Whitfield County Georgia Dalton Civitan Music Festival
Each May, the lawn at Burr Performing Arts Park in Dalton fills with country, Southern rock and Americana as the Dalton Civitan Club stages the concert event it calls the Dalton Civitan Music Festival. Dalton is the county seat of Whitfield County, and the park stands at 101 South Hamilton Street, in the heart of the downtown the festival calls home. The club presents the weekend as a fundraiser in the fullest sense: the organiser layer states that all proceeds go to charitable organisations in the local community. What the published record does not give the festival is a long pedigree. No source states the year it began, and its documented editions reach back only to 2024, when listings billed the event as the fourth Annual. From that single Saturday it has grown quickly, stretching to a longer day in 2025 and then, in 2026, to two days spread across Mother’s Day weekend. One 2024 listing headline shortened the name to Dalton Civitan Music Fest, but the longer form is the one the organiser and the listings generally carry, and it is the form this article uses.
About the Festival
The Dalton Civitan Club organises the festival, and listing layers name the club as host or publisher of the event. The club itself carries a history far longer than the concert weekend it runs. Chartered on July 28, 1921, it is billed on the organiser layer as Dalton’s oldest civic club. That charter belongs to the club alone. Nothing in the record makes 1921 the festival’s founding year, and this article keeps the two histories firmly apart: a civic organisation more than a century old, staging a music festival whose own beginning no source has yet stated.
The setting is Burr Performing Arts Park in downtown Dalton, its address printed in one listing layer in full as 101 South Hamilton Street. The park’s lawn carries the crowd, and the programme is built around headline concerts rather than fairground attractions. Across the documented editions, the bill has leaned on established touring names in country and Southern rock, with support acts filling the earlier hours of each day. The organiser layer is plain about the purpose behind the music: every dollar of proceeds is directed to charitable causes nearby, a statement of intent rather than a figure, since no amounts are published anywhere in the record.
Quick Facts
| Item | Detail |
| Published name | Dalton Civitan Music Festival (2024 headline form: Dalton Civitan Music Fest) |
| Host town | Dalton, county seat of Whitfield County |
| Venue | Burr Performing Arts Park, 101 South Hamilton Street |
| Organiser | Dalton Civitan Club |
| Documented editions | 2024, 2025 and 2026, each held in May |
| Annual billings | Fourth Annual (2024), fifth Annual (2025), sixth Annual (2026) |
| 2026 dates | Friday and Saturday, May 8 and 9, on Mother’s Day weekend |
| Admission | Ticketed; no organiser-published price appears in the record |
| Proceeds | All proceeds to charitable organisations in the local community, per the organiser layer |
| Attendance | No figure published in any layer captured |
History
No source captured for this festival states the year it began. The record offers ordinal billings instead: the 2024 edition was billed the fourth Annual, the 2025 edition the fifth Annual and the 2026 edition the sixth Annual. Those billings are recorded here exactly as billings. They are not converted into a founding year, by arithmetic or any other route, and they are never set against the Civitan Club’s 1921 charter, which dates the organisation and not its concert weekend.
The earliest documented edition fell on Saturday, May 18, 2024, starting at 4:00 p.m. A listing layer billed it “Mississippi in May” and placed The North Mississippi Allstars at the top of the bill, with The Weeks also appearing. A year later the festival returned on Saturday, May 10, 2025, running from 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. with gates at 3:00 p.m.; the organiser-platform layer lists Shenandoah as headliner, supported by Neon Moon.
For a useful comparison, see the White County Georgia Cleveland Hillbilly Hog BBQ Throwdown and Fall Leaf Festival for another county festival.
In 2026 the event widened from one evening to two days, Friday and Saturday, May 8 and 9, across Mother’s Day weekend. Organiser-derived listing layers give Friday gates at 5:00 p.m., Jupiter Coyote at 6:00 p.m. and Allgood at 7:30 p.m., with Diamond Rio headlining Saturday at 8:30 p.m. One resale layer tells a different story for that Saturday, printing a gate time of 2:30 p.m. and a support act called Appalachian Drifters. That resale account conflicts with the organiser-derived schedule and is recorded here only as an unverified claim; the organiser-derived times govern this article’s account of the weekend, and the two versions are never blended.
