Overview The Duluth Fall Festival takes over historic downtown Duluth, Georgia, on the last weekend of every September. Admission and parking cost nothing, the shuttles are free too, and the festival goes on rain or shine. A volunteer non-profit, Duluth Fall Festival, Inc., puts it on, and every dollar of profit goes back into downtown. Festival money bought Taylor Park, built the Festival Center on the Town Green and paid for the Parsons Alley upgrades. On site Booths line Main Street and wrap the Town Green below City Hall. Most are arts and crafts. Pottery, woodwork, jewelry and fall decor sit between sponsor tents and a food court that sells turkey legs and funnel cakes from breakfast until the booths close. Saturday starts with a parade through downtown, then an opening ceremony on the Festival Center stage. Bands and dance acts play there all weekend while acoustic sets run in Parsons Alley. Sunday opens with the Donut Dash 5K and a worship service on the green. Kids head for Kidz Korner and the petting zoo. Tailgate Central screens the Georgia Bulldogs game. Audience Families from Duluth and across Gwinnett County make up most of the crowd, many with strollers and wagons. Free shuttles run from school lots in Duluth and Suwanee, and rideshares drop off behind Coleman Middle School. They come to shop. They eat, and they get to the curb early for the parade. Talent and Influencers Each parade honors a Grand Marshal and an Honorary Grand Marshal, who are recognized again at the opening ceremony with local dignitaries. School marching bands, sports teams, dance studios, antique cars and fire trucks make up the rest of the lineup. The Georgia Swarm pro lacrosse team once led it. Track record U.S. News and World Report put it on its list of the country's top fall festivals, the only Georgia pick. Oprah Daily named it among the best harvest festivals in America. The Southeast Festivals and Events Association gave it Best Large Festival in the Southeast, and Gwinnett readers have voted it Best Local Festival year after year. Over its history the festival has given more than $3 million to downtown Duluth and local non-profits. Brand presence Sponsors get a 10x10 booth for both days. That counts for more than usual here. The booth is the only place on the grounds where anyone may hand out material. Top partners stand on stage at the opening ceremony and are thanked from it all weekend, and their logos go on the official T-shirt. Area sponsors take one piece of the festival, such as the parade or Tailgate Central, and sign it. The season closes with the Taste of Duluth, an invitation-only tasting at the Payne-Corley House.