"When the City started planning the festival, we were not sure of the redevelopment timeline." Mayor Pro-Tem John Funny said that in September 2025. He was explaining why the third International Festival could go back to Corporate Square at all: construction on the redevelopment there had not started yet.
A year later, Funny has a different line: "We are in new location this year – Brookhaven Park, easily accessible via MARTA and our provided shuttles."
The fourth annual festival runs Saturday, Oct. 17, and Sunday, Oct. 18, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Brookhaven Park, 4158 Peachtree Road NE. For the first time, the city's largest cultural event of the fall is on ground the city fully controls. It no longer depends on a developer's schedule. The move doesn't cut the festival's ties to the Buford Highway corridor, though. It splits the weekend across two parts of Brookhaven, and anyone planning to go on Sunday needs to know which part they're heading to and when.
Three Years on Someone Else's Schedule
The festival started in 2023 as the city's first major event along the Buford Highway Cultural Corridor. That first year it was held on the Peachtree Creek Greenway on Oct. 21 and 22. In 2024 it moved to Corporate Square, next to the Greenway. In 2025 it was back at 1801 Corporate Boulevard NE, with free admission and free parking.
Each year at Corporate Square depended on a project that hadn't broken ground yet. In May 2025, the Brookhaven Development Authority approved a redevelopment agreement for the site, describing it as a $600-plus million mixed-use project. The project is now called Northbend. Its developer is Third & Urban, working with capital partner HighBrook Investors, and together they have assembled 30 acres at a reported cost of $605 million. The project's own website still lists "Summer 2026" as the phase-one construction start and 2028 for first deliveries.
The city's own paperwork shows a slower pace. In Brookhaven's August 2026 departmental report, "Corporate Square - Northbend" at 54 Corporate Square appears under land disturbance activity review. The same report shows zero land disturbance permits issued or approved that month.
The city hasn't publicly said why the festival moved. Its 2026 announcement simply calls Brookhaven Park the new location. Funny's 2025 comment does make one thing clear. As long as the festival stayed at Corporate Square, every year's planning started with an open question about the site.
The Park the City Bought for a Dollar
Brookhaven Park has a long history of its own. In April 2022, a settlement ended a lawsuit between DeKalb County and the city. DeKalb agreed to sell the park to Brookhaven for $1, and in return the city pledged $1.6 million toward a future library for the area. Full control came later. According to the city, that happened in February 2025, when council approved an agreement for Claratel to move its operations to another facility. The former Claratel building was demolished in 2025.
Major renovation of the 11-acre park began in July 2023. The renovated park had its ribbon cutting in November 2024. The $8.8 million package included:
- Three pavilions
- A dog park and dog splash pad
- An expanded playground with restrooms
- A walking path
- A stage
- A lighted parking lot
- A modified stormwater system, with a community garden on site
Several of those items matter for a two-day festival with headliners: a permanent stage, restrooms, and covered pavilions. Council Member Madeleine Simmons, whose District 3 includes the park, said that "Brookhaven Park is ready to show off some of its amazing improvements to a wider audience since the City became its official owner!"
Sunday Still Starts on the Greenway
The festival moved, but the 5K didn't. For the fourth year, a 5K walk/run benefiting We Love Buford Highway opens Sunday's events, and it stays on the Peachtree Creek Greenway at 1793 Briarwood Road. We Love Buford Highway is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that works to preserve the multicultural identity of the Buford Highway corridor. Executive Director Lily Pabian says the race supports the group's free afterschool Buford Highway Orchestra Program, and that 96 young musicians have taken part so far.
The course is USATF-certified and serves as a qualifier for the Northside Hospital Peachtree Road Race. It runs along the Greenway and the parking lots next to it. In earlier years, runners could finish and walk straight into the festival. This year, they'll need to get from the Briarwood Road side of the city to Peachtree Road.
Here's how Sunday, Oct. 18, lays out:
- 8:00 a.m. The 5K starts on the Peachtree Creek Greenway at 1793 Briarwood Road.
- Getting across town. Free festival shuttles leave from Apple Valley Road, behind the MARTA parking lot.
- 11 a.m. The festival opens at Brookhaven Park, 4158 Peachtree Road NE.
- Afternoon. DROP headlines Sunday. The five-member K-pop group released its digital single Booster on Jan. 23, 2026.
- 6 p.m. The festival closes.
The city recommends bringing water, chairs or blankets, sunscreen, and bug spray. Race registration and festival updates are posted at BrookhavenGA.gov/intl-fest.
Saturday Has a Market Before It and a Raw Bar After
Saturday doesn't involve a race, but it fits neatly with a morning stop that's already on the weekend calendar. The Brookhaven Farmers Market runs from 9 a.m. to noon at 1375 Fernwood Circle, rain or shine, and Oct. 17 is one of its scheduled October Saturdays. The market closes an hour after the festival opens.
Cumbiatron headlines Saturday with a cumbia music and dance set built around audience participation. Olly Sholotan, a singer, songwriter, and producer who mixes pop, R&B, and hip-hop with Afrobeats, also performs Saturday. Many people know him as Carlton Banks on Peacock's Bel-Air. Across the park, the city lists live cultural performances, art installations, international food, a Kidz Zone, and a global marketplace.
After the 6 p.m. close, there's a new dinner option on the same street as the shuttle pickup. SIREN, restaurateur Michel Arnette's coastal seafood restaurant, opened in August at 2700 Apple Valley Road NE #65, next to Arnette's Chop Shop. The menu centers on oysters, crudo, raw-bar dishes, and wood-fired cooking. SIREN is open Tuesday through Saturday from 5 to 10 p.m., so it's open on Saturday, Oct. 17, but closed on Sunday.
What the City Hasn't Settled Yet
Two weeks before the festival, some logistics are still open. Eventeny, the festival's vendor platform, lists admission as free. Its parking instructions still say "TBD." Explore Brookhaven's festival listing says admission and parking are free, but it gives the address as 4001 Peachtree Road NE. The city's own announcement uses 4158 Peachtree Road NE, and that's the address to put in your map app. Neither of the city's 2026 announcements mentions parking. They point people to MARTA and the free shuttle instead. The city also says more performers will be announced. Since the listings disagree on parking, the shuttle from Apple Valley Road is the only way of getting there that the city itself has announced.
The park's longer-term future is also open. In October 2025, Brookhaven ran a survey on where a new library should go. The former Claratel site was one of the options, along with the current library site and a site near MARTA. No final site has been announced. That library is the one tied to the city's $1.6 million pledge in the original $1 park deal.
The holiday season after the festival isn't set either. Last winter, Rudolph's Rink ran at the park over the winter break, from Dec. 20 through Jan. 4, with free 45-minute skating sessions. The city's public calendar for December 2026 and January 2027 doesn't list a rink yet. From October through January, the International Festival is the only Brookhaven Park event on that calendar. One more change to note: Paint the Park was canceled at Blackburn Park on Oct. 4 and rescheduled for Lynwood Park on Saturday, Nov. 7, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
For now, the plan is the 5K at 8 a.m. on Briarwood Road, the shuttle from behind the MARTA lot on Apple Valley Road, and the festival gates on Peachtree Road at 11.
If you live near Brookhaven Park and want to understand how a newly city-owned park, a pending library decision, and a 30-acre redevelopment across town might affect your property, the team at BOULEVARD follows these Brookhaven projects as they move forward. Request Your Home Valuation, and we'll put that local context in front of you with the numbers.
