Morgan County Alabama Alabama Gourd Festival
Every October, a humble garden vegetable becomes the centre of an art world. The show staged by the Alabama Gourd Society fills a civic centre hall with painted, carved, burned and woven gourds, drawing hundreds of artisans, crafters and growers into one room for two days of judging, teaching and selling. The event is a long-running annual gathering, billed in recent editions as the Alabama Gourd Show, while state and news listings have carried the Alabama Gourd Festival name. Its current home is Hartselle in Morgan County, where the Sparkman Civic Center hosts the show each fall; its earlier years were spent in Cullman, one county to the south. Between the ribbon competition, the exhibit hall and rows of classes, it is less a fairground attraction and more a working convention for people who take gourds seriously as an art form.
About
The organiser behind the show is the Alabama Gourd Society, and the name it travels under depends on who is doing the publishing. The society’s own site and the current releases of the regional tourism association call it the Alabama Gourd Show. A university assistance-line event listing uses Alabama Gourd Festival as its title, the state events navigator carried an entry headed Alabama Gourd Festival 2021, and Cullman newspaper coverage once billed a ninth annual Alabama Gourd Festival and described an artist who set up shop there. Both forms are recorded here as they appear in their sources; the Festival wording is verified in state and news layers, while Show is the society’s current house name.
Geography matters to this event’s story. Hartselle, where the show is now held, sits in Morgan County, but it is not the county seat — that distinction belongs to Decatur. Before Hartselle, editions of the show were staged in Cullman, which lies in Cullman County, so those years belong to the event’s earlier home and should never be described as Morgan County editions. The move north changed the hall and the county, but the society, the judging and the October rhythm all carried across.
Quick Facts
| Item | Detail |
| Festival name | Alabama Gourd Festival in state and news listings; Alabama Gourd Show on the society’s own site |
| Host | Alabama Gourd Society |
| Current host town | Hartselle, in Morgan County, Alabama |
| County seat | Decatur; Hartselle is not the county seat |
| Earlier home | Cullman, in Cullman County, at the Cullman Civic Center |
| Current venue | Sparkman Civic Center, Hartselle; published street numbers vary by source (see below) |
| Timing | Two days in October; the 2026 edition ran Friday and Saturday, October 16 and 17, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. |
| Admission record | Free in the Hartselle editions of 2023 and 2024; three dollars for adults in the Cullman editions of 2012 and 2017; class fees always separate |
| Centrepieces | Judged ribbon competition and exhibit hall, artist demonstrations and taught classes |
| Most recent billing | 28th Alabama Gourd Show (2026 listing) |
History
The documented history of this show is best told through its billings, because its sources record edition numbers year by year without ever settling a founding date. A Cullman newspaper reported in October 2012 that the 14th annual Alabama Gourd Show would be held at the Cullman Civic Center, with Saturday hours running from nine in the morning until five and Sunday hours from ten until four. That edition offered fifteen art crafting classes, including classes for children; adult admission of three dollars included a tour of the Ribbon Competition Exhibit Hall, and children twelve years and younger entered free when accompanied by an adult.
Five years later the show was still in Cullman. The tourism association described the 2017 gathering, held October 21 and 22 at the Cullman Civic Center, as now in its 19th year, with the theme Old MacDonald’s Gourd Farm. Admission again stood at three dollars for adults, with children twelve and under free alongside an adult, and the show chair that year was Pam Montgomery.
For a useful comparison, see the Morgan County Alabama Decatur Uncorked Wine Festival for another county festival.
By 2021 the event had relocated to Hartselle. The state events navigator listed Alabama Gourd Festival 2021 for October 15 and 16, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., promising free demonstrations and a free kids’ patch where children could decorate a gourd of their own. The Hartselle editions then settled into the Sparkman Civic Center. The tourism association’s August 2023 release announced the show for October 20 and 21, now in its 25th year, under the theme Gourds in Bloom, with hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both days, free admission, and Pam Reeves as show chair. The 2024 release, published the following September, billed the October 18 and 19 show as now in its 26th year, themed Gourds in Paradise, again with free admission and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. hours. Reeves is also the society’s named contact for the 2025 and 2026 shows. The 2025 edition ran October 17 and 18 at the Sparkman Civic Center as a judged show, and the 2026 listing bills the gathering as the 28th Alabama Gourd Show, held Friday and Saturday, October 16 and 17, 2026.
