat a dog or cat are part of the same network as the person who adopts one — and the festival is built as a place where those pieces are in the same park at the same time.
Practical notes: the event runs at the Overpeck Park Amphitheater, reached off Challenger Road in Ridgefield Park near Emerson Road, which is the address the organizers publish as 199 Challenger Road. The park's other main entrance, at 40 Fort Lee Road in Leonia, serves different sections of the property, so anyone navigating by GPS should aim for the Challenger Road side. The event is outdoors and free, and it happens rain or shine as scheduled.
What the afternoon actually looks like is a fairly ordinary park day with an unusually high ratio of leashes: a costume parade that will produce at least one hot dog and one bumblebee, an agility course for dogs with more confidence than coordination, a puppy yoga session, and a trick contest that tends to reward the handlers as much as the animals. Between the adoptable animals and the vendors, the veterinary tents and the parade, it is the kind of low-stakes, open-gate community afternoon that a county park is good at — and one where a family can show up with no plan, no ticket, and possibly leave with a dog.