Gaston County North Carolina Cotton Ginning Days Festival
Every October, old engines rumble across Dallas Park in Dallas, North Carolina, and a machine built in 1900 does its original job. Cotton Ginning Days is a working demonstration of how cotton country once worked, put on by the people who restored the machinery themselves, in the town that once served as Gaston County’s seat. Entry and parking are free, the festival runs three days on the second weekend in October, and its centrepiece is a cotton gin that actually gins cotton while visitors watch.
About the Festival
Cotton Ginning Days is an annual three-day fall heritage festival presented by GAMTRA, the Gaston Agricultural, Mechanical, and Textile Restoration Association, together with the Gaston County Parks and Recreation Department. It takes place at Dallas Park, 1303 Dallas Cherryville Highway, in Dallas. Gastonia is the county seat of Gaston County and does not host the festival. Dallas hosts it, and Dallas was the original county seat until the courthouse moved to Gastonia on January 1, 1911.
The county’s stated purpose is preserving the heritage of Southern blue-collar workers and life in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The 2026 edition was billed as the 39th annual festival, Friday, October 9 through Sunday, October 11, 2026, Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Quick Facts
| Detail | What to Know |
| Festival | Cotton Ginning Days Festival |
| Where | Dallas Park, 1303 Dallas Cherryville Highway, Dallas, North Carolina |
| Host town | Dallas (Gastonia is the county seat and does not host) |
| Presented by | GAMTRA and the Gaston County Parks and Recreation Department |
| When | Three days on the second weekend in October |
| 2026 edition | Friday, October 9 to Sunday, October 11, 2026, billed 39th annual |
| 2026 hours | Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. |
| Admission and parking | Free in the presenters’ current wording |
| Centrepiece | The restored 1900 Continental gin in the Lankford Cotton Gin Building |
| Inside charges in 2026 | Saturday Kid Zone rides ten dollars per wristband, Monster Mini Golf five dollars per round, pony rides fee unpublished |
How the Festival Began
The county’s own history page states that the festival was started in 1988, and no edition number is used here to work backwards to a different founding year. The surviving billings are left where they sit: 11th annual in 1998, 20th in 2007, 22nd in 2009, 23rd in 2010, an undated 36th annual in the county sponsorship layer, 38th year in 2025, and 39th annual in 2026.
The gin itself arrived later than the festival, and that order matters. The Lankford Cotton Gin Building is named for Mr. H. C. Lankford, who bought the ginning equipment and permanently loaned it to GAMTRA for display at Dallas Park. The building is a post and beam replica of an original located in central Georgia, pegged together with white oak pegs. Erection began on September 28, 1991, and the building was finished in time for the 1992 show. The restored 1900 hand-fed Continental gin went into operation alongside a companion screw-operated bale press, powered by the thirty-seven and a half horsepower Fairbanks-Morse diesel in the Wilson Engine Shed. The ginning itself began later still: the festival began ginning cotton in 1995. The festival came first, the building second, and the ginning third.
For a useful comparison, see the Forsyth County North Carolina Carolina Classic Fair Festival for another county festival.
The festival was also selected for the Library of Congress Local Legacies Project in 2000, in the county’s own account.
What to Expect
The Working Gin
Start at the gin. Inside the Lankford Cotton Gin Building, the restored 1900 Continental gin runs on the Fairbanks-Morse diesel in the Wilson Engine Shed, operated and explained by GAMTRA members. The county’s own pages spell the gin two ways, single-stand in one place and single-strand in another, and both spellings are recorded here exactly as published. The 2026 tourism layer dates the engine to 1920, a year belonging to the tourism and press layers, not to the county history page, which gives only the horsepower, and the same layer describes cotton spun into thread by hand.
The Crank-Up
Around the gin building, the festival’s engine show fills the park. Exhibitors from across the Southeast bring antique steam and gasoline engines and tractors, and the annual crank-up sets them running. The county layers bill more than 300 exhibits, and the 1998 account likewise recorded more than 300 exhibitors. A GAMTRA member told the 2025 press account that the club rescued the engine and rebuilt it.
