The Sparta-Hancock Pine Tree Festival & Fair usually takes the last weekend in October. This year the last Saturday in October is October 31. The Sparta-Hancock County Chamber of Commerce lists the 2026 festival for that day, so Sparta's biggest homegrown gathering and Halloween now share a single Saturday.
In recent years the festival has started with a morning parade and kept the fairgrounds open until 9 p.m. On that schedule, this year's festival would run straight into Halloween night. The days that follow are already filling up. A free history program is set for Sunday at Linton School House, the Beulah Market meets the next Saturday, and vendor applications for the Sparta Holiday Festival are due Nov. 28. Halloween Saturday starts that stretch.
A Fixed Weekend Meets a Fixed Date
The Pine Tree Festival keeps a steady place on the calendar. In a 2023 county profile, Georgia Trend described it as "typically held on the last weekend in October." Over the past two years the Chamber's own listings bear that out. The 2024 festival ran on Saturday, Oct. 26, and the 2025 festival on Saturday, Oct. 25.
Right now the Chamber's 2026 page gives only the date. Hours, the parade schedule and the venue haven't been posted yet, so check the Chamber's festival page before heading out Saturday morning.
How the Day Has Run in Recent Years
Until 2026 details are posted, the last few festivals show the usual order of the day. Every item below comes from a prior year and could change this time.
- Parade lineup. The Chamber's parade application, the version dated 2022, has entries lining up at 10 a.m. at Sparta Hancock Industrial Park, 252 Industrial Park Drive.
- The parade itself. On that same form, the parade steps off at 11 a.m. and covers a 1.2-mile route along Broad Street, ending at Hwy. 15/Hwy. 16 in front of the Golden Pantry. The Chamber's 2024 parade listing ran it downtown from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., with the Homecoming Court and a grand marshal.
- The fair. The 2024 and 2025 festivals both took place at the Old Football Field on Augusta Hwy 16, at 12670 Augusta Hwy. The fair opened at noon in 2024 and at 11 a.m. in 2025, and both years it closed at 9 p.m.
- What fills the field. The 2025 community listing from Hancock County Family Connection advertised a parade, vendors, food, entertainment and kids' games. Georgia Trend's profile mentions live music, carnival rides and games.
If 2026 follows that pattern, the Broad Street parade happens in late morning and the field stays busy into the evening. This year that evening is Halloween night.
Why This Festival Draws a Crowd
Some of the turnout comes from people who have moved away and come back for the day. Chamber president LaTunya Goodwin explained it this way to Georgia Trend:
"People take a vacation to come to the festival. It's a reunion of more than 500 of our citizens. The pine tree symbolizes resilience – it's a symbol of our community."
In the same piece, Goodwin said vendors "ring the phone off the hook," even though she does very little soliciting.
The festival has a long record behind it. A 2019 report from 41NBC called that year's festival the 36th annual and described a newly expanded carnival, an 11 a.m. Saturday parade, and performances by Black Pearl of Macon and the Donjon Jasmine band. Then came two years with no festival. The Union-Recorder reported that the 2020 and 2021 festivals were both canceled because of the pandemic. By 2025 the count had reached the 40th annual festival, according to Family Connection's listing.
Goodwin calls it a reunion, and this year it falls on a holiday Saturday. Anyone driving in from out of town for Halloween weekend can catch the festival on the same trip.
Sunday Moves the Historical Society to Linton
The next day the setting changes. The Sparta-Hancock County Historical Society normally meets at Pierce Memorial Methodist Church. On Sunday, Nov. 1, its program moves to Linton School House, 12500 Linton Road.
The speaker is Dr. Jeffrey Wells, Director of the Online Campus at Georgia Military College, and his topic is "The Declaration of Independence and its Impact." The society's 2026 quarterly programs are free and open to the public. It has added speakers this year to give meetings an educational element as it begins its celebration of the country's 250th birthday. The event page links to a flyer for the November program.
The society has had a full fall already. On Oct. 15 it held a fundraising evening at the historic Alston-Wiley House to support local preservation, and in August it hosted an Artifact Identification Day. In 2025 its Christmas Tour of Homes was held Nov. 29. The society hasn't posted a 2026 tour date yet, so its events page and Facebook group are the places to watch.
The Following Saturday Belongs to the Beulah Market
After two days at the festival and at Linton, the next fixed date is smaller and comes around every month. The CJE Foundation lists The Beulah Market for the first Saturday of each month at 2974 Beulah Highway. It's a chance for local sellers to offer their own products, produce, and new or used goods. Going by that first-Saturday schedule, the next two markets fall on Nov. 7 and Dec. 5. The foundation is also looking for vendors and takes questions at 478-320-2645.
The CJE Foundation hosts much of Sparta's community calendar outside the Chamber's festival. This year it held the ART in SpARTa Festival on April 25 at the CJE Event Center, which is in the Devereux community at 2866 GA Highway 22. It also put on the Devereux Freedom Fest on June 20.
The Holiday Festival Is Already Taking Applications
The CJE Foundation is accepting vendor applications for the 2026 Sparta Holiday Festival from food trucks, non-food vendors, crafters, and public service exhibitors and providers. The vendor application sets a deadline of Nov. 28, 2026.
The 2026 festival date hasn't been posted. Last year's event was the 19th annual Sparta Holiday Festival, held Dec. 6, 2025. Its sponsors included Island Creek Baptist Church, On the Way Motors, Second Beulah Baptist Church, Holiday Shores & Jamestown, Georgia Power, the Corvette Club, Family Connection, GA Access Insurance and Vulcan Materials Company.
Here is the full stretch from Halloween into early December:
- Saturday, Oct. 31: Pine Tree Festival & Fair. The date is confirmed, and hours, route and venue are still to be posted by the Chamber.
- Sunday, Nov. 1: Free Historical Society program with Dr. Jeffrey Wells at Linton School House, 12500 Linton Road.
- Saturday, Nov. 7: The Beulah Market, 2974 Beulah Highway, on its first-Saturday schedule.
- Nov. 28: Vendor application deadline for the 2026 Sparta Holiday Festival.
- Saturday, Dec. 5: The Beulah Market, on the same first-Saturday schedule.
- Date to be announced: The 2026 Sparta Holiday Festival.
Three different groups host these events. The Chamber runs the Pine Tree Festival, the Historical Society runs the Linton program, and the CJE Foundation runs the market and the Holiday Festival. Each one posts its own schedule, so the Chamber's page, historicsparta.org and cjefoundation.org are the three places to check through December.
At Alliance Home & Land Group, we're glad to see Sparta's oldest homegrown festival land on a Saturday this busy, and we hope to see you along Broad Street when the parade comes through. If you're hosting family who've come home for Pine Tree weekend and they start asking what's changed around Hancock County and Lake Country, our team is happy to talk it through.
