This place is a great alternative for local Gwinnett residents to see some pretty holiday lights…read moreinstead of traveling elsewhere like Atlanta. Granted, it is a lot smaller but they packed a lot of lights in there for a $10 entry. ($10 is the online price, $12 at door) It is in a random residential area with a gravel driveway so you might miss the entrance, especially in the dark (We had to make a U-turn) but the GPS does take you there, just follow it carefully. It turns out this festival is on some farmland. It has a gravel parking lot and you walk through dirt/grass...so wear comfortable flat shoes. There are different light themes throughout. You first enter the "Under the Sea" theme. Other themes scattered around are Christmas, Chinese, etc. It is a quick walk through, but if you stop to take perfect Instagram worthy pics like I did, you can easily be there for an hour or 2. There's also a few fire pits, a little makeshift ice skating area, some farm animals, and a food/vendor tent. Inside the tent is where we saw the huge panda mascot! It was dancing and brought great energy to the crowd. I'm a HUGE panda fan so obviously I had to take a picture and even made it dance with me. Hehe. Everyone loved the panda and it truly made our visit. That pretty much ended our night, so we headed back to the car after an hour and a half. This place is only operational until Jan 1, 2022 so I would go before it closes!

This event was amazing! Decatur did it again. There was so much beautiful art that I nearly broke…read moremy budget! The vendors were all so creative, organized and affordable. The live band was excellent! There was also an area for kiddos too! Out of respect for the artists, I have not posted pics of their work. You'll have to come see for yourself. Way to get after it Decatur!

If you're looking to make a purchase at the Decatur Arts Festival, make sure you bring some SERIOUS…read morecash. Large art pieces can range from $300-$1,000. If you want to buy a small piece of art work, it's more affordable. Since I don't have cash like THAT, I tend to walk around and look at the different vendors. The vendors are extraordinarily talented and travel long distances to come to this festival. The festival also has an area for performance art where can see dancing, musicians, and various bands for free! When traveling to the Decatur Arts Festival, make sure to take the Marta. Typically, I will park at the Indian Creek location since it has free parking. You can ride to downtown Decatur, get off, and the festival is RIGHT THERE! Parking can be extraordinarily difficult, so you can skip the hassle with Marta. You don't have to walk far because the festival will be to your left when you walk out of the station! Check it out!

Every year we attend both the Fall and Spring festival here off Ponce De Leon Ave. These festivals…read moreare pretty much the same, except for the weather. As my buddy Robin said, parking can be a tad bit difficult when coming here. Right off Ponce De Leon there is the Publix, if you park behind it off Blue Ridge Avenue you can walk just a few blocks to the festival. We have parked this way every year and never have any issue finding a place to park. Otherwise, you can always park near the festival in people's yards that charge for parking. This festival has quite a lot of artists from the south eastern park of the United States who sell paintings, steel art, wood work, jewelry, candles, clothing, health and wellness, fire pits and other types of art for the home. They have inflatable jumpy houses and slides for the kids, those things are purchased by the ticket and daily wrist bands are sold. Overall, it is a cool festival, but not one of Atlanta's best. My top favourites by far are the Inman Park Festival and Atlanta Dogwood Festival. [Review #403] (50th Review of 2016)

One of my local, walking distance festivals, this one set up in the two westernmost of the Olmsted…read moreLinear Parks (Springdale and Virgilee Parks). There's a festival here in the spring, too. The usual array of artists showing their wares. Good stuff, mostly. Weak food truck participation as compared to the larger festivals, such as Candler Park Fall Fest. This year on Sunday: Pup Truck, Williamson Bros BBQ, Mixemup Burgers and an Italian Ice vendor. King of Pops, of course. There's always large inflatable kid attractors set up on the green. Last year there was music, not sure what they had this year. Parking is always a challenge unless you're willing to walk several blocks. Street parking, although quite a few property owners rent out space in their yards for $15-$10.

