Note: Events will have different safety precautions to protect attendees from COVID-19. Due to possible cancellations and changes enacted to prevent the spread of coronavirus, please check websites before attending.
We made it to October. So let’s celebrate this month with some socially distanced events and festivals with safety in mind. From a virtual music festival to farm-fresh ingredients and hyper-local food, here are eight events to check out this month:
Pumpkin Festival at Stone Mountain
2-9 p.m. now through Nov.1, Stone Mountain Park, 1000 Robert E. Lee Blvd, Stone Mountain, www.stonemountainpark.com.
Stone Mountain Park’s family favorite Pumpkin Festival is back every weekend this October and features an all-new magic show. You can play-by-day as you enjoy park attractions, special fall entertainment, a pie-eating contest, and more, or glow-by-night with the new Dino Glow Experience and other outdoor activities. Enjoy the Pumpkin Festival with a membership or one-day attractions pass.
L5PBA Halloween Virtual Parade & Spookathon
4 p.m. Oct. 17, Virtual Event, www.l5phalloween.com.
A full moon, Saturday night and cool weather — Halloween couldn’t have been any more perfect this year, were it not for the pandemic. But the show must go on, and one of the most famous Atlanta Halloween traditions is marching on, when the iconic Little 5 Points Halloween Parade and Festival returns with a virtual parade to air on Facebook.
If you want to help save the festival and parade for 2021 (and help this year out too), check out the Spookathon all 31 days of October. You can donate, play the raffle, purchase merchandise, and much more.
Planet Afropunk
Oct. 23-25, Virtual Event, RSVP on www.planetafropunk.com.
COVID-19 couldn’t stop this music fest from happening in 2020. Afropunk is going virtual and will be unlike anything you’ve seen from the festival before. This year’s festival will feature a digital space designed to embrace Black stories through interviews and lectures from Black speakers, an immersive art gallery, conversation and activism, and a stacked music lineup featuring Ari Lennox, Moses Sumney, Sampa The Great, and many others. Planet Afropunk is free and will stream globally Oct. 23-25.
Big Night Out Concert Series
7 p.m. Oct. 23-25, Centennial Olympic Park, 265 Park Ave. W. NW, Atlanta, www.bignightoutatl.com.
Live music is back, in the socially distanced private pods kind of way. The Big Night Out concert series will take place over three nights with headliners Moon Taxi on Friday night, the Marcus King Trio on Saturday night, and Atlanta’s all-time heavyweight champion Big Boi on Sunday night. There are four and six-person ticket pods available; each pod is distanced six feet from any other on all sides and separated by barriers. Food and beverage concessions will be cashless and there will be sanitized restrooms.
Goblins in the Garden
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 25, Atlanta Botanical Garden, 1345 Piedmont Ave. NE, Atlanta, www.atlantabg.org.
Goblins in the Garden takes place in the gorgeous Atlanta Botanical Garden and will offer socially-distanced fall crafts, a goblins runway where you can show off your child’s best Halloween costume, dance performances, your very own mini pumpkin to take home, and more. This event is included with garden admission.
AgLanta Eats
4-8 p.m. Oct. 26, Atlanta Botanical Garden, 1345 Piedmont Ave. NE, Atlanta, www.eventbrite.com.
This year has been hard, and that’s why you should treat yourself with the freshest ingredients from AgLanta growers and metro Atlanta farms. The hyper-local food festival, now in its fifth year, offers attendees a variety of tastings prepared by top local chefs, beverages, live music, garden tours, and more. Youth tickets are $25, general admission is $60, and GOAT (greatest of all time) tickets are $150 which includes entry to the GOAT lounge with an open bar, hand-crafted cocktails, and exclusive offerings throughout the event.
Shalloween! ATL Drive-In Drag Show
8-10:30 p.m. Oct. 29-31, Ammazza Edgewood, 591 Edgewood Ave. SE, Atlanta, www.eventbrite.com.
Drive-ins aren’t just for movies anymore, especially in the month of October when Atlanta’s beauty queens take over. Come and support the dolls and local pizza purveyor Ammazza by purchasing tickets to enjoy a socially distanced, quarantine style drive-in drag show.
Mystic District Marketplace: Halloween Freak Show
6-11 p.m. Oct. 31, The Basement, 1245 Glenwood Ave. SE, Atlanta, www.eventbrite.com.
This isn’t Mystic District Marketplace’s first time around, but it’s Halloween Freak Show edition is definitely “once in a blue moon”. At the underground market, hosted by SZN Alxndr, attendees can expect to shop vendors, bop to sounds by Ralo, enjoy circus performances and a special drag performance by host SZN to close out the night. Ticket holders will also receive free entry into The Basement’s Resurrection Dance Party until midnight. This is a 21+ outdoor event. Masks and social distancing are required and there will be limited capacity throughout the market and inside The Basement.
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