The Georgia Mountain Fair is back in Hiawassee for a 76th year, opening Friday with carnival rides running daily through August 22 and a concert lineup at Anderson Music Hall that kicks off with Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone. The fairgrounds sit on 161 acres along Lake Chatuge, and organizers are promising the usual mix of food, music, and new rides to mark the milestone edition.
According to Atlanta News First, this year's fair is sponsored by the Towns County Tourism Board and features two weekends of entertainment spread across the nine-day run. The fair actually traces back to 1950, when the Towns County Lions Club held a three-day agricultural exposition on a local high school recreation field, according to Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds. Attendance eventually swelled to nearly 100,000 visitors a year, prompting the move to the current lakeside site in 1978.
While the carnival midway runs every day of the nine-day stretch, the fair's arts and crafts vendors, exhibit halls, and living history demonstrations only operate across two split three-day weekends — August 14 through 16 and August 20 through 22 — with a free-admission Preview Night squeezed in on Monday, August 17, the fairgrounds' schedule shows. That carnival midway is operated by Amusements of America, a company recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest traveling amusement park.
A Concert Lineup Built Around a Sold-Out Vince Gill Show
Inside the climate-controlled Anderson Music Hall, the ticketed concert schedule runs the length of the fair. Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone opens things Friday, followed by a Vince Gill performance on August 16 that has already sold out. Joe Nichols plays August 20, The Randy Travis: More Life Tour comes through August 21, and Christian artist Crowder closes out the run on August 22, per the fairgrounds' event listing.
Advance concert tickets automatically include fairgrounds entry, while general grounds admission otherwise runs $10, with children 12 and under getting in free. The venue enforces a strict clear-bag security policy, and parking on the fairgrounds lot remains free.
Parade and Pageant Round Out the Fair's Traditions
The fair's traditional kickoff, the 76th Annual Georgia Mountain Fair Parade, marches through downtown Hiawassee at 11 a.m. on Saturday. American Idol top-five finalist Brayden Rummfelt serves as Grand Marshal this year, and the parade is offering more than $10,000 in total prize money to community float entries, according to AccessWDUN.
The Miss Georgia Mountain Fair Pageant, a long-running fixture of the event, takes place on the same Monday as Preview Night — August 17 at 7 p.m. inside Anderson Music Hall — with spectator admission set at $10. It's one of several traditions that have carried the fair from its humble beginnings into what organizers now bill as family fun with food, music, and new rides.
Pioneer Village Preserves Mountain Craft Traditions
Beyond the rides and concerts, the fairgrounds host Pioneer Village, a collection of authentic structures relocated from across Towns County, including the 1900-era Pine Grove one-room schoolhouse and the historic Presley Post Office. Artisans there demonstrate live mountain crafts such as blacksmithing, quilting, and soap-making, according to Wikipedia's entry on the Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds. The historic buildings were moved to the peninsula specifically to safeguard regional mountain history, distinguishing the fair from a standard traveling carnival.
Tourism Anchors a Rural Mountain Economy
The fair's economic stakes extend well beyond ticket sales. Tourism generates $117.4 million in direct economic output for Towns County and supports 24.1% of all local jobs, according to University of Georgia Extension data, in a county where public federal forest land covers 65% of total land area. Service and hospitality sectors make up roughly two-thirds of the county's overall economic base.
That economic reliance on visitors lines up with the county's demographics. Towns County's resident population has grown to around 13,000 as of 2025-2026, with a median age of 57.4 years, according to Atlanta Regional Commission data — a retirement- and recreation-heavy community centered on Lake Chatuge that leans hard on events like the fair to sustain its local economy each summer.