Anime Weekend Atlanta is a anime festival held at the Cobb Galleria Centre & Renaissance Waverly…read moreusually from October to November. There are cosplay events, video gaming rooms, game tournaments, fan panels, manga library, a rave with a awesome DJs, and an artist alley which was pretty much like a gift shop where artist sold their handmade items! My boyfriend and me got tickets super last minute and it was the last day of the event as well. This festival goes all day, and all night long so we were able to go past midnight and not miss it. Although it wasn't the same, because most shops were already closed, it was still pretty fun and lots of events were still happening. They have adults events past midnight as well, so that was fun and made it unique. The rave was so much fun! The music was so loud, and the lights were so cool. It was also so cool to see all the peoples cosplay and it inspired us to dress up for future events as well! Can't wait! ESPAÑOL Anime Weekend Atlanta es un festival de anime que se celebra en el Cobb Galleria Center y Renaissance Waverly generalmente de octubre a noviembre. Hay eventos de cosplay, salas de videojuegos, torneos de juegos, paneles de fanáticos, biblioteca de manga, un Rave con DJs increíbles y un callejón de artistas que era casi como una tienda de regalos donde el artista vendía sus artículos hechos a mano! Mi novio y yo obtuvimos boletos súper en el último minuto y también fue el último día del evento. Este festival dura todo el día y toda la noche, así que pudimos pasar la medianoche y no perderlo. Aunque no era lo mismo, ya que la mayoría de las tiendas ya estaban cerradas, todavía era muy divertido y todavía habían muchos eventos. También tienen eventos para adultos después de la medianoche, así que fue divertido y lo hizo único. ¡El rave fue muy divertido! La música era muy alta y las luces muy chulas. También fue genial ver el cosplay de todos los pueblos y también nos inspiró a vestirnos para futuros eventos! No puedo esperar!

I've been to Anime Weekend Atlanta three of the past four years and it's a lot of fun. I go mainly…read moreto check out and snap photos of the latest cosplays. While AWA is focused primarily on anime, a lot of comic book and video game cosplayers do show up. You'll also see several steampunk costumes and a small handful of sci-fi, fantasy, movie, TV, and other pop culture cosplay. I can't help but compare AWA to Dragon*Con since the two conventions are in Atlanta and are only weeks apart from one another. AWA is like a subset of Dragon*Con. Since we're talking cartoons and animation, the demographic of the con-goers is younger, mostly teenagers to twenty-somethings. Attendance at AWA is nowhere near that of Dragon*Con, but it's still in the thousands. The quality of the costumes isn't as great, but Dragon*Con is the gold standard. Don't get me wrong -- you'll still see plenty of superb cosplay at AWA (just take a look at the pictures). It's the most popular anime convention in the Southeast. AWA takes place over three days (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) at the Renaissance Waverly Hotel and Cobb Galleria Centre. The hotel and convention center are connected to each other. One plus about this convention is parking is free and plentiful. You can park outside the hotel or inside the Galleria's parking deck. The Galleria has a food court and restaurants such as Jocks & Jills and Big Chow Grill, so you don't have to go anywhere if you want food. Over the years, Galleria staff has added additional seating outside in the hallways, so there's ample seating to eat, rest, and relax. Like Dragon*Con, you don't need to purchase a membership badge to enjoy the people watching and cosplays. Unlike Dragon*Con, you don't need a badge to access the hotel or convention center at certain times. You do need a badge if you want to go to the dealers rooms, cosplay contest, panels, anime viewings, video game tournaments, music concerts, etc. If you decide to purchase a membership, the sooner the better. Prices for 3-day memberships gradually increase from $20 at the convention (for membership to next year's convention) to $50 at next year's convention. Memberships can also be purchased online. The convention runs Friday through Sunday with membership badge pickup available as early as Thursday evening. If you can only attend one day, the best day to go is Saturday (day and night), though the convention is still pretty busy Friday night and Sunday afternoon. You can't really go wrong either way.

