DeKalb County Alabama Mentone Fall Festival
High on Lookout Mountain, where the air turns crisp a little earlier than it does in the valleys below, the small town of Mentone marks the heart of autumn with a gathering built around art, music and mountain colour. The DeKalb County Alabama Mentone Fall Festival fills the grounds of the Moon Lake Campus for a single Saturday each October, drawing painters, potters, woodworkers and musicians to a former school campus that the town has worked hard to bring back to life. It is a modest festival in scale, but it carries an outsized role in this corner of DeKalb County: a fundraiser, a reunion and a showcase for the creative community that has long defined Mentone.
Mentone is not the county seat of DeKalb County; that honour belongs to Fort Payne, down in the valley. What Mentone offers instead is a mountaintop setting, a cluster of galleries and cabins, and a festival that fits the town’s unhurried character. Admission to the grounds is free, the main stage sits under the open sky, and the whole day runs on the energy of local makers and volunteers. For visitors who plan the trip well, it becomes a gentle introduction to one of Alabama’s most distinctive small towns.
About the Festival
The festival’s own name is simply the Mentone Fall Festival, the form used by the county tourism authority and by Mentone’s local newspaper. It is held on the third weekend of October, a slot chosen to catch the fall colour that sweeps across Lookout Mountain in mid-autumn. The setting is the Moon Lake Campus, a former elementary school property that now serves as a community campus, with the main stage at the campus’s Shigley Amphitheater.
The Town of Mentone runs the festival. According to a state magazine account, the town stepped in to organise the event after the local non-profit that originally coordinated it folded, and the town has kept it going since. Proceeds from the day support maintenance and improvements to the Moon Lake Campus itself, so every parking payment and vendor fee feeds directly back into the grounds where the festival happens. The 2026 edition, as reported by Mentone’s local newspaper, brought more than eighty artists and makers to the campus.
The festival is best understood as an arts-and-crafts fair with a strong live-music spine. Juried and independent makers line the campus with paintings, pottery, jewellery, textiles and carved wood, while the amphitheater hosts a rotating bill of performers through the day. It is not a carnival and not a county fair; there are no midway rides or livestock barns. Its pleasures are quieter ones: browsing handmade work, hearing regional musicians in an outdoor setting, eating festival food and watching the maples turn.
For a useful comparison, see the Dallas County Alabama Selma Renaissance Faire Festival for another county festival.
Quick Facts
| Item | Detail |
| Festival name | Mentone Fall Festival |
| Location | Moon Lake Campus, Mentone, DeKalb County |
| County seat | Fort Payne (Mentone is not the seat) |
| Venue address | 5866 East River Road, Mentone, AL 35984 |
| Main stage | Shigley Amphitheater, on the campus |
| Timing | Third weekend of October |
| 2026 date and hours | Saturday, October 17, 2026, 9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. |
| Organiser | Town of Mentone |
| Admission | Free |
| Parking | Five dollars, described as a fee in one source and a per-vehicle donation in another |
History
The roots of the festival reach back to an earlier celebration known as ColorFest. A state magazine’s history of the event explains that a local non-profit originally coordinated the fall gathering under that name, building it around the autumn foliage that gives Mentone much of its seasonal identity. When that organisation folded, the festival’s future was uncertain, and the Town of Mentone stepped in to keep it alive rather than let a signature community event disappear.
The town-run era has been closely tied to the rescue of the Moon Lake Campus. Moon Lake Elementary School closed at the end of the 2020–21 school year, leaving a substantial property in the middle of a very small town. The town has since invested grant money and local dollars in restoring and maintaining the campus, and the festival became both a use for the grounds and a way to fund their upkeep. The magazine account records that the first two town-run festivals raised more than fifty thousand dollars, money that was reinvested in the campus.
One wrinkle in the record deserves to be stated plainly rather than smoothed over. The county tourism authority’s blog, writing in October 2026, described that year’s event as “the second annual Mentone Fall Festival.” That phrasing sits awkwardly beside the magazine history of an older ColorFest that the town inherited. The two accounts are recorded here as published; they are not reconciled, and no founding year is claimed for the festival. What is clear from both is that Mentone’s fall arts gathering has a past longer than its current name, and that its modern form is a town-led revival anchored to the campus.