What to Expect
The music stays within a clear territory: country, Southern rock and Americana, delivered by touring headliners with support acts in the earlier slots. Each year’s bill belongs to its year — The North Mississippi Allstars and The Weeks to 2024, Shenandoah and Neon Moon to 2025, and Jupiter Coyote, Allgood and Diamond Rio to 2026 — and no lineup should be read across from one edition to another.
The setting is an open park lawn rather than a seated hall. A resale layer describes food and drinks served on that lawn, while a 2024 layer notes beer and wine available for purchase. Beyond those layer-specific details, the format is straightforward: gates open in the afternoon or early evening, support acts play first, and the headliner closes the night — on Saturday in 2026, at 8:30 p.m. The 2026 expansion means the experience now spreads over two evenings, with Friday’s shorter bill building toward Saturday’s headline set. Visitors should expect a concert crowd gathered on grass in a downtown park, not midway rides or exhibition halls; nothing in the record describes fairground attractions, contests or craft rows as part of this event, and the festival’s pleasures are the staged music and the company around it.
Planning Your Visit
Tickets are the first thing to settle. The Dalton Civitan Music Festival is a ticketed event: organiser-platform ticket layers exist for both the 2025 and the 2026 editions. What those layers do not do is publish a price, and no organiser-published ticket price appears anywhere in the record this article is built from. Anyone budgeting for the weekend should therefore take the current figure from the organiser’s own ticket page rather than rely on second-hand numbers found elsewhere.
That caution matters because second-hand numbers do circulate. Resale-marketplace layers list starting figures of fifteen dollars in one case and ranges of twenty-six to sixty-nine dollars in another. Those are resale asking figures set by resellers; they are not the festival’s admission price, they are not set by the Dalton Civitan Club, and they appear in this article only inside this warning, never as what a ticket costs.
Practical timing follows the documented shape. In 2025 the gates opened at 3:00 p.m. for a 4:00 p.m. start; in 2026, Friday’s gates opened at 5:00 p.m., with Saturday built around an 8:30 p.m. headline set. The venue is Burr Performing Arts Park at 101 South Hamilton Street in downtown Dalton. Because the festival occupied Mother’s Day weekend in its 2026 form, visitors travelling in should expect a busy town and book rooms early. No attendance figure is published for any edition, so the record supports no promise about crowd size either way; arrive with time in hand before the headliner regardless.
A Sample Weekend Itinerary
Friday, May 8, 2026. Reach Burr Performing Arts Park before the 5:00 p.m. gate opening and settle on the lawn. Jupiter Coyote takes the stage at 6:00 p.m., followed by Allgood at 7:30 p.m., making Friday the gentler of the two evenings and a good night to learn the ground and find your bearings in the park.
Saturday, May 9, 2026. The day builds toward Diamond Rio’s headline set at 8:30 p.m. Spend the afternoon in downtown Dalton, return to the park with time to spare before the evening programme, and stay on the lawn through the closing set. This itinerary follows the organiser-derived listing layers for 2026; the resale layer’s differing Saturday gate time and support act are not used here, for the reasons set out in the History section above.
How It Compares
Dalton hosts other music events, and the record keeps them separate. A destination layer lists a Friendship House Music Festival in the town; it is a distinct festival, organised apart from the Civitan Club, and none of its details belong to this event. Likewise, the Dalton Civitan Club itself runs other fundraisers across the year, its Casino Night among them. Those are club events, not editions of the music festival, and the club’s wider calendar is not evidence about this festival’s age, scale or programme. What sets the Civitan weekend apart in the local record is the combination of a named downtown venue, nationally touring headliners and a stated charitable destination for the proceeds.
A Visit Checklist
A short list for anyone planning around the documented shape of the festival:
- Confirm the current ticket price through the organiser’s own ticket page before travelling, since no organiser price is published in the record.
- Treat any resale listing figure as a reseller’s asking price, never as the festival’s admission.
- Aim to be inside Burr Performing Arts Park well before the evening crowd builds on Saturday.
- Bring something to sit on, because the audience gathers on an open lawn.
