Seasons
The Atlanta year, season by season.
Five seasons, built from the city's anchor events: the festivals, races and fixtures whose dates are published by their own organisers, each labelled with its status, and the calendar's own listings in each window as they land. The later windows fill in as organisers publish.
Spring festival season
March to May
Spring is the park season's opening, and its anchor is the Dogwood Festival: three days in Piedmont Park in the weeks the city's own dogwoods are in bloom, the signal that the outdoor year has started. The rest of the spring calendar fills in as organisers announce, and the weekly note tracks the confirmations.
18 events in the calendar fall in this window, 11 of them on tentative dates, labelled as such wherever they appear.
Summer
June to August
Summer bends around the heat, and its centrepiece is a road race: the Peachtree fills Peachtree Road on the morning of 4 July, running from Lenox Square in Buckhead down to Piedmont Park while the city watches from the sidewalks. The rest of the summer runs to the stadiums, the air-conditioned museums and the evenings.
6 events in the calendar fall in this window, 5 of them on tentative dates, labelled as such wherever they appear.
Autumn
September to November
Autumn opens with the biggest weekend of the Atlanta year: Dragon Con takes over downtown on Labor Day weekend, the same days college football starts. Then the calendar moves outdoors: three days of rock in Piedmont Park at Shaky Knees, and Atlanta Pride closing the festival run in the park in October. The autumn on this page is the one the calendar currently holds; its anchors carry their next dates as their organisers publish them.
13 events in the calendar fall in this window, 9 of them on tentative dates, labelled as such wherever they appear.
Holidays and bowl season
Late November to New Year's Day
From Thanksgiving morning the city runs on races and football: Atlanta Track Club opens the holiday with its Thanksgiving Day half marathon, the SEC decides its championship at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on the first Saturday of December, and the Peach Bowl takes New Year's Day in the same stadium, a College Football Playoff quarterfinal this season. The second version of the Peachtree, the Polar Opposite, follows on 2 January and the wheel turns again.
8 events in the calendar fall in this window, 5 of them on tentative dates, labelled as such wherever they appear.
Winter
January and February
The quietest stretch of the Atlanta year, and the museums' season: the High, Fernbank and the King historic site without the festival crowds. The race year that opens with the Peachtree on 4 July builds through the winter to its close, the Atlanta Marathon, the culmination of Atlanta Track Club's Ultimate Peach series.
5 events in the calendar fall in this window, 5 of them on tentative dates, labelled as such wherever they appear.