What to Expect
The heart of the day is the maker market. More than eighty artists and makers set up across the campus in both the 2025 and 2026 editions, offering the kind of work Mentone’s galleries are known for: landscape painting, functional pottery, hand-built furniture, fibre art, jewellery and folk craft. Because the festival lands in mid-October, many vendors lean into autumn themes, with harvest decorations and early holiday pieces mixed among year-round work.
Music runs from the Shigley Amphitheater through the day. The lineup billed for 2026 featured the Moon Lake Vocal Ensemble, the band Still Kickin’, and a Patsy Cline tribute act, a bill that shows the festival’s range from community choral singing to classic country homage. The previous year, 2025, was headlined by Three On A String and Pierce Pettis; those names belong to the 2025 edition only and say nothing about who plays in any other year. Visitors should expect the amphitheater lawn to be the social centre of the grounds, with listeners drifting between sets and vendor rows.
A lighter touch appears in the scarecrow contest, mentioned by a secondary source as part of the festivities, which fits the harvest mood of the weekend. Food vendors serve festival staples on the grounds, and the campus layout keeps everything within an easy walk. The day is compact — seven hours in the 2026 schedule — so the atmosphere stays relaxed rather than frenetic.
Planning Your Visit
The single most useful planning fact is the date pattern: the festival occupies the third weekend of October, and in 2026 it ran on Saturday, October 17, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Mentone sits atop Lookout Mountain, reached by winding roads from Fort Payne and the valley floor, so allow extra travel time and consider arriving before the mid-morning browse crowd. The venue address is 5866 East River Road, Mentone, AL 35984.
Admission to the festival is free. Parking carries a small charge, and here the published descriptions differ: Mentone’s local newspaper calls it a five-dollar parking fee, while another source describes the same charge as a five-dollar per-vehicle parking donation. Both characterisations are recorded as published; either way, carrying small bills makes arrival smoother. Because proceeds support the Moon Lake Campus, the charge functions as part of the fundraiser.
October weather on the mountain can swing from mild sunshine to a sharp chill, especially in the morning, so layers are wise. Comfortable walking shoes suit the campus grounds. Shoppers hunting specific makers should come early, when stock is fullest and the amphitheater lawn is calmest. Those staying for music may want a blanket or low chair for the lawn. Mentone’s cafés, galleries and cabin rentals fill quickly on festival weekend, so anyone planning to stay overnight should book well ahead, with Fort Payne as the fallback for lodging down the mountain.
A Sample Festival Day
Arrive around 9:00 a.m. as the gates open, park on the campus, and make a first slow circuit of the vendor rows while the light is good and the makers are fresh. Pick out favourite booths, note prices, but hold major purchases until you have seen the whole field. By late morning, settle near the Shigley Amphitheater for the first music sets, letting the Moon Lake Vocal Ensemble or the day’s opening acts provide a soundtrack to a coffee or an early lunch from the food vendors.
After lunch, return to your shortlist of booths and buy the pieces you picked out, when artists have more time to talk about their work. Mid-afternoon suits a second round of music, a look at the scarecrow entries and a wander across the campus to appreciate the restored school buildings. As the 4:00 p.m. close approaches, finish with any last purchases, then drift into Mentone itself for an early supper or a gallery visit before the drive down the mountain in the evening light.
How It Compares
Many Alabama fall festivals are county fairs with agricultural barns, carnival midways and demolition derbies; the Mentone gathering is none of those things. It is closer in spirit to a juried art fair, but without the formality or price tags of a big-city show, and its free admission sets it apart from ticketed craft festivals elsewhere in the region. Its fundraiser structure also differs from commercially run events: the money raised repairs the very campus hosting the day, tying the festival’s success to a visible local project.
Within DeKalb County, it complements rather than competes with Fort Payne’s larger events, offering the mountaintop counterpoint to the county seat’s valley-floor calendar. Travellers who enjoy Mentone’s version — makers, mountain air, an amphitheater stage — will find it a distinctly quieter cousin of the big October art festivals in neighbouring states, rewarding those who prefer browsing and listening over spectacle.
