Where should a festival go once it outgrows the office park where it started? Brookhaven has tried three answers in four years. The 2026 answer is Brookhaven Park at 4158 Peachtree Road NE. The fourth annual International Festival runs there on Saturday, Oct. 17 and Sunday, Oct. 18, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The new address matters more than it looks. It puts the city's largest cultural weekend on the same short stretch of Peachtree that now holds City Hall, the busiest civic calendar in Brookhaven and a MARTA station. Sunday morning still starts on the Greenway, though, along the corridor where the festival began. To plan the weekend well, it helps to know why both halves are where they are.
Four Editions, Three Homes
The city describes the 2023 inaugural festival as Brookhaven's first major event along the Buford Highway Cultural Corridor. The venue changed every year after that:
- 2023. The first festival, which the city ties to the Buford Highway Cultural Corridor.
- 2024. The second edition moved onto the Peachtree Creek Greenway on Oct. 19 and 20. Rough Draft Atlanta later reported that this edition drew 5,000 people.
- 2025. The city first announced Lenox Park for the third festival. In September it moved the event back to 1801 Corporate Blvd. on the Greenway because redevelopment of the Lenox Park site had not started. Third & Urban bought that office park to turn it into residential, retail, restaurant and recreation space.
- 2026. Brookhaven Park, which the city calls "the event's new location."
The 2025 detour explains a lot. A festival staged in an office park that's waiting for redevelopment depends on someone else's construction schedule. A city-owned park on Peachtree doesn't.
The Park Was Rebuilt for This Kind of Crowd
The city gives two reasons for the move. Mayor Pro-Tem and District 4 Council Member John Funny pointed to access: the park is "easily accessible via MARTA and our provided shuttles." Council Member Madeleine Simmons, whose District 3 includes the park, gave the second:
"Brookhaven Park is ready to show off some of its amazing improvements to a wider audience since the City became its official owner!"
Those improvements are recent. Brookhaven Park was part of the 2018 voter-approved Parks Bond program. According to the city's 2025 adopted budget, it reopened in October 2024 with:
- A new playground
- A synthetic-turf play area
- Two pavilions and a restroom building
- A dog-park pavilion with restrooms and a patio
- A dog splash pad and other dog-park upgrades
At the reopening, Rough Draft Atlanta quoted a councilmember who said the work put the Brookhaven Park Master Plan into effect. The same budget document says the bond program closed out in 2024 with every bond project complete. Restrooms, covered pavilions and turf are what a two-day event needs, and an office-park lawn doesn't have them. The 2026 festival is the first big test of that investment.
The Stretch of Peachtree the Festival Joined
A few blocks south, at 4001 Peachtree Road, is Brookhaven City Centre. It opened to the public with a community celebration on Aug. 9, 2025. The five-story, 58,250-square-foot building sits next to the Brookhaven-Oglethorpe MARTA station. About 60 percent of it is set aside for public use: a multipurpose event hall, a catering kitchen, a coffee shop, meeting rooms for rent, the Explore Brookhaven visitor store, an atrium and plazas. The design also called for a rooftop terrace.
This fall's calendar shows how much civic life now happens along this part of Peachtree:
| Date | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday, Oct. 1 | Taste Brookhaven, 16 local restaurants, benefiting Children's Healthcare of Atlanta's Strong4Life | Brookhaven City Centre, 4001 Peachtree Rd NE |
| Tuesday, Oct. 13, 5 p.m. | Mayor's Town Hall with Mayor John Park and staff | Brookhaven City Centre |
| Saturday–Sunday, Oct. 17–18 | Brookhaven International Festival | Brookhaven Park, 4158 Peachtree Rd NE |
| Thursday, Oct. 22, 8–10 p.m. | Oglethorpe University Fall Music Gala | Conant Performing Arts Center, 4484 Peachtree Rd NE |
All four events fall within three weeks, and all four are on Peachtree Road between the 4000 and 4500 blocks. The city hasn't described this as a plan. The addresses tell the story anyway. Until this year, the International Festival was the one major city event held somewhere else.
Getting There Without Driving to the Gate
The shuttle setup reflects how much the city is counting on the MARTA station. Free shuttles leave from Apple Valley Road behind the MARTA parking lot, and the city encourages people to come by MARTA. Explore Brookhaven lists admission and parking as free. A local event guide updated Oct. 5 says ADA parking at the park is limited and that an ADA-accessible shuttle runs from Apple Valley Road.
The pickup point is right by one of the area's newest restaurants. SIREN, a seafood and raw-bar restaurant, was scheduled to open Aug. 18 at 2700 Apple Valley Road NE, Suite 65, next to Arnette's Chop Shop. Rough Draft Atlanta's August restaurant roundup listed it as open. If you're riding the shuttle, an oyster stop on Apple Valley Road fits easily before or after.
The city's list of things to bring: water, chairs or blankets, sunscreen and bug spray.
Who Is on the Stage
The two headliners reflect the range the festival has aimed for since 2023.
- Saturday, Oct. 17: Cumbiatron, a cumbia music and dance show the city describes as audience-centered. Rough Draft Atlanta later added Olly Sholotan to Saturday's lineup.
- Sunday, Oct. 18: DROP, a five-member K-pop group. Its digital single Booster came out Jan. 23, 2026.
Between sets, the grounds will have international food, art installations, a Kidz Zone, a global marketplace and interactive chalk art. The city said in August that more performers would be announced. Check the official International Festival page for the final schedule.
Sunday Still Starts on the Greenway
The festival moved. The 5K stayed put. For the fourth straight year, a walk/run benefiting We Love Buford Highway opens Sunday's events on the Peachtree Creek Greenway at 1793 Briarwood Road. The Oct. 5 local guide lists an 8 a.m. start at the Briarwood Road Trailhead.
The race is USATF-certified and counts as a qualifier for the Northside Hospital Peachtree Road Race. The course follows the Greenway and nearby parking lots. The money goes to the Buford Highway Orchestra Program, a free after-school music program run by the nonprofit, whose stated mission is preserving the multicultural identity of the Buford Highway corridor. According to the organization, 96 young musicians have taken part in the program so far.
So Sunday has two parts. Start the morning on the Greenway near Briarwood Road, then cross to Peachtree for DROP in the afternoon. The concerts, food and marketplace now share space with City Hall and the rail station. The 5K keeps the race and its fundraising on the trail and corridor where the festival began.
Where the Greenway Is Headed
The trail side of the weekend is the part still being built. In May 2026, the Atlanta Regional Commission voted to award $13,593,489 in federal funding for Peachtree Creek Greenway Phase II. That phase is a 1.1-mile, 14-foot-wide multi-use trail with seven pedestrian bridges and boardwalk sections. The city has not published a completion date for Phase II.
A separate project is moving more slowly. The I-85 Greenway Connector Bridge would link Emory Executive Park to the Greenway. It has a $588,168 Decide DeKalb grant for design and a $15.8 million commitment from Emory. Rough Draft Atlanta reports that right-of-way and permitting work is expected to wrap up in 2027, with final design to follow, and that construction is expected to begin in 2028 and finish in 2029.
The Peachtree side is finished. City Centre is open, the park has been rebuilt, and the MARTA station has been there all along. The Greenway side still has years of construction ahead. For now, the 5K is the festival's main link to the trail, and runners will be lining up at Briarwood Road at 8 a.m. on Oct. 18.
A cultural festival, a new City Hall and a rebuilt park all on one stretch of Peachtree say a lot about where civic life in Brookhaven is heading. If you're weighing how that stretch fits your own plans, Sonny Jones offers a private consultation and can walk you through the blocks between City Centre and Brookhaven Park.
