Catoosa County Georgia Ringgold 1890 Days Jamboree Festival
On the Friday evening of Memorial Day weekend, gospel singing rolls across the closed streets of historic downtown Ringgold, and by Saturday night fireworks are closing a two-day celebration that local-news layers say began in 1975. The event behind the title above is Ringgold’s long-running jamboree, printed under several names: local news coverage in 2025 and 2026 calls it the 1890 Days Jamboree, the organiser’s own site and forms use 1890’s Day Jamboree and 1890’s Days, and the Catoosa County Chamber of Commerce annual-events table lists it as 1890s Days. However it is spelled, every layer points to the same gathering — a free festival of music, contests, vendors and remembrance in the Catoosa County seat, with editions documented through May 22–23, 2026.
About the Festival
Ringgold is the county seat of Catoosa County, and the jamboree takes over its historic downtown rather than a fairground, filling the streets around the historic Catoosa County Courthouse — near which the fiddle contest’s stage stood — with stages, booths and crowds. Responsibility for the event is recorded in two forms that this article keeps side by side rather than blending: news layers say plainly that the City of Ringgold hosts the event, while the organiser’s own forms are issued jointly in the name of the City of Ringgold and the 1890’s Days Jamboree Committee. Admission costs nothing in every layer that mentions price — the 2019 magazine layer and the news layers for 2025 and 2026 all bill the festival as free and open to the public, so the weekend’s spending goes on food and crafts.
One clarification belongs early: the music-press layers document an old-time fiddle contest staged on the jamboree’s Saturday under the billing 1890s Day Jamboree Old Time Fiddle Convention. That convention is a component of the weekend, not a separate festival sharing the date.
Quick Facts
| Item | Detail |
| Published names | 1890 Days Jamboree (local-news layers); 1890’s Day Jamboree and 1890’s Days (organiser site and forms); 1890s Days (Chamber of Commerce annual-events table) |
| Host town | Ringgold, the county seat of Catoosa County |
| Organiser | The City of Ringgold (news layers); organiser forms issued jointly in the name of the City of Ringgold and the 1890’s Days Jamboree Committee |
| Setting | Historic Downtown Ringgold, around the historic Catoosa County Courthouse |
| Published addresses | 896 Lafayette Street (organiser Business Expo form); 150 Tennessee Street (a 2019 magazine listing layer) |
| Timing | Memorial Day weekend — Friday evening and Saturday |
| Documented editions | May 24–25, 2019; May 23–24, 2025; May 22–23, 2026 |
| Admission | Free and open to the public, as billed in the 2019, 2025 and 2026 layers |
| Stated start | 1975, as stated by local-news layers in 2025 and 2026 |
| Attendance | No counted figure; claims appear separately in an organiser form letter, a 2026 news layer and a listing layer |
History and Background
The founding story survives in the local-news layers, and it is a creditably specific one. Coverage in both 2025 and 2026 states that the jamboree first started in 1975, founded by community members Betty Land and Juanita Caldwell, who took their inspiration from the Gold Rush Days Festival in Dahlonega. That Dahlonega event enters this record only as the spark for Ringgold’s own idea — a separate festival in another county, not a source of facts about this one. The 1975 date is presented here exactly as those layers present it — their stated start — and the half-century mark was celebrated in 2025, when the news layer carried the city’s fiftieth anniversary billing for the May 23–24, 2025 edition.
A magazine layer for May 24–25, 2019 describes a Friday evening opening running into a full Saturday, with more than one hundred food, arts and crafts vendors and beauty pageants among the attractions. The news layer for 2025 gives firmer hours — Friday from 5:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. — and records the Festival of Flags, a display of veterans’ memorial flags and crosses placed throughout Ringgold, as part of that year’s weekend. The 2026 news layer then details a Friday Family Friday Night gospel programme beginning at 5:30 p.m., followed on Saturday by a fun run at 8:00 a.m., a parade at 11:00 a.m. and live music from noon until 10:00 p.m. Behind those recent editions sits the fiddle convention’s longer paper trail: music-press layers document the contest on the jamboree’s Saturday in 2012, 2015 and 2017 — evidence the component has drawn old-time players to Ringgold for well over a decade.
For a useful comparison, see the Carroll County Georgia Bremen Towne Festival for another county festival.
