Story and photos by Hallie Levine
It’s the last weekend in April and time again for the popular Inman Park Festival. For over 50 years this neighborhood in Atlanta has celebrated sharing their community. The historic Inman Park neighborhood, with its beautifully preserved homes from the turn of the century and mature trees shading the streets, welcomes a variety of events. It’s a special neighborhood to walk around and appreciate its natural beauty, small pocket parks and architecture. The festival started out as a neighborhood home tour, but has grown to attract thousands of visitors from surrounding areas with something for everyone. This year eleven historic homes are open for tours, a wide variety of vendors, 19 bands on 3 stages and of course the quirky parade.
The parade has a small town feel crossed with a Mardi Gras attitude. Everything from high school bands to preschools and groups dedicated to saving everything from guinea pigs to trees. The usual local politicians and even a popular state senator walked the route shaking hands. Just about anything goes as far as costumes, cardboard robots and a group dressed as optical illusions. Many social support groups were dressed as characters and all threw out candy, trinkets and beads. Spectators lined the street cheering and enjoying the spectacle and the mood was exuberant and light.
If you enjoy the performing arts, you will find three separate music stages. You can choose your preferred genre Rock, Jazz, Blues, Cajun, Folk Indie, Soul, Latin representing the wide and historical roots this city is famous for. The music is ongoing so you can rest and listen at any point. The musicians are playing for donations to AMERF, the Musicians Emergency Relief Fund which supports musicians in times of crisis. Relatively new to the festival you can watch live dance performances. At the ‘Trolley Barn’ there is a sampling of dance styles presented by local groups focusing on Ballet, African, Modern.
Also in the streets was a wide variety of vendors, artists, small batch kitchens, ethnic goods and many food trucks. The community corner highlights non -profit causes. There are beer trucks with flowing taps. There is a special area for kids with appropriate activities and popsicles.
There is so much to do at this festival that you can hardly appreciate it in just one day. Luckily it officially goes for two days with the home tours starting on Friday. The force behind this event are the neighborhood volunteers, over 900 welcoming the extended community of Atlanta into their neighborhood. They keep busy picking up trash and serving customers. Comments overheard from longtime residents who marvel at how big the party has become for it has grown exponentially since its beginnings which was just a tour of homes. There are concerns about the amount of trash and sustainability and there are efforts being made to move it more towards a green festival, reduce waste and adopt sustainable strategies. Whatever the future brings as far as adjustments, this festival will be back next year and for many years to come as it has now for 50 years. See ya’ll next spring!
Information on next year’s festival
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