AthFest is an annual free, three-day festival that celebrates Athens, GA’s vibrant creative culture, featuring local and regional musicians and visual artists. Thousands of people flock to the streets of historic downtown Athens each AthFest to experience live music by artists from a variety of genres, enjoy local artwork, and soak up the vibe of one of America’s coolest cities. Locals mingle with out of towners while music fills the air and art, food and fun fill the streets.

The festival includes three free outdoor stages with live music performances, a block-long Artist Market with dozens of visual artists, artisans and makers, and a block-long KidsFest area to make sure even our youngest fans get in on the music and art fun!

After the free outdoor stages wrap up Friday and Saturday nights, the official AthFest Club Crawl kicks into gear. Music venues and clubs will host lineups filled with local music.

AthFest raises money for the nonprofit AthFest Educates, which awards grants to support music and arts education for K-12 students in Athens.

Schedule of Events:

June 19, 2025

7:00PM – 12:00AM: Five Eight: Weirdo at Cine

Enjoy a screening of the Five Eight documentary ‘Weirdo’ followed by a performance by Five Eight. AthFest Wristband Holders can receive a $2 discount for band performance only.

6:30PM – 9:00PM: Nateball's Funnybone Comedy Show at The Globe

Enjoy a stand up comedy show to bring laughter to the audience – one show with several comedians and their individual styles of comedy. (Age 21 and up – anyone who enjoys humor!) AthFest Wristband Holders can receive half off of admission. Doors open at 6:30, with the show starting at 7:10 and ending by 8:50.

June 20-22, 2025

KidsFest at AthFest:

AthFest is a celebration of everything great about Athens, especially how it is such a family-friendly community! To make the festival experience enjoyable for attendees of all ages, we dedicate a special block-long area of the festival for kids. KidsFest is free and includes kid-friendly bands on the KidsFest stage, arts and crafts areas, demonstrations and more! There are also ticketed bounce houses and inflatables.

Schedule of Kidsfest at Athfest:

June 20:

6:00PM    Full Moon School of Music
7:00PM    Full Moon School of Music
8:00PM    Full Moon School of Music

June 21:

10:30AM    Allegro Music
11:30AM    Rebecca Sunshine Band
12:30PM    Collective Artists Workshop
1:30PM    No performer
2:30PM    The PG Show
3:30PM    Boys & Girls Club Music Makers
4:30PM    Carbon Harry
5:30PM    League of Step
6:30PM    Nuci’s Space Camp Amped

June 22:

12:30PM    Clarke Central Honors Chamber Strings
1:30PM    Joy Dance with Ecstatic Dance Athens
2:30PM    Oconee Music
3:30PM    Merit Music Academy Students

Artist Market:

The open-air Artist Market is an integral part of the AthFest Music & Arts Festival. Booths feature fine arts and crafts for sale. Exhibited work may include visual arts (painting, drawing, mixed media, photography, and digital art), fabric, clothing and accessories, jewelry, and handcrafted items (sculpture, ceramics, glass, woodworking and furniture). All artists who make their own items are welcome to apply!

Location & Time
The AthFest Music & Arts Festival will include an artist market on Washington Street between Hull and Lumpkin streets. 70+ vendors will set up shop with both fine arts and crafts for sale.

The artist market will be open on the following days:

Friday from 5 p.m. –10 p.m.
Saturday from 12 p.m. –10 p.m.
Sunday from 12:30 p.m. –8 p.m.

Selling in the Artist Market:

We expect to have 60-70 booths, depending on the quality and range of offerings. Creativity and craftsmanship are integral to the Artist Market. All work must be the original creation of the submitting artist. Therefore, commercial work suitable for a vendor booth should contact vendor relations. Vendors pay significantly more for booths, do not go through judging, and are not eligible for awards.

The application fee is $25 per artist.

The application fee increases to $50/artist for any application after April 1, 2025.

Gospel Brunch 2025 1055 Barber, 11am-2pm:

Brunch plates: $20 advance/$25 day of – catered by Epting Events

Music by Marco & Friends, The Burgess Sisters, Jalen Eberhardt, Garren M. Walker

Celebrate community, music, and good food at the AthFest Gospel Brunch—a free event benefiting youth music and arts programs in Athens-Clarke County. Enjoy soulful live gospel performances from local talent during AthFest weekend. Admission is free, and brunch plates will be available for purchase.

June 21, 2025

4:00pm – 6:00pm: Neighborhood Books Presents: Voices of Athens at The Globe (Upstairs)

Enjoy spoken word poetry and book readings from 10-15 local authors and poets, hosted by Athens Poet Laureate Mikhayla Robinson-Smith.

11:00am – 4:00pm: Athens Art Book Fair at Athenaeum

Athens Art Book, Print, and Zine Fair will feature dozens of regional book artists, printmakers, publishers, and the like at Lamar Dodd's Athenaeum gallery. This event is free and open to the public. All works on display will be for sale and will feature artists' books, fine-art prints, posters/broadsides, zines and other sorted printed ephemera.

Date: June 19-22, 2025

Location:  Historic Downtown Athens

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