Atlanta Pride unveils “Louder & Prouder” as theme for 2026 festival
Atlanta Pride has announced “Louder & Prouder” as the official theme for the 2026 Atlanta Pride Festival, scheduled for Oct. 10 and 11. The theme will shape programming, storytelling and community engagement efforts throughout the lead-up to the festival weekend.
Organizers describe the theme as both a celebration and a call to action, emphasizing visibility, advocacy and collective strength at a time when LGBTQ+ issues remain at the forefront of cultural and political conversation. The theme encourages LGBTQ+ people and allies to show up boldly and embrace authenticity.
“‘Louder & Prouder’ captures the strength, joy and determination that define our community,” said Chris McCain, executive director of Atlanta Pride. He added that the organization looks forward to welcoming hundreds of thousands of attendees this October to celebrate Pride across all its forms.
Atlanta-based designer and creative strategist Katie Costa developed the official theme logo and visual identity for the 2026 season. Costa’s design draws on the energy and creativity of Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ community and will appear across marketing materials, merchandise, digital platforms and event signage throughout the festival season.
— Derek Prall
Downtown Atlanta to become an orchard for foodie-centric PeachFest
The 12th annual all-inclusive food festival PeachFest will return on July 12 to Underground Atlanta, with more than 50 of the city’s culinary stars set to bring peach-forward bites and drinks to the ticketed event.
It will include a bartending invitational competition, where mixologists will compete to make the best peach cocktail for a $1,000 prize, a peach omakase tasting 12-minute experience and a Spanglish pop-up experience exploring Georgia peaches through Puerto Rican cuisine.
The whole affair will cap Pearson Farm’s Peach Week Atlanta, and it will take place in a so-called “live peachtree orchard,” thanks to a partnership between the farm and Atlanta Way 2.0.
The micro-groves of peach trees are currently staged at Underground Atlanta and Woodruff Park, to bring actual peach trees to the street named after Georgia’s signature fruit. Organizers say the trees will create a “live stage” for PeachFest.
Tickets for the afternoon Peachfest on July 12 are available online.
— Delaney Tarr
Atlanta Ballet returns to the Fox Theatre for the first time since 2019 with Cinderella
Atlanta Ballet is heading back to the Fox Theatre this fall for the first time in seven years. Atlanta Ballet 2, the company’s pre-professional ensemble, will perform three shows of Cinderella over a single weekend, Oct. 16–17, joined by dancers from the Atlanta Ballet Centre for Dance Education.
The one-hour, family-friendly production is part of Atlanta Ballet’s family ballet series, designed to make ballet accessible to younger audiences. Choreographed by Bruce Wells, a former New York City Ballet soloist who performed works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and others, the show blends classical choreography with narration to appeal to all ages. Wells has previously created several productions for Atlanta Ballet 2, including Beauty and the Beast and Snow White.
Artistic director Gennadi Nedvigin called the return to the Fox meaningful for the company’s dancers, noting the theatre’s deep roots in Atlanta’s cultural history. The venue’s ornate, storybook-like interior provides a fitting backdrop for the fairy tale, which follows the familiar story of kindness, perseverance and transformation.
The Fox Theatre engagement is a limited run and does not signal a permanent move. Atlanta Ballet’s primary performance home remains the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, where all upcoming productions, including the annual Nutcracker, will continue to be staged.
— Derek Prall
Dad’s Garage lines up two nights of celebrity improv for its Summer of Celebrities series
Dad’s Garage Theatre is bringing heavyweight improvisers to its Ezzard Street stage this July with back-to-back celebrity events as part of its Summer of Celebrities programming.
First up on July 1, Susan Messing and John Lehr perform “A Delightful Couple,” a one-act long-form improv show with no script, no structure and no safety net. Messing is a veteran of Chicago’s Annoyance Theatre, iO Theatre and Upright Citizens Brigade, and the pairing promises a freewheeling evening built entirely in the moment. The single performance begins at 8 p.m., with tickets starting at $27.
Ten days later on July 11, TJ Jagodowski and Dave Pasquesi bring their acclaimed two-person show “TJ and Dave” to Dad’s Garage for two performances at 6 and 9 p.m. The duo has spent more than two decades walking onstage without planned dialogue, characters or plot, building a full hour of comedy from nothing each night. Both performers carry screen credits (Jagodowski in Stranger Than Fiction and Get Hard, Pasquesi in Veep and At Home with Amy Sedaris), but their live improv work is what earned them recognition from The New York Times as long-form masters. Tickets range from $38 to $48.
Both events are limited engagements at Dad’s Garage Theatre, located at 569 Ezzard St. in Atlanta. Tickets for both shows are on sale now.
— Derek Prall
Piedmont Park Conservancy rolls out a summer of free and low-cost programming
Piedmont Park Conservancy has announced its summer calendar, packed with free and affordable activities designed to draw Atlantans into the city’s signature green space through the season.
The lineup spans fitness, arts, food and community gatherings. Weekly offerings include outdoor yoga classes, a Tuesday morning walking club with guided 45-minute routes through the park, and the long-running Green Market, which has brought local farmers, bakers and artisans to the park every Saturday morning for more than 20 years.
Newer additions round out the schedule. Community Craft Night pairs recycled materials from Scraplanta with open-air making sessions, while Community Game Night sets up classics like mahjong and chess for drop-in play. Garden Mixology workshops teach participants to build cocktails from herbs and seasonal ingredients grown in the park’s Community Garden, and monthly figure drawing sessions welcome artists at every skill level.
“These events create welcoming spaces for people to connect with one another, explore shared interests and discover the Park in new ways,” said Doug Widener, president and CEO of Piedmont Park Conservancy.
Full dates and registration details are available here.
— Derek Prall
Gone with the Wind turns 90, and Atlanta History Center’s exhibit unpacks its complicated legacy
Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind turns 90 this month, marking nine decades since the novel launched from a small Atlanta apartment into global literary fame. The book has sold millions of copies, inspired the 1939 film that won eight Academy Awards and left a lasting imprint on how generations understood (and misunderstood) the Civil War and Reconstruction.
The apartment where Mitchell wrote the novel still stands at the corner of Peachtree Street and 10th Street as part of Atlanta History Center’s Margaret Mitchell House. Inside, the exhibit Telling Stories: Gone with the Wind and American Memory occupies the space where Mitchell worked and includes the small desk where she composed the manuscript. The exhibit was redesigned and reopened in 2024.
Rather than treating the novel as a straightforward celebration, the exhibit digs into the complicated territory Gone with the Wind occupies in American culture. It traces the historical myths the story reflected and reinforced about the causes and aftermath of the Civil War, examines the gap between the novel’s fiction and historical fact, and addresses the criticism that has followed the work alongside its enduring popularity
More information is available here.
— Derek Prall
