Piedmont Park’s 2026 Dogwood Festival sees lighter traffic, ticketing confusion
The Dogwood Festival, a long-running annual staple at Piedmont Park, drew lighter traffic than normal this past weekend after switching from a free model to a gate fee.
Brian Hill, executive director of the nonprofit organization, said Monday that attendance for the arts-oriented festival was down by a third from a year ago, but the event ran smoothly.
“We’ve had great weather,” Hill said. “We’ve had great crowds. Everyone seems happy. Fewer people did make it more enjoyable for the attendees. They had an easier time to view the artwork.”
But Hill said the city of Atlanta Parks and Recreation Department forced the three-day weekend festival to change from a ticketed event to a “donation only” event at 3 p.m. Saturday despite a verbal agreement last August that he could charge for entry.
A city of Atlanta spokesperson Monday morning told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution she would check on the matter but had not replied with an official response by early afternoon.
Last October, the festival announced it would charge $10 for entry and offered advance ticket sales online through Freshtix. Signage at the event explained why the festival needed to charge for the first time. Attendees could also pay for tickets on-site and were given that option even after festival organizers were told to let people in without paying.
Hill said the nonprofit festival almost didn’t happen because of escalating costs and declining sponsorship support, forcing the festival to run a deficit in recent years. A $250,000 fundraising campaign last year raised only $72,000.
“We wouldn’t have gone forward without making it a ticketed event,” he said.
This was not a fenced event like Shaky Knees music festival, held at Piedmont Park in September. The Dogwood Festival couldn’t afford the cost of fencing off the space and extra permits, Hill said. So he knew plenty of people could easily walk into the park and attend the festival without paying.
“Eighty percent of the park is wide-open,” he said.
Still, he said he hoped ticket sales from those willing to pay would be enough to bridge the loss of sponsorship money in recent years.
Hill said he won’t have ticket revenue figures until midweek.
This year’s event featured 260 artists and dozens of food vendors. It also included an events stage (down from two stages last year) and a playground for kids.
Jason Bove, a Lebanon, Ohio, artist who specializes in wheel-thrown ceramics, said he has been in the same location at the park for four years. He said his sales this year were down 30% from a year ago.
“I think the gate fee may have been a problem,” Bove said. “Charging admission has killed other festivals.”
Hill said he believed shootings last weekend at Piedmont Park and subsequent bad publicity may have also softened attendance.
“People in the suburbs may have heard about shootings in the park and wondered if they should drive in with their kids,” he said, noting the city did beef up its police presence. “People might have been more cautious.”
Hill, who is retiring after 18 years with the festival, said he is unsure if the Dogwood Festival board of directors will keep the event going in 2027.
Board Chairman David Shutley said the festival needs to be ticketed to survive, although an alternative would be receiving a grant from the city of Atlanta to fill in the budgeting gap.
“We were self-sufficient for many years,” he said. “We certainly wish we still were. But that’s not the reality anymore with our festival or a lot of other ones around the world.”
Shutley said he heard few, if any, complaints about the gate fee and hopes to have clarity from the city soon so they can decide whether to move forward in 2027.
The Dogwood Festival launched in 1936 during the depths of the Great Depression as a way to highlight the beauty of the city during the blooming of the dogwood trees. It featured concerts, a parade, pageants and a carnival in its early years before going dormant in the 1940s. Fans of the event revived it in the late 1960s, and it has largely used Piedmont Park as its home base over the past three-plus decades.
About the Author
Rodney Ho writes about entertainment for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution including TV, radio, film, comedy and all things in between. A native New Yorker, he has covered education at The Virginian-Pilot, small business for The Wall Street Journal and a host of beats at the AJC over 20-plus years. He loves tennis, pop culture & seeing live events.
