Georgia Marble Festival 2026: how the 44th festival ran

The 2026 Georgia Marble Festival, the 44th, is over. It ran Saturday and Sunday, October 3-4, 2026, at Lee Newton Park in Jasper, Georgia, according to Visit Pickens, the Pickens County Chamber of Commerce’s own tourism site. This page sets down how that weekend worked, from what the organizer and the county calendar published. Until the next one is announced, it is the most reliable picture of what to expect.

Dates, hours and location

Both days opened at 10 a.m. The Chamber’s tourism site gives the hours as 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday (Visit Pickens), and the 2026 listing on Know Pickens matches: Saturday, October 3, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, October 4, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Plan Sunday as the shorter day.

The grounds were Lee Newton Park, home of the Pickens County Visitor Center, 500 Veterans Memorial Blvd, Jasper. That is the Chamber’s own building, inside the park. The Georgia Marble Museum shares it, but the museum’s posted hours are Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Visit Pickens), and the Chamber published no separate festival-weekend hours for it.

What admission cost in 2026

Admission was not free in 2026. The Know Pickens listing published these prices. The Chamber’s own admission page now returns a 404, so that calendar listing is the only live source we could find.

A quarry tour ticket included festival admission, so tour guests didn’t pay twice. Parking, the shuttles and the Kids Zone cost nothing.

Parking and shuttles

Festival parking was off site and free. Shuttles ran throughout the day from two lots, Ingles at 1449 W Church St. and Chattahoochee Technical College at 100 Campus Dr., both in Jasper (Pickens County Chamber). The parking and shuttles page has the map, the Chamber’s directions and our drive-time estimates.

What was included

The Chamber’s list covers arts and crafts, music and performances on the Headliner and Performance Stages, festival food, quarry tours, live marble sculpting and chainsaw carving demonstrations, a caricature artist and the free Kids Zone (Pickens County Chamber). Its 2026 announcement put it in one line: “Come for the quarry tours and Main Street parade; stay for the live music, local vendors, food, and free Kids Zone.” The Chamber also says all arts and crafts are handmade. Vendors, sculptors and both stages are covered on arts, crafts and music.

The 2026 Headliner Stage lineup

Visit Pickens published the lineup on October 1, 2026. Names appear exactly as the Chamber printed them. The Performance Stage lineup was never published.

The planner below lays the whole weekend out by hour. Filter it by what you care about.

Quarry tours

If you can do only one thing on festival weekend, our pick is a tour, because the Chamber says the marble quarries open to the public for guided tours once a year, during the festival (Visit Pickens). In 2026 the posted departures were 10:00, 10:30, 11:00 and 11:30 a.m., then 12:30, 1:00, 1:30 and 2:00 p.m. Adults paid $20, seniors 62 and older and children 6 to 12 paid $18, and children 5 and under rode free (Pickens County Chamber). Plan on 2 to 2.5 hours. The 2026 booking form is now closed. Everything else, from check-in rules to the buses, is on quarry tours.

The parade

Saturday started with the Georgia Marble Festival Parade at 10 a.m. in downtown Jasper, at the same hour the gates opened at Lee Newton Park. The Chamber says the parade comes down Main Street every year at 10 a.m. and opens with the National Anthem. The parade page covers what we know, and what the Chamber hasn’t published (a route, for one).

Kids Zone

Free. The Chamber’s list for the Kids Zone: a hay maze, football throw, bounce houses, ring toss, face painting, corn hole, inflatable slides, balloon animals and a hamster run (Pickens County Chamber). Children must be with an adult at all times.

Rules

• No smoking and no pets are allowed at the festival. Pickens Chamber
• Quarry tours run rain or shine, and tickets are non-refundable. Pickens Chamber
• The quarry tour school buses are not wheelchair accessible. The Chamber publishes no other accessibility information for the festival. Pickens Chamber

The Chamber prints the no-pets, no-smoking rule in capital letters, so leave the dog at home. It did not publish a rain policy for the festival itself; only the quarry tours are described as rain or shine. Beyond the note that the tour buses are not wheelchair accessible, it publishes no accessibility information, so call (706) 692-5600 with questions.

No road race this year

The Marble Festival Road Race, which in 2025 started at 8 a.m. on festival Saturday, was canceled for 2026 after GDOT bought the property where it finished. The road race page explains what happened and what is still undecided.

Also that Saturday

Downtown, Oktoberfest in the Alley started at 2 p.m. on October 3, 2026 (Visit Pickens). For other dates around the county, see Pickens County events.

Details on this page are for 2026, as published by the Pickens County Chamber of Commerce and its tourism site; details for 2027 may change. For the next festival, see 2027 festival dates.

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