Giant puppets will line the pond at Historic Fourth Ward Park on October 24, 2026, from 7:30 to 9 p.m., for the annual “Where the Weird Things Are” upside down parade, an event where the creatures stay put and the crowd does the moving. Attendees will stroll counterclockwise around the amphitheater area, taking photos, interacting with puppets and other “weird things,” and enjoying live music from Atlanta’s Black Sheep Ensemble, according to Secret Atlanta.
The event is free to join, and as Secret Atlanta reports, guests can bring a picnic, spread out on the grass, and even bring their own weird thing puppet or costume to join in. The parade is hosted by artist Chantelle Rytter alongside the Krewe of the Grateful Gluttons, and Rytter has said that flipping the parade upside down is a way to slow things down and “spend a bit more time delighting one another,” per the same report.
Tiny Gifts, Big Imagination
Part of the fun revolves around what the report describes as tiny gifting: small trinkets and handmade offerings that attendees can exchange as they wander the park. Those tiny gifts might include candy, a joke, a secret handshake, a monster’s calling card, a snippet of a critter’s story, or handmade items like an acorn fashioned with a monster face, per Secret Atlanta’s reporting. One past participant known as Kudzulu reportedly gave away seeds as part of the tradition, the outlet notes.
The idea, according to the report, is to let participants and attendees alike let their imaginations run wild — whether that means dressing up, crafting a gift, or simply strolling and observing the puppets up close.
Workshops Open to Everyone, Pay What You Can
Ahead of the parade, Rytter’s workshops will help participants build weird things to wear or carry into the event. Family-friendly sessions are scheduled for October 10 and October 11, 2026, both running from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., while adult-only sessions are set for October 9 and October 20, 2026, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., according to Secret Atlanta.
The workshops accept everyone and operate on a pay-what-you-can basis, with suggested contributions ranging from $5 to $25, the outlet reports. Anyone unable to pay the minimum $5 can email [email protected] to make arrangements, and workshop participants are asked to promise they’ll attend the parade and give it their best effort, per the same account.
A Decade-Plus of Parade Culture in Atlanta
“Where the Weird Things Are” traces back to Rytter’s decades of building participatory public art in Atlanta. She founded the Krewe of the Grateful Gluttons in New Orleans in 1999, inspired by Mardi Gras traditions, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, before bringing that spirit of grown-up playtime to Georgia. The krewe is best known locally for launching the Atlanta BeltLine Lantern Parade in 2010, which grew from roughly 400 participants in its first year to as many as 70,000 spectators and marchers at its peak, the newspaper reports.
Beyond the Lantern Parade and “Where the Weird Things Are,” Rytter and the krewe have built several other neighborhood parade traditions around metro Atlanta, including the Parliament of Owls in Midtown, the Decatur Lantern Parade, the Grant Park Halloween Lantern Parade, and the Sandy Springs Lantern Parade, according to her own site, chantelle-rytter.com. Each of those events, the site notes, is built around open public participation without required registration fees. The Krewe also earned early local fame organizing annual gnome marches at the Inman Park Festival starting in 2007, repeatedly attempting to set a Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people dressed as garden gnomes, according to WABE.
From Moving Procession to Stationary Spectacle
“Where the Weird Things Are” originally debuted in October 2023 as a moving pop-up processional along the Atlanta BeltLine Eastside Trail near Wylie Street, according to Atlanta BeltLine Art. Organizers reimagined the format in 2024 into the stationary “reverse parade” now centered at Historic Fourth Ward Park, a change designed to ease crowd congestion while giving attendees more time to interact with the puppets.
That stationary setup directs attendees to stroll counterclockwise around the park’s pond while puppet operators remain in place, allowing families and photographers to take in detailed giant puppets without pushing through a moving crowd, per Atlanta BeltLine Art. Recent iterations of the event have also expanded the artistic lineup beyond giant puppets to include shadow puppetry by artist Damon Young and experimental theremin music by Atlanta composer Klimchak, the organization notes.
A Park Built for Flood Control and Community Gathering
The venue itself does double duty. Historic Fourth Ward Park centers on a 9-million-gallon stormwater retention basin built by the City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management, which drains an 800-acre basin to prevent neighborhood flooding while also functioning as a public park amenity. The basin was engineered as a green infrastructure alternative to costly underground piping, according to the department.
The event is presented as part of the Atlanta BeltLine Art exhibition and receives public support from the Power for Good Foundation, the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, and the Georgia Council for the Arts, according to Atlanta BeltLine Art. That government and philanthropic backing helps keep workshop entry fees on the pay-what-you-can scale, allowing the parade itself to remain free and open to anyone who wants to wander down to the pond, puppet in hand.