What to Expect
The heart of the weekend is the judged ribbon competition and its exhibit hall, where finished gourd art is displayed and awarded. Tourism association layers describe gourd art by hundreds of artisans, crafters and growers, so the hall holds everything from carved and painted vessels to sculptural pieces built from a plant most visitors last noticed in a fall decoration. Around the competition sits the marketplace side of the show: raw gourds, supplies and tools are offered for purchase, which serves a beginner stocking a workbench as well as a collector hunting for a finished piece.
Learning runs through both days. Free artist demonstrations appear in the record for the Hartselle editions, and taught classes run alongside them for a per-class fee, led by experienced gourd artists. The class tradition is long — fifteen art crafting classes were offered back in 2012, including children’s classes — and recent class forms price sessions individually, with examples on the 2025 form at forty, forty-five and fifty dollars and the 2026 form ranging from thirty dollars to fifty-five dollars. Families are looked after as well: the free kids’ patch is a make-and-take area where children decorate their own gourd, an activity recorded for the 2021 Hartselle edition.
Planning Your Visit
The practical first question is which hall, because the show’s history crosses two venues. Current editions are at the Sparkman Civic Center in Hartselle, whose published street address comes in several forms, recorded here rather than merged: the university assistance-line listing gives Sparkman Civic Center, 406 Nance Road, Hartselle; tourism association releases for 2023 and 2024 place it at 406 Nance Ford Road Southwest in Hartselle; and a Hartselle newspaper show flyer from 2025 prints 400 Nance Ford Road, Southwest. All three point to the same civic centre, but a traveller using one printed form should know the variants exist. The older Cullman editions, by contrast, were held at the Cullman Civic Center, which a 2017 tourism layer located at 510 Fifth Street Southwest in Cullman.
Money planning depends on which layer of the record applies. Admission was free for the Hartselle editions of 2023 and 2024, and demonstrations and the kids’ patch were free in 2021, but that free entry is a Hartselle-layer fact rather than a promise: the Cullman editions charged adults three dollars. Classes always cost extra on top of admission in every year, priced per session on the society’s forms. A visitor should therefore budget for the taught classes and for raw gourds, supplies and tools as the real expenses, and confirm the current year’s terms before travelling.
A Sample Show Weekend
A Friday at the 2026 edition could begin at the 9 a.m. opening with a first circuit of the exhibit hall, followed by a demonstration before the room fills. Midday suits a taught class, since sessions run on both days, leaving the afternoon for the vendor rows: raw gourds for a winter project, tools to replace worn ones, and specialist supplies. Saturday then becomes the slower pass — a second look at the ribbon winners and a child’s turn in the kids’ patch. The weekend rewards pacing: see everything once quickly, then return to the pieces and people worth a longer look.
The Gourd Show Among Alabama Craft Weekends
Plenty of fall festivals in Alabama put crafts on folding tables, but this one inverts the relationship: here the craft is the entire event, and a single medium supplies the competition, the classes and the marketplace. Its judged structure also sets it apart from a general arts fair, because entries are measured against ribbon standards rather than simply displayed for sale. The show’s two-county biography is unusual too. The Cullman years ran as a paying event, with adults charged three dollars in 2012 and 2017, while the Hartselle years checked in the record opened their doors free in 2023 and 2024; the event that crossed the county line kept its society, its October slot and its named chairs, even as the admission model changed around it.
Planning Checklist
- Confirm the current year’s dates and hours against the society’s latest class form or listing before booking travel.
- Note which Sparkman Civic Center address form your directions use; sources print both Nance Road and Nance Ford Road Southwest, with different street numbers.
- Register for taught classes in advance where the society’s form allows it, and budget the per-class fee separately from admission.
- Carry a sturdy bag or box for raw gourds and fragile finished pieces on the trip home.
- If children are coming, check whether the kids’ patch is running that year so decorating time can be built into the day.
- Allow time for the demonstrations, recorded as free in the Hartselle editions.
