Between October 10 and October 17, only one thing on Marietta Square needs a ticket: the Chalktoberfest Craft Beer Festival, noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday, October 10. Everything else across those two Saturdays is free. That includes the chalk art, the bands in Glover Park, museum admission, Touch-A-Truck, the costume contest and the farmers market. Since there's almost nothing to buy, your real decision is when to show up. Both weekends run on set times, and a few of those times are easy to miss.
Here is each Saturday laid out hour by hour, with the details that change your plans.
Chalktoberfest: one paid window inside a free weekend
The Marietta Cobb Museum of Art at 30 Atlanta Street SE puts on Chalktoberfest, and this year it runs October 10–11. Festival hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. The museum calls it an internationally recognized chalk art and craft beer festival. Professional chalk artists from around the country and overseas work right on the streets around the Square.
The free part of the weekend includes:
- Watching the chalk artists work over both days
- Live local bands in Glover Park
- Local arts, crafts and food vendors
- Free admission to the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art all weekend
The museum is the only art museum in Metro Atlanta that focuses only on American fine art. It sits just off the Square, and festival proceeds support its mission of "building community through art." If you've been meaning to go and haven't, this weekend you can walk in free with the chalk work going on right outside.
The Craft Beer Festival is the paid exception. It's Saturday only, noon to 5 p.m., with more than 120 local craft beers, ciders and seltzers plus 20-plus wines. Everyone who buys a ticket gets a collectible 2026 souvenir cup. Tickets are $55 at the gate. The official ticket page says online tickets bought in advance cost less but doesn't list the advance price, so check chalktoberfest.com before Saturday. The museum says the beer festival sells out every year. With a fixed gate price and a cheaper advance price, buying ahead is the easy money-saver of the weekend.
So the Saturday splits in two. From 10 a.m. to noon, the chalk festival is open and the beer festival hasn't started. From noon to 5, both run together on the same streets.
Sunday is the hands-on day
Sunday, October 11 is the Community Chalk Competition. It's open to the public, and you can enter alone or with a group. Teams draw from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and individuals get from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Prizes are awarded, and entry details are on chalktoberfest.com.
The timing matters if you're entering. Competitors start at 10:30, but the festival doesn't officially open until 11. Teams have two hours and individuals have three and a half, so a solo artist has more time to finish a piece than a family team does.
HarvestFest packs its contests into the middle of the day
Six days later the Square changes over. HarvestFest takes over Glover Park on Saturday, October 17, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at 50 N Park Square NE. The city puts it on, and the listed events are the HarvestFest Arts & Crafts Show, Touch-A-Truck, Scarecrows in the Square, a Costume Contest, the Pie Eating Contest presented by Pie Bar, Cornerback's Coop and the Halloween Happenings Kids Festival. There will also be inflatables, games and a live DJ.
The event used to be called the Harvest Square Arts and Crafts Festival. The 2026 listing on Marietta.com adds a College Football Watch Area and posts this schedule:
- 9 a.m. HarvestFest Market and the Halloween Happenings Kids Festival open and run until 5 p.m.
- 9 a.m. to noon The Square Farmers Market runs nearby. It's a separate event from HarvestFest.
- 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Touch-A-Truck
- 11:30 a.m. Pie Eating Contest for ages 6–12
- Noon Pie Eating Contest for ages 13 and up
- 1:30 p.m. Costume contestants need to arrive by this time
- 2 to 3 p.m. Costume Contest
Most of the scheduled events fall between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. If you have kids who want both the trucks and the costume contest, plan on a long stay or a return trip, since Touch-A-Truck ends at 2 and costume check-in closes at 1:30. Earlier arrivals get the craft market and the farmers market before noon. A late lunch crowd catches the costume contest and the market's last couple of hours.
The craft market is all handmade. Exhibitors come from around the Southeast, and the work covers painting, pottery, woodwork, metal, jewelry, glass, fabric and floral designs. Scarecrows in the Square is a competition displayed throughout Glover Park during the festival. Schools, clubs, businesses and nonprofits apply to take part, and prizes go to Best in Show and to first place in each category: School/Club, Business, Government, Non-Profit and Best Overall. Participants are encouraged to host kids' activities or hand out treats at their displays. Cornerback's Coop is the College Football Watch Area on East Park Square, so bring a chair. The city's full event page is at mariettaga.gov/1258/HarvestFest.
The farmers market runs both Saturdays
The Marietta Square Farmers Market is listed at 41 Mill Street from 9 a.m. to noon on October 10 and again on October 17. It overlaps with both festivals but isn't part of either.
On October 10, the market closes at noon, the same time the beer festival opens. Market hours line up exactly with the quieter morning part of Chalktoberfest, when the chalk artists are working and the beer lines haven't formed yet. On October 17, the market overlaps with HarvestFest's first three hours, including the first two hours of Touch-A-Truck and the 11:30 pie contest. The older age group's contest starts at noon, right as the market closes. Either Saturday, a 9 a.m. start lets you shop the market, see the main festival and get home for lunch.
The sources give two different addresses. Visit Marietta lists 41 Mill Street. Marietta.com's HarvestFest page puts the market in the parking lot across the railroad tracks from the Marietta Welcome Center, at 25 Mill Street. Both are on Mill Street, but check the address before you go. Neither listing mentions setup or access changes on event days.
Getting to the Square when Atlanta and Anderson streets are blocked
Chalktoberfest takes place on Atlanta Street and Anderson Street, which both run around the museum, and the festival site says some roads will be blocked. No 2026 schedule of street closure times had been published in the sources we reviewed, so expect those two streets to be partly closed during festival hours.
The festival's parking guidance lists these options:
- Decks at Waddell and Haynes streets, and at Mill Street and North Marietta Parkway
- Free parking off Waddell Street. Coming from I-75 northbound, take exit 265 for North Marietta Parkway and turn left. Go 1.7 miles to Church Street and turn left. At the next light, turn left onto Lemon Street, then right onto Waddell Street. The free parking is in the next block.
- Curbside and other spaces around the railroad
- Private lots, some of which may charge
The festival site doesn't mention a shuttle. This guidance comes from Chalktoberfest's general visitor page rather than a 2026 notice, and no HarvestFest-specific parking instructions were posted. Treat the list as a starting point for both Saturdays. The Mill Street deck has one practical plus: the farmers market is on the same street.
Drivers heading home after a late dinner should know about one more project. GDOT started resurfacing Whitlock Avenue on September 21, working from John Ward Road toward North Marietta Parkway. Crews work overnight, Monday through Saturday, from 9 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. The city expects the work to last through December 21 and has warned of nighttime delays. Both festival Saturdays fall within that schedule. Both festivals end at 5 p.m., but if you stay on the Square until after 9 and head home on Whitlock, give yourself extra time.
What's settled, and what to check
These details are confirmed for 2026: the dates, the hours, the $55 gate price, the competition times and the market schedule. A few things weren't posted at the time of writing. Those include the advance beer ticket price, whether there's a VIP tier, and closure times for Atlanta and Anderson streets. The most current answers will be at chalktoberfest.com and the City of Marietta's HarvestFest page.
If you're new to the northern suburbs and want help figuring out which Saturdays on the Square to keep open this fall and next, The Listing Brothers can help, along with the questions that come with settling in. Let's Connect.
