Overview The Decatur Arts Festival fills downtown Decatur, Georgia, and its historic courthouse square on the first full weekend of May with a juried artists market of about 140 booths, free to walk, and the Southeast Tourism Society had named it a Top 20 Event for 16 years running by 2024. Around the market run a Friday-night ArtWalk, a Saturday Kids Festival, dance, theater, comedy and music stages, and a children's book festival. After 35 years, the Decatur Arts Alliance paused the festival in 2026 while the city rebuilt its downtown square. The Alliance is a nonprofit that also produces the Decatur Wine Festival, public art such as the Decatur Artway and Secret Doors Decatur, and community classes. On site On Friday evening the ArtWalk opens galleries and shops across downtown with street performers. Saturday and Sunday the artists market takes over the main streets, and the Community Bandstand becomes the music stage. Beacon Dance curates New Dance inside the Historic DeKalb Courthouse. The Performing Arts Tent beside the square carries theater, poetry, acoustic music and puppets, and the LOL Tent runs local comedians and an open mic. The Kids Festival fills the Recreation Center on Saturday with art projects and inflatables. The Children's Book Festival, added in 2024, brings authors to the Recreation Center and The Chapel on Sycamore for talks and signings. Audience The crowd is loyal: in a 2021 survey 52% were return visitors, and some had attended for more than 30 years. It is local, drawn from Decatur and in-town Atlanta neighborhoods, and it comes to shop - the Alliance describes the market weekend as art shopping. Track record The festival ran for 35 years before its first pause, in 2026. A collectible festival poster is unveiled each spring at a free public event where the artist signs copies; the 2024 unveiling was held at Decatur Glassblowing. Brand presence The presenting sponsor's name travels with the festival's, as 'Decatur Arts Festival presented by', on a co-branded logo, with the largest footprint on site. Below that, a partner can take one program as its own - the artists market, the music stage, the ArtWalk, the Kids Festival, New Dance, the Performing Arts Tent, the LOL Tent, the Children's Book Festival or the information tent on the plaza. Sponsor mentions run from the stage each day and in an opt-in newsletter of more than 10,000 subscribers.