Troup County Georgia Hogansville Hummingbird Festival
Each October, the small town of Hogansville gives its downtown over to a weekend built around one of the smallest birds in North America. The Hogansville Hummingbird Festival fills the historic streets with craft stalls, food booths, live music and children’s rides, and it does so for a purpose beyond the weekend itself: the event raises money for a local charitable trust. It is a volunteer-run hometown festival with a stated beginning in 1998, and its most recent documented edition ran on October 17 and 18, 2026.
About the Festival
The published name is the Hogansville Hummingbird Festival, the form used on the City of Hogansville’s festival page and in organiser layers; destination and press layers sometimes shorten it to simply the Hummingbird Festival. The two forms are recorded as they appear and are not treated as different events.
Hogansville is a small city in Troup County, in west Georgia. It is not the county seat: LaGrange holds that role, and nothing in this festival’s record belongs to the seat. Every documenting layer places the event in Hogansville itself, around its historic downtown and Main Street.
Who runs the weekend and who benefits from it are two separate facts in the record, kept separate here. A local newspaper layer describes the festival as run by a group of dedicated volunteers, a community committee. The City of Hogansville’s festival page and a state economic-development news layer describe the event as a fundraiser for the Hogansville Charitable Trust. The Trust is the beneficiary, not the organiser; the volunteers are the runners, not the recipients. The City hosts an official festival page, but hosting a page does not make it the organiser.
Two street addresses appear in print for the festival ground, and the record never settles between them. An organiser-image credit caption gives 200 East Main Street, while a deals-guide layer’s location form gives 400 East Main Street. Both are recorded with the layers that printed them; neither is crowned as the single official address.
For a useful comparison, see the Treutlen County Georgia Soperton Fall Festival for another county festival.
Quick Facts
| Item | Record |
| Published name | Hogansville Hummingbird Festival; shortened to Hummingbird Festival in destination and press layers |
| Host town | Hogansville, Troup County, Georgia — not the county seat; LaGrange is the seat |
| Setting | Historic downtown Hogansville and Main Street |
| Address forms in print | 200 East Main Street in an organiser-image caption; 400 East Main Street in a deals-guide layer — never settled |
| Run by | A group of dedicated volunteers, a community committee, per a local newspaper layer |
| Beneficiary | The Hogansville Charitable Trust; the festival is a fundraiser for it |
| Stated establishment | 1998, per an encyclopaedic layer naming two founders and an underwriter |
| Usual slot | The third weekend of October, per organiser and destination layers |
| Documented 2026 edition | October 17–18, 2026, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. on both days |
| Admission | Free admission and free parking, per deals-guide and vendor-guide layers |
History
The festival’s stated beginning comes from an encyclopaedic layer, recorded here as that layer’s account. It states that the festival has been held every year in Hogansville, Georgia since 1998, and that it was established in 1998 by Glenda Gordon of the Grand Hotel and Jackie Byars of Van Byars Auctions, and was underwritten by John Hardy Jones. The founders and underwriter are named exactly as that account names them; no other layer supplies a rival founding story, and none is invented here.
Set against that account is a billing from a deals-guide layer, which calls the 2026 edition the twenty-eighth year of the festival. The two figures are left standing side by side, unadjusted. Counted without a break from 1998, the billing and the stated start would be expected to meet neatly, and they do not quite do so; a skipped year somewhere would explain the gap, but no layer documents one. No arithmetic is performed on either figure here, and neither is used to correct the other.
The dated editions in the record are sparse but real. A destination press layer documents October 19 and 20 in 2013, listing a ring of surrounding fundraiser events around that edition: a golf tournament, a dinner and dance, a silent auction and a pancake breakfast. Those were separate ticketed activities attached to that year’s fundraising, not part of the admission arrangements, and no ticket prices for them are recorded. A further edition is documented on October 15 and 16, 2016. The most recent documented edition ran on October 17 and 18, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both days, recorded by a deals-guide layer and a state-listing layer. Around those dates, the layers agree on the pattern rather than the particulars: organiser and destination layers describe the festival as belonging to the third weekend of October.
