Long Weekend, Full Calendar!
Labor Day weekend has a funny way of exposing how big Georgia really is. Leave the interstate exits and city traffic behind, and September’s first weekend starts looking a lot more interesting.
For Georgians willing to point the car toward the coast, the mountains or a small town in between, the holiday weekend brings a calendar shaped by the communities hosting it. History gets loud. Pottery gets its hands dirty. Cars get judged. Grapes get stomped.
History With a Little Gunpowder
Along the coast, Saturday, September 5, offers two chances to trade the usual holiday routine for a closer look at Georgia history. At Fort Morris State Historic Site in Midway, the Labor Day Celebration includes blacksmithing, woodworking and spinning demonstrations, plus hourly black powder weapons demonstrations.
A short drive away in Richmond Hill, Fort McAllister State Park takes the weekend into the Civil War era with historic demonstrations, musket firings, period games and family activities. Both events put Georgia’s past somewhere more tangible than a textbook page, which feels especially fitting for a holiday rooted in American working life.
Up north, the weekend takes a decidedly different turn. The Folk Pottery & Arts Festival in Sautee Nacoochee gathers more than 60 artists on September 5, including folk and studio potters, woodworkers, painters, jewelry and glass artists. Pottery, blacksmithing and folklife demonstrations share the day with an old-time music jam, making the festival as much about watching craft happen as shopping for the finished work.
Engines, Eight Seconds and Grapes
In Dawsonville, where racing history hardly needs an introduction, the Labor Day Car Show at the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame gets an early start on the weekend Friday, September 4. Gates open at 4 p.m., judging begins at 5, and awards cover everything from best engine and paint to muscle cars, imports and street rods.
Come Saturday and Sunday, the Hiawassee Pro Rodeo brings bucking horses, bulls and competitors from the United States and Canada to the Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds. Gates open at 6 p.m., with rodeo action beginning at 8.
Blairsville offers perhaps the weekend’s messiest option. The 13th annual Grape Stomp Festival runs September 5 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., with live music, craft vendors and grape stomps at 2 and 4 p.m.
Taken together, these celebrations make a good case for looking beyond Georgia’s biggest cities when the three-day weekend arrives. Sometimes the better Labor Day plan starts with a full tank and a county road.
The fun doesn’t have to end! Check out https://gbj.com/festivals for more!
