Blue Stone Festival's Fall Lineup Features Touring Acts in Sandy Springs

Nicotine Dolls was scheduled to play its final U.S. show of the year on Friday night, then fly overseas two days later to start an international tour that would keep the band abroad through December. That show wasn't in Los Angeles or Nashville. It was scheduled for Blue Stone Road in Sandy Springs, at a free city festival that didn't exist five years ago.

The Blue Stone Arts & Music Festival was scheduled for Friday and Saturday, September 25 and 26, across four blocks of the City Springs district. Grammy-nominated Allen Stone was scheduled to headline Saturday night. He's currently touring with Chris Stapleton, lined up to join Teddy Swims on dates later this fall, and finishing a new album in between.

It's a notable milestone for a city festival, four years removed from its previous identity as the Heritage Sandy Springs Festival, that is now booking acts that play arenas the rest of the year.

The Festival's Touring Lineup

The schedule spread the two performances across the festival's Friday-and-Saturday program.

For residents, the announced lineup put touring artists on the program for the festival's fourth year under the Blue Stone name.

The festival itself has changed shape. What started as the Heritage Sandy Springs Festival has been rebuilt into a two-stage, 60-plus-vendor event with an Emerging Artist Gallery and a Kids and Sports Zone, now in its fourth year under the Blue Stone name. The announced program listed Squonk's Joy Machine on the Hilderbrand stage, an outdoor spectacle where the audience helps power the performance rather than just watching it. The festival is produced by the City of Sandy Springs with sponsorship from the Fulton County Board of Commissioners and Nissan of Marietta, and sponsorship materials cited an expected attendance north of 10,000.

The festival schedule also listed a Saturday morning Blue Stone 5K-9 fun run through the festival grounds before the music, with adaptive handcycles available through a partnership with Catalyst Sports for participants who need them.

A Few Miles Away, a Twenty-Year Reopening

Separately, Sandy Springs marked a different kind of milestone. Rumi's Kitchen reopened its original Sandy Springs location on March 6 after a renovation that started as a $3.5 million project and nearly tripled in scope before it was done. The restaurant, which opened in 2006, is marking its 20th year in business with a space redesigned by the Johnson Studio at Cooper Carry, the same firm behind the original build.

Chef Ali Mesghali told Atlanta Magazine the original kitchen had become too small for a restaurant doing six times the sales of its early years, and that the interior needed to catch up to that growth. The new dining room has a 22-seat curved marble bar, a private dining room with a floor-to-ceiling mural by artist Dean Barger, and plaster walls installed specifically to cut the noise that longtime guests had complained about. Sohrob Esmaili, who won the Food Network's Spring Baking Championship in 2021, joined as pastry chef after a five-year search and now serves a Persian ice cream sandwich and a majoon toffee cake alongside the restaurant's longtime lamb and kabob menu. Weekend brunch, including za'atar biscuits and gravy, started March 15.

These are separate local milestones: Rumi's original Sandy Springs location reopened in March, while Blue Stone was scheduled for September.

The Rest of the Fall Calendar Splits by Location

Blue Stone isn't the only event on the books this fall, and it's worth knowing which ones happen where, because Sandy Springs runs two different kinds of gatherings out of two different parts of town.

City Springs, the same four blocks where Blue Stone was scheduled, is also where OktoberFEAST returns October 17 and 18. The Bavarian-themed celebration debuted in 2024 and comes back this year with live music from the Swinging Bavarians, German food and beer, and polka lessons on the City Green from 3 to 7 p.m. both days.

Morgan Falls Overlook Park, several miles from downtown, handles the quieter and more family-specific events. The seventh annual Paws and Pastries runs the same day as OktoberFEAST, October 17, from noon to 3 p.m., with complimentary treats for dogs and their owners, a costume contest, and separate fenced play areas for small and large dogs.

Abernathy Greenway Playable Art Park hosts the season's last event, Spooky Springs, on Saturday, October 24, from 5 to 7 p.m. It's built for younger trick-or-treaters, with candy stations, face painting, fog machines, and food trucks in a contained, low-key setting rather than a downtown crowd.

Here's how the season lines up:

The pattern holds all season. If you want music, vendors, and a crowd, City Springs is where it happens. If you want something smaller and closer to a neighborhood park, Morgan Falls or Abernathy Greenway is the better bet. Knowing which is which before you commit an evening saves you from driving downtown for what's actually a quiet dog meetup, or heading to a park pavilion expecting a stage and a crowd.

What the Fall Calendar Shows

A city festival scheduled to host a band on the last night of its U.S. tour and a flagship restaurant reopening after a major renovation are two notable Sandy Springs stories.

The festival is in its fourth year under the Blue Stone name, and Rumi's renovation is another local milestone.

Sandy Springs is at Property Guys of Atlanta's doorstep, and its local events and milestones are exactly why we like showing clients around the neighborhood in person instead of just sending a listing sheet. If you want a walk through City Springs or a dinner recommendation near Rumi's dining room, reach out. We're happy to play tour guide.