It’s early May in the city, which means it’s time for the Atlanta Beltline Lantern Parade, right? Nope. 

Beltline officials tell Urbanize Atlanta the wondrous and (somewhat) annual event has been bumped back from its regular May date in recent years to Sept. 19. That’s closer to the original date the parade held when it grew to an Eastside Trail phenomenon—and one of the city’s largest traditions—over just a few years. 

“[The parade] flip-flops sometimes between spring and fall,” noted an agency spokesperson today.  

Last year, the 15th incarnation of the Lantern Parade was scheduled for May 3 (Kentucky Derby day, like this coming Saturday), but organizers made a rare last-minute decision to cancel it due to approaching, intense storms. 

To the disappointment of many Atlantans, the event was never rescheduled in 2025. 

The Lantern Parade's Westside Trail debut in 2022. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

Described as a “beloved Atlanta celebration of creativity, community, and light" with giant glowing puppets and marching bands, the grassroots parade had humble beginnings in 2010, when a few hundred creative souls marched with LED lanterns down the shoddy dirt railroad corridor that’s become the Eastside Trail—with no spectators on the sidelines. (If you were there, though, it felt magical nonetheless.) 

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lantern Parade was drawing estimated crowds of 70,000 annually to the Eastside Trail, solidifying itself as a major local draw alongside the Dogwood Festival, Streets Alive, and Inman Park Festival, among others.

A much smaller procession in 2013—the first parade year after the Eastside Trail’s initial section was completed.Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

The grassroots arts initiative had grown to an event with 70,000 spectators before the COVID-19 pandemic. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

The pandemic paused the parade for two years, but in 2022 it reemerged on the flipside of town, illuminating a section of the Beltline’s Westside Trail beginning in Adair Park—and concluding with a huge party in the Lee + White district’s parking lots. 

Beltline officials declared the Westside Trail the parade’s permanent home in 2024. Why? Because it had simply grown too big for the already-busy Eastside Trail confines, per organizers. 

A spokesperson says more 2026 Lantern Parade details, and an official announcement, will be coming in a couple of weeks. 

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