Chastain Park's Fall Calendar Is a Preview of the 30 Acres Coming Next
October 29, 2026
October 29, 2026
Chastain Park Conservancy named 2026 its "Year of Community." The rest of this fall shows what that looks like in practice. There's a free trick-or-treat night at the playground tomorrow, a two-day arts festival along Park Drive the next weekend and a hot-chocolate morning in early December. Behind those dates sits a much bigger project. Work on about 30 acres between the golf course and Nancy Creek is expected to begin before the end of the year. Most park regulars have never set foot in that part of the park.
The calendar and the construction project are one plan. The Conservancy is building a park meant for regular, unplanned use, and both pieces point that way.
Here's what remains between now and the first weekend of December, in order:
Two of the Conservancy's three events this season start at the playground, and so does the whole Halloween-to-holidays stretch. That pattern carries through the rest of this post.
Glow Chastain isn't organized like a festival with vendors. Children walk from table to table collecting treats, toys and small surprises. Each table is run by a participating school, business, nonprofit or community group. When the Conservancy announced the event in August, it was still looking for partners to host tables. That means the trick-or-treat route is made up of local organizations, not a hired production.
The event is short, two hours on a Friday evening, and it's sized for families who live close enough to walk or make a quick drive. Holiday Chastain follows the same model five weeks later in the same spot. Both happen on the playground the Conservancy opened in 2025, which has quickly become its default venue for small gatherings.
The Fall Arts Festival is the season's large event. This is its 17th year, and it's organized by the Atlanta Foundation for Public Spaces together with volunteer artists. The festival site says it will host about 175 artists and artisans, and elsewhere says up to 185. Expect painters, photographers, sculptors, glass blowers, jewelers, and leather and metal workers. There's also a children's area, gourmet food trucks, acoustic musicians and artist demonstrations. The festival supports a scholarship fund for local artists, run by the Georgia Foundation for Public Spaces.
The festival site credits Sunshine Artist Magazine with naming it one of the nation's Top 100 arts festivals. For navigation, the organizers point visitors to 4469 Stella Drive NW and note that general parking is available in and around the park.
If you miss it, the spring edition is already set for May 8–9, 2027.
The bigger story is on the park's south side, along Nancy Creek near Lake Forrest Drive. Urbanize Atlanta reported that late-1930s design plans show H. Chandler Egan left 30 to 40 acres south of the creek out of the park. The land may have been held for extra fill dirt while North Fulton Golf Course was being built. In the same Urbanize piece, project planners called the area "an 80-year-old dumping ground," with mounds of imported fill, construction waste and trash. Rough Draft Atlanta described it in June as overgrown with kudzu and ivy and almost entirely inaccessible on foot.
The Palisades Project would open that land up. According to Simply Buckhead's Oct. 1 report, the plan includes:
Urbanize adds three public greens totaling 3 acres, set about 40 feet above the golf course, with the new trails connecting to the existing PATH Foundation trails around the park. Lord Aeck Sargent designed the project, and SG Contracting will build it.
One change will matter to anyone who drives into the lower park. Rough Draft reported that the only road for vehicles into the lower half of the park currently runs through the golf course. The project would move that road and turn the old asphalt back into fairway. Combined with the new entrance drive to Farm Chastain, that changes how a large share of park visitors will reach the south end once the work is done.
The connection between Glow Chastain and a $13 million construction project comes from the Conservancy's own statements. Rosa McHugh, the Conservancy's president and CEO, told Rough Draft Atlanta what she hopes the Palisades will become:
"What we're trying to do is create a park within the park. That's our goal, to really have this be the heartbeat of the park, where you can just go and be and enjoy and be this place for mental health, where you're really in nature."
In Urbanize's coverage, she described the broader vision as creating "more spaces where people naturally want to spend time outdoors together." Simply Buckhead quoted her as saying the community has been clear that it wants more passive greenspace. And WSB Radio reported that residents asked again and again for more places to walk and connect with nature while the project was being planned with the Atlanta City Council.
The fall calendar and the Palisades answer the same request. Playground events give neighbors a reason to stop by for an hour, and the new trails and overlooks above the creek will be open to anyone who wants to walk without an event on the schedule. Simply Buckhead puts the park's draw at more than 3 million visitors a year and reports that demand for natural areas continues to grow.
The timing is still a forecast, and the published estimates differ slightly:
| Source and date | Expected start | Expected duration |
|---|---|---|
| WSB Radio, Aug. 10, 2026 | Nov. 1 | 12 to 16 months |
| Atlanta Business Chronicle, Sept. 17, 2026 | November, depending on final fundraising | 12 to 18 months |
| Simply Buckhead, Oct. 1, 2026 | Before the end of the year | 12 to 16 months |
As of WSB's Aug. 10 report, the Conservancy had raised more than $12 million toward its goal, with $1 million still to go. That report came just after The Gilded Trail, the Conservancy's fundraising gala on Aug. 8. The Business Chronicle describes the project as $13.5 million, compared with the Conservancy's $13 million campaign goal. These look like different ways of counting the budget, not a change in plans. No construction-period plans for parking, Farm Chastain access or the golf course have been released yet. The Conservancy's Palisades page is the place to watch for them.
If work starts on schedule, Holiday Chastain on Dec. 5 could take place with construction already underway on the south side. A Nov. 1 start with a 12-to-16-month build would mean completion sometime between November 2027 and early 2028.
The Palisades also connects to a regional trail plan. Urbanize reports that the site has been chosen as the gateway linking PATH400 to the Atlanta Beltline. As of Livable Buckhead's Sept. 22 update, nearly five of PATH400's 5.2 miles were open. The section north of Loridans Drive is expected to be finished in early 2027 with a connection to Sandy Springs, and construction on the Peachtree Park and Beltline links is expected to begin in 2027. If those projects stay on their current schedules, Chastain's new trails could tie into a much longer walking route than they would on their own.
If you live near Chastain and want to know how your home compares right now, as the park heads into its biggest change in decades, Property Guys of Atlanta knows these streets well. Request your free home valuation, and we'll walk you through what's selling nearby.
Get assistance in determining current property value, crafting a competitive offer, writing and negotiating a contract, and much more. Contact me today.