What to Expect
The documented pattern opens the weekend with gospel and Christian music, formalised in the 2026 coverage as the Family Friday Night gospel programme beginning at 5:30 p.m., and in 2025 the Friday session ran through to 10:00 p.m. Saturday is the full spread: music across two stages from noon until 10:00 p.m. in the 2026 account, with the morning given over to the Depot Dash fun run at 8:00 a.m. and the parade stepping off at 11:00 a.m. Between the stages, visitors work through rows of food, arts and crafts vendors — more than one hundred on the 2019 magazine count — along with a classic car cruise-in and show.
Music and dance competitions are a documented staple, and the centrepiece for traditional players is the old-time fiddle convention, a component billed separately in the music press but fenced to its documented Saturdays in 2012, 2015 and 2017 within this record. Beauty pageants appear in the 2019 layer, recorded as part of that edition rather than a permanent fixture. In 2025 the Festival of Flags threaded the whole town into the programme, with veterans’ memorial flags and crosses displayed throughout Ringgold; that display belongs to the 2025 account. A fireworks display on Saturday night above the downtown streets closes the weekend.
Planning Your Visit
The first thing the record makes easy is the budget: because the 2019 magazine layer and the 2025 and 2026 news layers all bill the jamboree as free and open to the public, there is no gate price to plan around, and money goes instead to food stalls, craft booths and the fun run. Getting oriented takes a little more care, because the published addresses do not agree with each other. The organiser’s Business Expo form prints the jamboree’s address as 896 Lafayette Street, while a 2019 magazine listing layer places the event at 150 Tennessee Street; both are recorded here as printed, and the practical reading is that the festival fills the downtown blocks rather than sitting behind one gate.
Expect street closures and plan arrival around them. The 2025 news layer lists Jail Street, Maple Street, Tennessee Street and Nashville Street among the closures, so drivers should aim for the edges of downtown and walk in. Timing choices matter too: Friday’s documented window is an evening one, running from 5:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. in 2025, while Saturday stretches from the 8:00 a.m. fun run to the 10:00 p.m. close of the music, with the parade fixed at 11:00 a.m. in the 2026 account. Finally, the record contains no organiser-announced date for a future edition, so watch for a fresh city announcement rather than treating any pencilled-in weekend as confirmed.
A Sample Saturday in Downtown Ringgold
Begin at 8:00 a.m. with the Depot Dash fun run, the Saturday opener in the 2026 schedule, or arrive as the vendor rows open and take breakfast from a food stall. Spend the late morning drifting between the craft booths and the classic cars before claiming a spot along the parade route ahead of the 11:00 a.m. step-off. The afternoon divides naturally between the two music stages and the contest programme — give the fiddle players their due if the convention is running, since the music press has documented that contest on jamboree Saturdays since 2012. Graze rather than lunch: with more than one hundred food, arts and crafts vendors on the 2019 count, the eating is half the itinerary. Stay through the evening session, because the music documented in 2026 ran until 10:00 p.m. and the fireworks display closes Saturday night.
How It Compares
The most instructive comparison is with the event that inspired it. The Gold Rush Days Festival in Dahlonega supplied Betty Land and Juanita Caldwell with the idea, according to the news layers, but the two festivals share nothing else in this record: Dahlonega’s celebration is a separate event in another county, while Ringgold’s jamboree grew its own identity around gospel music, fiddle contests and a Memorial Day setting in a county-seat downtown. The jamboree also differs from a standalone music convention: where a convention builds an entire event around one instrument, Ringgold folds its fiddle convention into a broader street festival of parades, pageants, cars and fireworks, giving the contest a courthouse-town audience rather than a specialist one. And unlike ticketed fairground events, the documented layers bill this weekend as free, spread across public streets that close for the occasion — a format closer to a town homecoming than to a gated fair.