I love festivals and I am glad that they are becoming trendy across the US. This one can't really…read morebeat the Duluth Fall Festival in September but it's not bad! This one is in June 11-12. Careful, it gets VERY hot on a June day in Atlanta. I recommend coming in the morning if you're afraid of it getting super hot. My friends and I had tents selling crafts here and it can get miserable so make sure you bring lots of water. This festival had crafts on the far right end of the street with soaps, art, carvings, and all kinds of things. THere are some local businesses of course handing out info and free giveaways such as chiropractic, roof cleaning, and other services. I thought the free food giveaways were a bomb. There was a local peach stand which was awesome, free bags of local organic quinoa chips, and other fun give aways. The local P'tree corners stand will hand out tote bags, I love P'tree corner banners,and free hand paddle fans which you definitely need. There is a giant guy about 7'2 walking around in a peach costume and another guy on stilts as a tree so make sure you see those two. There is live music and I honestly thought for a small festival, the entertainment was VERY good. GOod voices and very good talent. Definitely worth listening to and crucial to keeping everyone happy in such a warm day. Check out the stands that have hot dogs and funnel cakes! There are portable bathrooms at the end and there are cars at the end with some fancy car show going on for car enthusiasts!

FESTIVAL TIME, (Peachtree Corners)…read more I attended this festival a couple of years ago with my family and we all had a very nice time. The parking is great and there are shuttle carts that take you from your car to the venue or you can easily walk. It was a hot day and we were lucky enough to have the mayor as our driver. The festival is great for families because they have activities for everyone. The little ones will love the bounce house, face painting and other activities, everyone will enjoy wandering from table to table checking out the arts and crafts and who doesn't LOVE classic cars! It is just the perfect opportunity to get out, listen to live music, get some fresh air and just meet people. This year the festival will be marked by a pre-festival concert on Friday night, (June 12th) and the actual festival begins on Sat at 10am and continues until Sunday evening. Clear your calendar and save the date!

The Decatur Lantern Parade is a sight to see! A good wholesome, smaller town America parade where…read moreit seems like the whole county turns out to celebrate. It starts on W. Howard Ave and ends in the center of Decatur square! It starts later to wait for the night to set in but it's well worth the wait. The creativity of the lanterns made by people of absolutely all ages! Since this is yelp, all of the square restaurants had their doors open and patios kicking. King of pops for sale at one of their carts, and the aroma of sushi, steak, burgers, coffee along with an awesome night of a parade and live music! Go have an amazing dinner somewhere in Decatur and make a night of it with the lantern parade! For those of you who know Decatur well, it's truly a Decatur experience! If you don't check the website frequently to go and make a lantern and walk in next year's parade. The only reason for four stars is that they don't publish this even well enough! Get the word out on the event and the route!

I finally made my first visit to the Starlight Drive-In Movie Theater! Well... technically, I still…read morehaven't seen a movie there. I accidentally discovered the weekend flea market! I was leaving Stone Mountain early in the morning when my navigation took me a completely different way, and somehow I ended up at the Starlight. I knew they had a flea market on the weekends, so I decided to stop and check it out. I'm so glad I did! Admission for buyers was 50 cents. I arrived early, vendors were still setting up, but there were already plenty of people selling their goods, and more vendors were arriving. And when I tell you they had EVERYTHING... they had everything! Clothes, shoes, food, detergent, electronics, car accessories, lawn equipment, school supplies, baby items--you name it! I only stayed about 30 minutes, but I had a great time browsing. You could tell some vendors regularly come out to sell their merchandise, while others were simply clearing out things they no longer needed. Either way, there were plenty of treasures to find. I'll definitely be back! I'm looking forward to spending more time browsing, supporting the vendors, and, of course, eventually coming back to actually a movie!

This place has me in a chokehold. I loved every moment of our visit. It was only $20 for two people…read morewhich was a great price compared to go to the movie theaters. You get to see two movies one Friday at 8:30 and the other start at 10:30. The movie that played were great movies. We only made it for part of the 830 movie but our experience was to see the 1030 movie which was scream seven. It was great. I have never been to the drive-in movie theater and this experience is what I was looking forward to. They had a concession stand, but we didn't use it as we had our own food, but the vibe was amazing. Stay in your own vehicle and just put your feet up. Please turn your lights off when you go to the movie theater so we all can see the screen. I highly recommend trying this place.

This is a great event. So many different type of food here. I love it. There are so many people…read morehere trying out different type of food. The weather is great the environment is great the food is great. Can't ask for much more. Love it!!