Things to do at Gold Rush Days
Hog calling, a cross-cut saw contest, hundreds of booths, live music and a parade. What is on, and when to be there.
By the Gold Rush Dahlonega Editorial Team. Updated .
An independent visitor guide. Not the festival’s official website.
The short answer
At Gold Rush Days you walk the booths around Dahlonega’s Public Square, eat, listen to live music and watch old-time contests like hog calling and the cross-cut saw competition. Saturday has the 5K at 8:00 AM, the crowning of the King and Queen at 2:00 PM and the parade at 3:00 PM. The Dahlonega Gold Museum sits in the middle of it all.
Six times from the schedule
Saturday 3:00 PM
The parade
Rain or shine, around the square and on to the university drill field.
Saturday 1:45 PM
Hog calling
One of four contests on Saturday.
Saturday 2:00 PM
King and Queen coronation
Nominated by neighbors. Both must be over 60.
Sunday 11:15 AM
Cross-cut saw competition
The first of Sunday’s two contests.
Saturday 10:15 AM
Pie eating contest
The first contest of the weekend.
Sunday 3:00 PM
Arm wrestling tournament
The last event on the 2026 schedule.
The booths
The booths are the festival. They line the streets around the Public Square and through the historic district, selling arts, crafts and food. The organizer puts the number at over 200 exhibitors and food vendors. The visitors bureau says over 300. Neither figure is dated to 2026, so take them as a sense of scale.
Food comes from church booths, private vendors and snack carts, according to the organizer’s booth categories. Local non-profits have information booths too. The organizer has not published a 2026 vendor list or map, so there is no way to look up a particular maker ahead of time.
Booths open at 9:00 AM both days. Nobody has published whether vendors take cards, so bring some cash.
The music and the stage
The 2026 schedule lists acts from morning to late afternoon on both days: The Raven Welch Band and The Oak Grove Boys on Saturday, with Radford Windham and Step Back Cadillac closing the day at 4:30 PM. Sunday has the UNG String Band, Team Bell and Friends Gospel, Sam McDuffie, Gold Country Squares, and Sniffy & The Lips.
The Historic Holly Theater presents Dahlonega’s Got Talent three times over the weekend, and the Gainesville Ballet Company performs Saturday at 11:00 AM. The schedule does not say which stage each act is on. The full timetable is here.
The Gold Museum is right there
The brick building in the middle of the square is the 1836 Lumpkin County Courthouse, now the Dahlonega Gold Museum State Historic Site. Georgia State Parks says it holds a complete set of the gold coins struck at the Dahlonega branch mint and a nugget weighing more than five ounces.
It is a state historic site with its own hours and admission, separate from the festival. Some second-floor exhibits are not wheelchair accessible because the building cannot be fitted with an elevator.
With kids
The visitors bureau lists children’s activities, gold panning and traditional Appalachian demonstrations among the things the festival offers. The 2026 schedule does not give times or places for them, so look for them as you walk. Pie eating and apple bobbing are both on Saturday. The schedule does not say who may enter.
Where these facts come from
We link the organizer and other primary sources so you can confirm anything before you travel. Checked October 12, 2026.