- Allow extra time for Mother’s Day weekend traffic and lodging demand in Dalton.
- Check which year a lineup belongs to before planning a trip around a favourite act.
Beyond the Festival
Dalton is the county seat of Whitfield County, and the festival’s park sits in the middle of its downtown, so a concert weekend doubles as an introduction to the town itself. Visitors who arrive early can walk the streets around South Hamilton Street, and the park gives the event a permanent, findable home rather than a temporary field on the edge of town. The wider county calendar holds other gatherings through the year, but they run under their own organisers, and this article borrows none of their facts. The Civitan Club, for its part, is a year-round civic presence in Dalton, chartered in 1921 and active long before and beyond any single concert weekend — background that explains the organiser without lending the young festival an age the record does not give it.
Why It Matters
The festival’s significance rests on purpose and trajectory rather than scale, because no attendance figure has been published for any edition and none is claimed here. Its organiser states that all proceeds go to charitable organisations in the local community, which makes the weekend a fundraiser first and a concert second. Its trajectory is equally plain in the record: one Saturday evening in 2024, a longer single day in 2025, and two days with a Diamond Rio headline set in 2026. For a festival with no stated founding year, that documented growth across three successive Mays is the surest measure of its standing in Dalton.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens to the money the festival raises?
The organiser layer states that all proceeds from the festival go to charitable organisations in the local community. No amounts, totals or named recipients are published in the record captured for this article, so the destination of the money is stated here exactly as the organiser states it, and nothing further is added.
If tickets are sold, why is no official ticket price quoted here?
Because none is available to quote. Organiser-platform ticket layers confirm that the 2025 and 2026 editions were ticketed, yet no organiser-published price appears in any layer captured. Prices do circulate on resale marketplaces, but those are resellers’ asking figures, not the Dalton Civitan Club’s price, and this article does not present them as admission. The current official figure can only come from the organiser’s own ticket page.
Has the festival really been running since the club was chartered in 1921?
No such claim can be made from the record. The July 28, 1921 charter belongs to the Dalton Civitan Club, which the organiser layer bills as Dalton’s oldest civic club. The festival’s own founding year is stated in no source; its editions are billed fourth Annual in 2024, fifth Annual in 2025 and sixth Annual in 2026, and those billings alone do not fix a first year.
How did a single Saturday turn into a two-day weekend?
By documented steps. The 2024 edition was one Saturday, May 18, starting at 4:00 p.m. The 2025 edition stayed a single day, May 10, but ran longer, from 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. with gates at 3:00 p.m. In 2026 the festival expanded to Friday and Saturday, May 8 and 9, on Mother’s Day weekend, with Diamond Rio headlining the Saturday night.
What to Expect From the Next Whitfield County Georgia Dalton Civitan Music Festival
How often is Whitfield County Georgia Dalton Civitan Music Festival held?
The documented record shows an edition in May in each of three successive years: 2024, 2025 and 2026, billed in turn as the fourth, fifth and sixth Annual. That is the whole of the evidence for its rhythm — a May date each year across the documented period. Nothing in the record describes editions at any other time of year, and no source looks further back than the 2024 billing.
When is the next Whitfield County Georgia Dalton Civitan Music Festival?
No edition beyond 2026 is announced in the record captured for this article, so no future date can be stated as confirmed. The documented pattern points only to May, and in 2026 the festival sat on Mother’s Day weekend, May 8 and 9. A future May date would fit the pattern, but fitting a pattern is not an announcement, and readers should wait for the organiser’s own word before making plans.
Will the dates change?
They already have, within limits. The festival fell on May 18 in 2024, May 10 in 2025 and May 8 and 9 in 2026, so the particular weekend moves even while the month holds. The shape changed too, growing from one day to two. Anyone planning ahead should treat the month as the stable element and the exact days as unsettled until the organiser publishes them.
On the documented record, then, this is a young and quickly growing fundraiser: a long-established civic club, a downtown park lawn, touring country and Southern rock headliners each May, and proceeds pledged to local charitable organisations. Its gaps are stated as plainly as its facts — no founding year, no official ticket price, no attendance figure — and whatever its next edition brings, it will be judged best on that honest footing.