Planning Checklist
- Confirm the year’s date against the third-weekend-of-October pattern before booking travel.
- Set aside the full Saturday; the 2026 edition ran 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
- Bring small bills for the five-dollar parking charge, whether treated as fee or donation.
- Dress in layers for cool mountain mornings and milder afternoons.
- Arrive early for the best selection from more than eighty artists and makers.
- Carry a tote or leave boot space for artwork and pottery purchases.
- Plan time at the Shigley Amphitheater for the main-stage music.
- Book Mentone lodging early, or plan to stay in Fort Payne and drive up.
- Check the county tourism listings close to the date for the confirmed lineup.
- Allow extra time for the winding mountain roads in both directions.
Beyond the Festival
A festival trip is also a chance to see Mentone properly. The town has been a summer retreat and artists’ haven for generations, and its galleries, antique shops and cafés reward an unhurried afternoon. The Moon Lake Campus itself, saved from dereliction after the school’s closure, is worth a look as an example of a small town repurposing its landmarks. Lookout Mountain’s scenic drives, waterfalls and overlooks lie within easy reach, and mid-October is precisely when the surrounding hardwoods put on their best display. Fort Payne, the county seat below, adds museums, a historic depot and more dining, making a valley-and-mountain weekend easy to assemble around the festival Saturday.
Why This Festival Matters
For a town of Mentone’s size, the festival does several jobs at once. It gives regional artists a well-attended marketplace in a beautiful setting. It channels visitor spending into town businesses at the peak of the leaf season. Most distinctively, it funds the survival of the Moon Lake Campus, converting a closed school from a liability into the town’s gathering place. The town’s decision to rescue both the event and the venue after the original non-profit folded shows how much weight a single October Saturday can carry in a small mountain community, and the crowds of makers it now draws suggest the rescue has taken hold.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Mentone the county seat of DeKalb County?
No. Fort Payne, in the valley below Lookout Mountain, is the county seat. Mentone is a small town on the mountain, and the festival makes no claim on the seat’s civic role; it is a town-run event in its own right.
What happens to the money the festival raises?
Proceeds support maintenance and improvements to the Moon Lake Campus, the former school property that hosts the festival. The state magazine history records that the first two town-run editions raised more than fifty thousand dollars, reinvested in the campus.
Who performed at the festival most recently?
The bills change every year. The 2026 main-stage lineup featured the Moon Lake Vocal Ensemble, Still Kickin’ and a Patsy Cline tribute. The 2025 edition was headlined by Three On A String and Pierce Pettis, and those headliners belong to 2025 only, so check current listings for the lineup in any given year.
What will visitors pay to get in and park?
Admission to the grounds is free. Parking carries a five-dollar charge that sources describe differently — the local newspaper calls it a parking fee, while another source calls it a per-vehicle parking donation. Both descriptions are recorded as published, so budget five dollars per vehicle either way.
What to Expect From the Next DeKalb County Alabama Mentone Fall Festival
How often is DeKalb County Alabama Mentone Fall Festival held?
The festival returns every October, fixed to the third weekend of the month. That rhythm has held across the recent editions recorded in tourism listings and local reporting, including the 2025 and 2026 gatherings.
When is the next DeKalb County Alabama Mentone Fall Festival?
Following the established pattern, the next edition should fall on the Saturday of the third weekend of October, after the 2026 edition on October 17. The county tourism authority and local listings confirm the precise date and hours closer to the season, so verify before travelling.
Will the dates change?
The third-weekend-of-October slot appears firmly established, and recent editions have kept it. Organisers could in principle shift a date for weather or logistics, but nothing in the published record suggests a move; the pattern is the safest guide until each year’s listing appears.
Mentone in mid-October is a hard combination to beat: mountain colour, a campus full of makers, music drifting from an outdoor stage and a town small enough to feel personal. The DeKalb County Alabama Mentone Fall Festival has survived the loss of its original organisers and the closure of the school whose grounds it now fills, and it has come out the other side as the town’s defining autumn day. Come for the art, stay for the amphitheater, and know that even your parking money is helping keep the campus standing.