What to Expect
The heart of the weekend is a large open-air market spread through the downtown streets. A listing layer counts more than two hundred vendors for the 2026 edition, while the encyclopaedic layer speaks of nearly two hundred exhibitors. The two counts belong to different layers and different moments in the festival’s life; they are recorded as printed, never averaged or merged. Either way, the picture is of a downtown filled with stalls selling crafts and antiques, the categories the programme layers name consistently.
Food is organised as an international food court, with about twenty-five food booths in the programme record. Music runs through the weekend, and the layers describe a Saturday-evening programme as part of the event’s shape, so Saturday does not end when the stallholders’ day winds down. Families get a kids area and rides. None of these elements is tied to one single year in the layers; they are the documented programme in general form.
One feature belongs to the town all year round rather than to the festival weekend alone. A City of Hogansville layer describes the Hummingbird Art Trail, a set of hummingbird sculptures placed around the downtown. The trail is a permanent feature growing out of the same theme the festival carries; it can be walked in any month, not a festival-day-only exhibit.
Planning Your Visit
Aim for the third weekend of October, the slot organiser and destination layers give as the festival’s home in the calendar, and check the city’s festival page before travelling, because the record announces no specific future date and the layers’ pattern statement is a scheduling statement, not a confirmed booking. The documented 2026 edition ran 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both days, a fair picture of the festival’s daily shape.
Admission costs nothing: deals-guide and vendor-guide layers both record free admission, and free parking alongside it. That free entry covers the festival itself. Visitors reading older accounts should keep the surrounding fundraiser activities in their proper place: the golf tournament, dinner and dance, silent auction and pancake breakfast listed around the 2013 edition were separately ticketed components of that year’s fundraising, never a charge for walking the festival streets, and no prices for them survive in the record.
For finding the ground, navigate to historic downtown Hogansville and Main Street. Printed addresses differ by layer — 200 East Main Street in an organiser-image caption, 400 East Main Street in a deals-guide layer — and the record does not settle the difference, so the downtown itself is the reliable destination. Leave time, too, for the Art Trail sculptures, which stand downtown all year.
A Sample Visit in 2026
Saturday, October 17, 2026. Arrive downtown near the 10 a.m. opening and walk the vendor rows while the morning is cool, working through the crafts and antiques stalls before the food court draws its lunchtime crowd. Take lunch from among the roughly twenty-five food booths of the international food court. In the afternoon, let children loose in the kids area and on the rides, then drift back through the streets as the day’s music plays. Stay on into the evening: the programme layers describe a Saturday-evening programme, so an evening in town rounds out the Saturday in the spirit the layers describe.
Sunday, October 18, 2026. Return for a second, slower pass from 10 a.m. Walk the Art Trail sculptures at an unhurried pace, revisit favourite stalls for the purchases you slept on, and finish by 5 p.m., when the documented edition closed.
How This Festival Compares
This is a Hogansville event, and the comparison that matters most is the one the record refuses to make. LaGrange, the county seat, holds events of its own, but none of them is this festival, and nothing about the Hummingbird Festival belongs to the seat; no LaGrange event is imported into this account. Within its own town, the festival stands out for its structure: a volunteer committee runs it, and a charitable trust receives what it raises, a division of labour quite different from a fair staged by a county body or a chamber. Its stated 1998 establishment also places it among the longer-lived small-town festivals in its region, on the encyclopaedic layer’s account, even though its year count and its billing have never been made to agree exactly.
A Festival Checklist
- Check the City of Hogansville festival page before travelling, since no future date is confirmed in the record
- Plan around the third weekend of October, the festival’s documented slot
- Navigate to historic downtown and Main Street rather than trusting either printed street number
- Arrive near 10 a.m. to walk the vendor rows before the midday crowd
- Bring an appetite for the international food court’s many booths
- Keep Saturday evening free for the evening music programme
- Walk the Hummingbird Art Trail sculptures while downtown
- Remember that admission and parking are recorded as free, and separately ticketed fundraiser activities are distinct from entry
Beyond the Festival Streets
The festival’s afterlife in the town is unusually visible. The Art Trail’s hummingbird sculptures stand downtown throughout the year, so the theme the October weekend celebrates is present in Hogansville in every season. The town’s historic downtown serves as the festival’s stage, and visitors encounter the same streets residents use daily. The charitable purpose reaches beyond the two days: money raised through the festival and its surrounding activities goes to the Hogansville Charitable Trust, so the weekend’s fundraising keeps working locally long after the stalls come down.