Beyond the Show Hall
Hartselle gives the weekend a second setting beyond the civic centre, within easy reach of Decatur, the county seat, so a visitor can pair the show with a wider look at the county it now calls home. The older chapter of the show’s life points the other way, toward Cullman, where the Cullman Civic Center hosted the gathering through at least 2017 and where longtime attendees first learned its rhythms. A trip that nods to both homes — the current one and the earlier one — gives a fuller picture of how a regional craft community lives across county lines.
Why This Show Matters
A gourd is an unlikely foundation for a decades-long institution, yet the record assembled around this event shows exactly that: edition billings climbing through the teens in Cullman and into the twenties in Hartselle, themes chosen year by year, chairs handing the work from one named volunteer to another, and a society that teaches as persistently as it exhibits. The show preserves skills that have few other public stages — carving, pyrography, weaving and painting on a curved, stubborn, organic surface — and it passes them on deliberately, through demonstrations, children’s activities and classes priced for working artists rather than spectators. For Morgan County, it anchors an October weekend built on making things by hand.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the same event appear as both a Festival and a Show?
Because different publishers use different names for it. The Alabama Gourd Society and the regional tourism association currently bill the gathering as the Alabama Gourd Show, while a university assistance-line listing, the state events navigator and earlier Cullman newspaper coverage use Alabama Gourd Festival. Both names point to the same society-run event, and neither form is treated here as the only correct title.
Which town hosts the show now, and where did it used to be held?
Hartselle, in Morgan County, is the current host, with editions at the Sparkman Civic Center documented from 2021 onward. The earlier home was Cullman, in Cullman County, where the Cullman Civic Center hosted editions including those of 2012 and 2017. Those Cullman years are the event’s own history, but they were not Morgan County editions, and Hartselle itself is not the Morgan County seat — Decatur holds that role.
What do the classes cost, and are they part of admission?
Classes are priced separately from admission in every documented year. The society’s 2025 class form lists individual sessions at figures such as forty dollars, forty-five dollars and fifty dollars, while its 2026 form runs from thirty dollars to fifty-five dollars per class. Admission is a different matter: it was free for the Hartselle editions of 2023 and 2024, while adults paid three dollars at the Cullman editions of 2012 and 2017, with children twelve and under admitted free alongside an adult in those years.
Who leads the show from year to year?
The record names its show chairs by era. Pam Montgomery chaired the Cullman-era editions documented in 2012 and 2017. Pam Reeves chaired the Hartselle editions of 2023 and 2024 and is the society’s named contact for the 2025 and 2026 shows. The two tenures are recorded separately, since the sources describe no single continuous tenure.
What to Expect From the Next Morgan County Alabama Alabama Gourd Festival
How often is Morgan County Alabama Alabama Gourd Festival held?
The documented editions follow an annual October rhythm, with the society staging the show across two days each fall — in Cullman through the 2010s and in Hartselle from 2021 onward. The billings themselves trace the cadence: a 25th year in 2023, a 26th year in 2024 and a 28th Alabama Gourd Show listed for 2026, each standing as billed, none of them proof of a founding date.
When is the next Morgan County Alabama Alabama Gourd Festival?
Following the pattern of recent editions, the next show would be expected in October, across two days at the Sparkman Civic Center in Hartselle, matching the Friday-and-Saturday shape of the 2026 edition held on October 16 and 17 and the mid-October weekends of 2023, 2024 and 2025. Because no future dates are published in the sources used here, travellers should confirm them through the society’s current listings before making plans.
Will the dates change?
The October placement has been steady across every documented edition, from the Cullman years through the Hartselle years, and the two-day length has held as well. The exact weekend has drifted within the month — the 17th and 18th in 2025, the 16th and 17th in 2026 — and the day pattern has varied between Saturday-and-Sunday in 2012 and Friday-and-Saturday in 2026, so the season looks fixed even though the precise dates are set year by year.
In the end, the measure of this festival is in its materials: a dried gourd, a sharp tool, a ribbon pinned beside months of patient work. The Alabama Gourd Society has kept that combination in front of the public for edition after billed edition, moving house once without losing its thread, and the show it runs each October remains the fullest expression of a craft most people never knew existed until they walked into the hall.
