For its first three years, the Brookhaven International Festival was a creature of the Buford Highway corridor -- staged along the Peachtree Creek Greenway and the office park at 1801 Corporate Boulevard, in the part of the city where Atlanta's most famously international stretch of road runs. This October, the festival pulls up stakes and moves north to Brookhaven Park at 4158 Peachtree Road, trading the greenway for the city's flagship green space and, in the process, signaling how far the event has come since it began.
The 2026 edition runs Saturday, Oct. 17, and Sunday, Oct. 18, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day. Admission is free, parking is free, and the concerts are free and unticketed -- a deliberate choice for a festival whose stated purpose is to gather the many cultures that call Brookhaven home under one open sky.
The festival's origin story is a short one but a telling one. When it launched in 2023, it was the City of Brookhaven's first major event staged along the Buford Highway Cultural Corridor, the multi-mile artery on the city's southern edge that has become one of the most diverse stretches of metro Atlanta. The corridor is home to taquerias, Korean barbecue halls, Guatemalan bakeries, Chinese groceries, and immigrant-owned businesses from across Latin America and Asia, and it has long been the cultural counterweight to Brookhaven's wealthier northern neighborhoods. Putting a city festival there was a statement: this is Brookhaven too.
The first year drew a modest crowd. By the second, the festival had grown enough that organizers were planning around a much larger footprint. The 2024 edition drew roughly 5,000 people, according to the city, and the 2025 festival -- the third -- was originally announced for Lenox Park before being moved back to the Corporate Boulevard site when redevelopment of that property, purchased by Third & Urban for conversion into housing, retail, and restaurants, had not yet begun. That year's headliners were Proyecto Uno, the Dominican-American group that fuses merengue with house, hip-hop, and R&B, and Third World, the Jamaican reggae institution then celebrating its 51st year.
Now in its fourth year, the festival has assembled its most eclectic lineup yet. Saturday's headliner is Cumbiatron, a high-energy cumbia music and dance experience built around audience participation and the rhythms of a genre that stretches from Colombia's Caribbean coast across all of Latin America. Sunday closes with DROP, a five-member K-pop boy group whose digital single "Booster," released Jan. 23, 2026, showcases the vocal-and-rap blend and youthful energy the group is known for.
Between the headliners, the schedule reads like a tour of world music and dance. Saturday opens with DJ Steve at 11 a.m., followed by the P&P Dance Crew, a salsa band with a learn-to-dance session led by W-Latino, the Giwayen Mata African Drum and Dance ensemble, a Chien Hong lion dance, the Andean group Apu Inka, the Caribbean Dancers of Atlanta, and rising recording artist Olly Sholotan -- a singer, songwriter, and producer whose sound blends pop, R&B, and hip-hop with Afrobeats, and who is also known for playing Carlton Banks on Peacock's "Bel-Air." Saturday's program builds to "La Hora Loca," a collaborative music and dance celebration, before Cumbiatron takes the stage at 5 p.m.
Sunday's slate is just as varied: the Brookhaven Dance School, a return of Giwayen Mata, Sanam Studio Dancers, Mariachi Buhos de Oro, Guelaguetza Mexican Dance, Batucada Brazil Dance, and Berdolé Flamenco Dance, with a second "La Hora Loca" at 4:30 p.m. before DROP closes the weekend.
New this year is a chalk art walk featuring six renowned Mexican Madonnari artists. Madonnari -- street painters who work in chalk and pastel, traditionally on pavement -- take their name from the itinerant artists of Italy who drew religious figures, often the Madonna, in public squares. The festival's chalk walk brings that tradition to Brookhaven Park, where the artists will create large-scale works over the course of the weekend.
The Kidz Zone keeps the family side of the festival free as well, with inflatables, face painting, a petting zoo, and giant bubbles. The Global Marketplace fills out the grounds with artisan wares, fine art, and handmade goods from dozens of vendors -- Mexican artisan creations and wearables, Guatemalan and Oaxacan crafts, Indian decor, Asian-inspired sweets, skincare, candles, jewelry, and more -- alongside a roster of local artists hosted by the Brookhaven Art Alliance. The food vendor lineup runs the globe as well, from Apsara Kitchen and Manny Sazon Colombian Street Food to Gyro Chef Mediterranean, Argentine Eats, Beto's Tacos, and Blazin Noodles.
A 5K walk and run benefiting We Love Buford Highway returns as part of the weekend. The nonprofit's mission is preserving the multicultural identity of the Buford Highway corridor, and the race proceeds support its youth orchestra program. This year's course takes place on the Peachtree Creek Greenway.
Getting to the new location is designed to be as car-free as possible. Free shuttles will run from Apple Valley Road, behind the Brookhaven/Oglethorpe MARTA station, and an ADA-accessible shuttle will serve that stop as well. Limited ADA-accessible parking will be available on the festival grounds.
Attendees are encouraged to bring lawn chairs, blankets, bottled water, sunscreen, and bug spray. Outside food and beverages other than bottled water are not permitted.
The move to Brookhaven Park is not just a logistical change. The park at 4158 Peachtree Road has itself been the subject of recent city investment, with upgrades including a larger parking lot, a new playground, a turfed play area, pavilions, and restrooms. Placing the festival there puts it at the center of the city rather than at its southern edge -- a sign that an event born as a gesture toward one neighborhood has become a citywide institution. Whether that shift changes the festival's character is the open question of the weekend. What is certain is the lineup: two days, dozens of performers and vendors, and a park full of people, all free to walk in.