After months of uncertainty, the Atlanta Dogwood Festival is returning to Piedmont Park this spring, marking its 90th anniversary and reaffirming its role as one of the city’s most enduring cultural traditions.
The 90th Annual Atlanta Dogwood Festival, presented by Associated Credit Union, will take place April 10 to 12, 2026. The return follows a major fundraising effort and new financial strategies aimed at stabilizing the city’s longest-running festival and the third-oldest fine arts festival in the country.
For Brian Hill, executive director of the Atlanta Dogwood Festival, the milestone carries deep personal and professional significance.
“Personally, it means that the team, the city of Atlanta, or not the city so much as the residents of Atlanta, really care about the festival, wanted it back,” Hill said. “For me,.. [last year’s festival was supposed to be] my last event… when the festival was in jeopardy, I just couldn’t leave.”
Hill had planned to retire last year but chose to stay on to help guide the festival through a difficult period.
“I really, really wanted to make sure the festival found a way to continue,” he added.
The challenges threatening the festival’s future built up in the years following the pandemic. Hill described a sponsorship landscape that shifted heavily toward digital platforms, while live event costs rose sharply.
“After COVID, it was difficult, especially difficult because sponsorship during COVID went to digital,” he said, noting that expenses increased “25 to 30 percent… overall,” creating a widening gap between revenue and costs.
A public donor campaign ultimately helped make the 90th anniversary possible, along with a significant operational shift: the introduction of a nominal entrance fee.
“This is the first year that there is an entrance fee,” Hill said. Tickets will cost $5 on Friday, $10 on Saturday and Sunday or $15 for the weekend. “We wanted to keep it as nominal as we could, but still raise enough money to be able to stay fiscally viable.”
The Atlanta Dogwood Festival was founded in 1936 in an attempt “to bring people out of the doldrums of the [great] depression and also just give them something to celebrate,” he said.
Hill believes that role remains critical today.
“[Social media is] actually isolating people,” Hill said. “It matters to community, to be able to get out with your neighbors, your friends, and to actually celebrate something that is… everybody’s.”
At its core, the Atlanta Dogwood Festival remains a nationally recognized fine arts festival. Its juried Artist Market draws more than 250 artists from across the country and serves as an important early-season opportunity.
“It is one of the most successful festivals for them [artist vendors] financially,” Hill said.
The festival also supports emerging artists through the Atlanta High School Art Exhibition, which reaches more than 80 schools across the metro area.
“It really teaches them that their art is worth more than just showing it to their family when they get home,” Hill said.
International performances, live music, the Mimosa 5K and family programming round out the weekend, creating what Hill described as a reflection of Atlanta itself.
“It’s not just appealing to… one type of music or not just one type of art,” he said. “It really appeals to the cross section of people across Atlanta.”
As the festival marks nine decades, Hill hopes both longtime attendees and first-time visitors leave with the same feeling.
“When they’re [attendees] leaving the festival… [I hope] that they can’t wait to come back next year,” he said.
After 90 years, the Dogwood Festival’s return signals not just another spring weekend in Piedmont Park, but a renewed commitment to the arts and to the community that has sustained it for generations.
