First time at the Georgia Marble Festival: a field guide built on how 2026 worked

The 2026 Georgia Marble Festival, the 44th, ran Saturday and Sunday, October 3 and 4, at Lee Newton Park in Jasper, Georgia, according to the Chamber’s tourism site, Visit Pickens. It’s over, and the next one has no date yet. So this is a field guide built on how 2026 worked, in the order a first-timer needs it. Everything here is as published by the Pickens County Chamber of Commerce and the other sources we link. Details for 2027 may change.

1. Wait for the date, and know where it will show up

The Pickens County Chamber says the festival is held the first full weekend of October. As of October 18, 2026, it has not announced 2027 dates, and we won’t guess one for you. Watch pickenschamber.com, VisitPickensGA.com (the Chamber’s own tourism site) and the festival’s Facebook page, which the Chamber points people to for details. In 2026 the tourism site was running the dates in its weekly roundups by September 10 (Visit Pickens). We keep a watch on our 2027 festival dates page and will update it when the Chamber posts.

2. Pick your day: Saturday has the parade

The two days were not the same festival. In 2026, Saturday ran 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday ran 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Know Pickens). Saturday also had the Marble Festival Parade on Main Street, which started at 10 a.m., the same hour the festival opened at Lee Newton Park. By the Chamber’s own directions, the grounds sit about half a mile past Main Street on GA 53. You can’t be in both places at ten o’clock.

The parade opens with the National Anthem, then motorcycles, fire trucks, veterans groups, ball teams and children’s floats come down Main Street (Pickens County Chamber). If you want it, see it first and go to the festival after. Downtown also had Oktoberfest in the Alley at 2 p.m. that Saturday. Sunday is the shorter day, with no parade. Our parade page covers what is and isn’t published about the route.

3. Park at a shuttle lot, not at the park

Festival parking in 2026 was free, at two lots away from the grounds, with free shuttles running all day (Pickens County Chamber):

• Ingles, 1449 W Church St., Jasper
• Chattahoochee Technical College, 100 Campus Dr., Jasper

From Atlanta, the Chamber’s route is I-75 North to I-575 North, which becomes GA 515 at the Pickens County line; at the third traffic signal you turn right on GA 53 East. From Dahlonega or Dawsonville, you come west on GA 53 and turn right at the 4-way stop in Tate. The Chamber said “all day” for the shuttles and published no closer schedule, and it says nothing about where parade-goers should leave the car. Our parking and shuttles page puts both lots on a map.

4. Booking a quarry tour? Work backward from the bus

This is the step that takes planning. The Chamber says the marble quarries open to the public for guided tours once a year, during the festival (Visit Pickens), and it calls them the largest open-pit marble quarries in the world. That is the organizer’s description, not something we’ve seen measured. The tours show marble in its natural form, stop at several historic marble-industry sites and cover Georgia Marble history.

In 2026, tickets were $20 for adults, $18 for seniors 62 and up, $18 for ages 6 to 12, and free for 5 and under, and a tour ticket included festival admission (Pickens County Chamber). Buses left at 10:00, 10:30, 11:00 and 11:30 a.m., then 12:30, 1:00, 1:30 and 2:00 p.m. These rules set your morning:

• Check in at least 30 minutes before your departure. Buses leave on time, and late check-in means no tour and no refund.
• The Chamber recommends reaching the shuttle lot at least an hour before your tour. The shuttles drop tour-goers right at the quarry tour check-in tent.
• Plan for about two to two and a half hours on the tour. Its page gives both figures.
• Tours run rain or shine, and tickets are non-refundable.

That table is our arithmetic from the Chamber’s two rules, not a published schedule. Online buyers had to name a tour day and time, and the Chamber also booked by phone at (706) 692-5600. The 2026 booking form is closed. Our quarry tours page has the rest.

5. Know what you’ll pay, and what costs nothing

Admission was not free in 2026. The Know Pickens listing gave adults $5, children 6 to 12 $3, 5 and under free, veterans $3 and seniors $3. The Chamber’s own admission page now returns an error, so that listing is the source we have. Parking, the shuttles and the Kids Zone cost nothing, and a quarry tour ticket covered admission.

• Published 2026 festival admission: adults $5; children 6-12 $3; 5 and under free; veterans $3; seniors $3. (The Chamber's own admission page now returns 404, so this comes from the Know Pickens listing.) Know Pickens
• Parking is free, with free shuttles running all day between the parking areas and the festival grounds. Pickens Chamber
• Quarry tour prices: adults $20; seniors (62+) $18; ages 6-12 $18; 5 and under free. A tour ticket includes festival admission. Pickens Chamber

6. Kids, dogs and wheelchairs

The free Kids Zone had a hay maze, bounce houses, inflatable slides, face painting, balloon animals and a hamster run, among other things (Pickens County Chamber). The rule that matters: children must be with an adult at all times in the Kids Zone. Plan on one grown-up staying put.

Leave the dog at home. The Chamber allows no pets and no smoking at the festival, and the same rule holds on the quarry tours. On access, the only published statement is that the quarry tour buses are school buses and are not wheelchair accessible. Nothing else on access is published, so if that matters for your group, call (706) 692-5600 before you go.

7. Know who is on the stage and what is in the booths

The Headliner Stage runs all day both days with live music, dancers and cloggers (Pickens County Chamber). In 2026, Saturday opened with North GA Clogging & Dance at 10:30 a.m. and closed with Caleb Wilkie & The Privateers at 5 p.m. Sunday ran from RustedMelody at 11 a.m. to Yes M.A.M. at 3 p.m. (Visit Pickens). The full 2026 lineup by the hour is on our 2026 festival page.

In the booths, the Chamber says all arts and crafts are handmade (Pickens County Chamber). Its vendor list names woodworkers, marble sculptors, clothing makers and homemade jams and jellies. There were live marble sculpting and chainsaw carving demonstrations too, plus a caricature artist.

A first-timer’s Saturday, on the 2026 clock

1. Before 10 a.m.: find a place on Main Street for the parade.
2. After the parade: drive to the Ingles or Chattahoochee Tech lot and ride a shuttle to Lee Newton Park.
3. Midday: festival food, a walk through the craft booths, a Headliner Stage set.
4. Quarry tour holders: either take a 10:00 or 10:30 bus and skip the parade, or book an afternoon departure and see the parade first. Either way, check in 30 minutes ahead.
5. Late afternoon: in 2026 the gates closed at 6 p.m. on Saturday.

Sunday works the same way minus the parade, with a 4 p.m. close. When 2027 is announced, compare it against this list before you plan; prices, times and the lineup are the parts most likely to move.

Questions people ask

Written by the Jasper Marble Festival Guide Editorial Team. AI tools help us draft; people check every fact before it publishes.