Sunday, October 18, 2026 opens at 9:00 AM and has eight scheduled items, ending with the Arm Wrestling Tournament at 3:00 PM. There is no parade and no coronation, because both are on Saturday only. Booths close at 5:30 PM by the organizer’s standing hours, and the streets reopen to traffic at 8:00 PM.
Sunday’s schedule, in order
These times are copied from the organizer’s 2026 schedule.
- 9:00 AM. Festival opens.
- 9:30 AM. UNG String Band.
- 10:00 AM. Historic Holly Theater Presents Dahlonega’s Got Talent.
- 10:30 AM. Team Bell and Friends Gospel.
- 11:15 AM. Cross-cut Saw Competition.
- 12:15 PM. Sam McDuffie.
- 12:45 PM. Gold Country Squares.
- 1:30 PM. Sniffy & The Lips.
- 3:00 PM. Arm Wrestling Tournament.
Several of these are listed by name only, with nothing to say what kind of act they are. The schedule names no stage and gives no end times. After Sniffy & The Lips at 1:30 PM, nothing is listed until the Arm Wrestling Tournament at 3:00 PM.
How Sunday differs from Saturday
The parade is on Saturday only. So are the King and Queen coronation, the grand marshal announcement and the Gold Rush 5K. None of them repeats on Sunday.
The contests are different too. Saturday has pie eating, beard growing, apple bobbing and hog calling. Sunday has the Cross-cut Saw Competition at 11:15 AM and the Arm Wrestling Tournament at 3:00 PM, and neither is on Saturday’s list. North Georgia Living magazine says the early festival was a one-day event whose old-fashioned games included arm wrestling and a crosscut saw competition, so both of Sunday’s contests are on that magazine’s list of the early games.
Sunday is the day with gospel music. Team Bell and Friends Gospel is at 10:30 AM. The schedule lists no church service.
It is also the lighter day. Saturday lists fourteen items between the opening and the close. Sunday lists eight.
Closing time and when the streets reopen
The 2026 schedule gives no closing time for either day. The organizer’s vendor page lists 9:00 to 5:30 PM as festival times, when booths are open, on both Saturday and Sunday. That page carries no year, but AccessWDUN reported the same hours for the 2025 festival. One third-party local site lists Sunday as 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. This guide follows the organizer.
The same vendor page says streets reopen to the general public at 8:00 PM on Sunday. It also says no traffic is allowed through the festival area after 8:00 AM on Sunday and before 6:00 PM. Downtown stays closed to cars for a while after the booths shut, so do not plan on driving up to the square at 5:30 PM. The parking page covers where the public parking normally is.
A Sunday detail about the Gold Museum
The Dahlonega Gold Museum, in the 1836 courthouse in the middle of the festival area, opens an hour later on Sundays. Georgia State Parks lists Sunday hours of 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., against a 9 a.m. opening Monday to Saturday. No festival-weekend hours were found, so treat those as the regular hours.
Which day to pick
If you want the parade, Sunday is the wrong day. If you want the saw competition or the arm wrestling, it is the only day. For Saturday’s items, see the full schedule.