Visitor Checklist
- Confirm the current Memorial Day weekend dates before travelling, since no future date is announced in the present record
- Arrive early enough to park outside the downtown street closures listed for recent editions
- Catch the Friday gospel programme if you can; it is the weekend’s quietest session
- Be in place before the 11:00 a.m. Saturday parade
- Bring cash for food stalls and craft vendors, since admission itself is billed as free
- Give the fiddle contest time if it appears on the Saturday programme
- Walk the streets slowly in years when memorial flag displays are part of the weekend
- Stay for the Saturday night fireworks rather than leaving with the afternoon crowds
- Recheck the published address you navigate to, because the layers print two different ones
- Leave room in the car for whatever the arts and crafts rows produce
Beyond the Festival
Historic downtown Ringgold is the Catoosa County seat’s front room, and the historic Catoosa County Courthouse anchors the same streets the festival occupies, so a jamboree weekend doubles as an introduction to the town’s civic core. The streets named in the 2025 closure list are the everyday map of downtown, briefly converted into a pedestrian festival ground. In 2025 the Festival of Flags extended the weekend’s meaning beyond the stages, placing veterans’ memorial flags and crosses throughout Ringgold so that the whole town carried the Memorial Day character of the occasion. A visitor with spare time can simply walk those streets and read the town at ground level.
Why the Festival Matters
A festival founded by two community members on a borrowed idea could easily have faded within a decade. Instead, the record shows the jamboree reaching a fiftieth anniversary celebration in 2025, still billed as free, still filling the county seat’s downtown, and still organised under the joint name of the city and its jamboree committee. Its components carry weight of their own: the fiddle convention preserves old-time playing as a living contest tradition, the Festival of Flags ties a spring celebration directly to the memorial purpose of the weekend, and gospel music, a parade and fireworks keep the event legible to every generation of a family at once. For Catoosa County, the jamboree functions as an annual argument that the county seat’s streets are worth closing for something joyful.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which of the festival’s several printed names is the right one?
All of them belong to the same event, and this article keeps them separate because the layers do. Local news coverage in 2025 and 2026 used 1890 Days Jamboree, the organiser’s site and forms print 1890’s Day Jamboree and 1890’s Days, and the Catoosa County Chamber of Commerce annual-events table lists the event as 1890s Days. Searching under more than one form is the safest way to find current information.
Who actually puts the jamboree on?
The record gives the answer in two parts. News layers credit the City of Ringgold as host and carried the 2026 coverage as a city announcement, while the organiser’s own forms are issued jointly in the name of the City of Ringgold and the 1890’s Days Jamboree Committee.
What made the 2025 edition stand out from an ordinary year?
Two things. The 2025 weekend carried the celebration billing of the fiftieth anniversary of the jamboree, honouring the start that local-news layers date to 1975, and it included the Festival of Flags, a display of veterans’ memorial flags and crosses throughout Ringgold. Its hours are also the most precisely documented in the record: Friday 5:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
How large are the crowds the jamboree draws?
No layer in the record offers a counted figure, and the claims that do exist are kept apart here. An organiser form letter from around 2017 put attendance in the mid twenty-thousands, a news layer in 2026 said the jamboree draws tens of thousands, and a listing layer claimed over twenty thousand people. Each number is its own layer’s claim, none is a turnstile count, and they should not be merged into a single figure.
What to Expect From the Next Catoosa County Georgia Ringgold 1890 Days Jamboree Festival
How often is Catoosa County Georgia Ringgold 1890 Days Jamboree Festival held?
The documented editions fall on Memorial Day weekend, with the magazine and news layers recording weekends in 2019, 2025 and 2026 built from a Friday evening and a full Saturday. That placement is the consistent pattern across every dated layer in the record.
When is the next Catoosa County Georgia Ringgold 1890 Days Jamboree Festival?
No organiser-announced date for a future edition appears in the record gathered for this article. The established pattern points to Memorial Day weekend, and the most recent documented edition ran May 22–23, 2026, but a pattern is not an announcement; visitors should wait for a fresh announcement in the name of the city or the jamboree committee before treating any particular weekend as set.
Will the dates change?
The anchor appears stable: every documented edition sits on Memorial Day weekend, and the Friday-evening-plus-Saturday shape repeats in 2019, 2025 and 2026 alike. What has shifted is the detail inside the frame — the 2026 Friday programme was billed as a named gospel night, and recent layers give Saturday times more precisely — so the weekend is unlikely to wander even if individual hours do.
A Final Word
Ringgold’s jamboree is the kind of festival that rewards a slow reading: several names for one event, two organiser forms on the paperwork, two addresses in print, and a fifty-year run from a borrowed idea to a courthouse-town institution. Taken on its documented terms — free, downtown, built around music, contests and remembrance — it remains a clear Memorial Day weekend tradition in this corner of Georgia.