Why This Festival Matters
The festival matters first as an engine for its beneficiary. The City of Hogansville layer states that more than three hundred twenty-five thousand dollars has been raised for Hogansville over the years, while an older encyclopaedic layer puts the figure at one hundred thirty thousand dollars or more. Those totals conflict by era and are recorded unmerged; each belongs to the moment its layer describes. What they agree on is direction: a volunteer-run weekend has moved a substantial sum into a small town’s charitable work. The local newspaper’s judgement is qualitative rather than counted — it says the event brings thousands — and that is the only crowd description the record offers; no organiser or destination layer publishes a counted attendance figure, and none is asserted here. The fundraising totals measure money, not people, and are never presented as attendance.
Frequently Asked Questions
If the festival began in 1998, why does a guide call 2026 only its twenty-eighth year?
Because the record contains two figures no source ever reconciled. The encyclopaedic layer states an establishment in 1998; the deals-guide layer bills 2026 as the twenty-eighth year. The billing does not line up cleanly with the stated start if every year is counted, and it would fit if a year had somewhere been skipped, but no layer documents a skipped year. Both figures are left exactly as their layers print them, with no arithmetic done on either.
Who runs the festival, and who receives what it raises?
Different hands do each job. A local newspaper layer credits a group of dedicated volunteers, a community committee, with running the event. The City’s festival page and a state economic-development news layer describe the festival as a fundraiser for the Hogansville Charitable Trust, making the Trust the beneficiary. The City hosts an official festival page, but that hosting role does not make it the organiser, and runner and beneficiary are never merged in the record.
What were the golf tournament, the dinner and dance, and the pancake breakfast?
They were surrounding fundraiser activities listed by a destination press layer around the October 2013 edition, together with a silent auction: separate ticketed activities supporting that year’s charitable purpose, fenced to 2013 in the record. They were never admission to the festival itself, which guide layers record as free, and no ticket prices for them are published in the layers gathered.
How large is the crowd, and what do the published money totals actually measure?
No counted crowd figure exists in the record: no organiser or destination layer publishes one, and the local newspaper offers only the qualitative judgement that the event brings thousands. The money totals measure fundraising, not attendance. The City layer reports more than three hundred twenty-five thousand dollars raised over the years; an older encyclopaedic layer reports one hundred thirty thousand dollars or more. The two totals belong to different eras, conflict as printed, and are kept apart rather than combined.
What to Expect From the Next Troup County Georgia Hogansville Hummingbird Festival
How often is Troup County Georgia Hogansville Hummingbird Festival held?
Organiser and destination layers place the festival in the third weekend of October as its regular slot, and the encyclopaedic layer describes it as held every year since 1998. That is the record’s scheduling statement; the layers publish no formal rule, and the unreconciled year billing leaves the run’s exact count an open detail.
When is the next Troup County Georgia Hogansville Hummingbird Festival?
No specific future date is announced in the record. The most recent documented edition ran on October 17 and 18, 2026, and the layers’ third-weekend pattern points to where a future edition would fall, but a pattern is not a confirmation. Anyone planning a trip should watch the City’s festival page for an announced date rather than treating the pattern as a promise.
Will the dates change?
They could. The documented editions sit in mid-to-late October, and one year’s third weekend is not the next year’s calendar dates, so the precise days shift even when the slot holds steady. Until an organiser layer publishes confirmed dates, the honest position is that the weekend pattern is documented and any future edition’s exact dates are not.
Closing
The Hogansville Hummingbird Festival is a small town’s long-running act of self-help: volunteers stage it, a charitable trust benefits from it, and downtown fills with stalls, food, music and sculptures of the bird that gives the weekend its name. Its record is kept honestly here — a stated 1998 beginning, a billing that never quite matches it, two printed addresses, fundraising totals from two eras — because the festival is better served by the record as it stands than by any tidier version invented for it.
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