Heritage Village and the Heritage Arts Area
The permanent display at the county park gives the festival its second anchor. The county history page lists a 19th century barn, homes, kitchen, chapel, and blacksmith shop on permanent display, along with the Heritage Arts Area, where artists demonstrate blacksmithing, spinning, weaving, basket weaving, and instrument making. The 2025 press inventory describes the Heritage Village separately, with a cotton farmer’s house, chapel, schoolhouse, and a mule barn donated to the park in 1996, and that inventory is kept apart from the county’s own list. The 2026 tourism layer adds live demonstrations in the Blacksmith and Machine Shops.
Tractor Parades and the Tractor Rodeo
In the 2026 programme, the Tractor Parade runs Friday at 9 a.m. and Saturday at 1 p.m., and the Tractor Rodeo runs at 4 p.m. on both days. The rodeo is a tractor-skills event, never a livestock rodeo: no livestock rodeo, pageant, or fireworks are documented for this festival, and none is claimed here. The county sponsorship layer also bills two spectacular tractor parades over three days, an undated billing that sits alongside the timed 2026 schedule.
Music at the Amphitheater
The county sponsorship layer bills bluegrass and gospel bluegrass, with headline acts drawing one thousand to two thousand people, and names past favourites such as the Carolina Chocolate Drops, the Cockman Family, and the Flowers Family band. Those are past favourites in that layer, not a current line-up. The timed 2026 music sits at the Amphitheater at the back of the park on Saturday: Brennan Shortridge and the Bird Dogs at 12:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., The Fox Fires at 2:30 p.m., select vendors open until 7 p.m. The 2025 press layer, kept in its own year, describes live folk music at the lakeside amphitheater instead.
The Saturday Kid Zone
Children have two different wordings in the record, kept apart. The standard festival description speaks of a kids county fair among the festival’s activities. The 2026 tourism layer names a Kid Zone that operates on Saturday only, inside the Heritage Village, with carnival rides, inflatable games, Monster Mini Golf, and gem mining, plus pony rides by Gaston County 4-H Blazing Saddles at the Horse Arena. The Kid Zone wording belongs to 2026 and is not back-dated. The 2025 press layer describes kids’ rides including a merry-go-round, swings, and slides.
Planning Your Visit
Getting There and Getting Around
Dallas Park sits just off Highway 321, and the festival address is 1303 Dallas Cherryville Highway in Dallas. No Gastonia address, no Gaston College address, and no downtown Dallas address is the festival grounds. Gaston College matters only as a transport point: in 2026, a free shuttle ran Saturday only from the Gaston College lot, and a free internal tram ran all three days from the field parking area to near the Cotton Gin. Both are fenced to 2026.
What It Costs
Admission and parking are free in the presenters’ current wording: the 2026 tourism layer states it outright, and the county sponsorship page agrees. But a free festival is not one where nothing costs anything. The Saturday Kid Zone’s unlimited rides cost ten dollars per wristband, inflatable games are free, Monster Mini Golf costs five dollars per round, and pony rides carry an unpublished fee. None of those inside charges is a gate price.
Vendor and exhibitor money is separate by year and type. A 2024 association newsletter charged anyone selling items a twenty-five-dollar fee, payable at the association registration desk under the gin building. A 2025 artisan-market application priced a market vendor space at twenty dollars for a twelve-foot by twelve-foot outdoor space. A 2026 exhibitor application carried an application fee of zero dollars. None of them is another year’s fee or a visitor’s admission price.
Food and Comfort
The standard description promises that the food is good, and the 2025 press layer fills in the detail for its year with food trucks serving hamburgers, shrimp, catfish, ice cream, and cotton candy. The 2026 layer does not publish a food-truck roster, so no 2026 menu is claimed here. Saturday is the fullest day, with the Kid Zone, the parade, the rodeo, and the amphitheater music all stacked into it.
A Saturday to Aim For
A Saturday visit shows the festival at full stretch. Arrive in the morning and head straight for the Lankford Cotton Gin Building. From there, walk the Heritage Village and the Heritage Arts Area, where the blacksmiths, spinners, weavers, and basket weavers are working through the morning. Catch the Tractor Parade at 1 p.m., then the amphitheater music, with The Fox Fires at 2:30 p.m. and Brennan Shortridge and the Bird Dogs closing at 5:30 p.m. Fit the Tractor Rodeo in at 4 p.m. between sets, and let children spend their wristband in the Saturday Kid Zone. Stay for the vendors open until 7 p.m.
How the Three Days Compare
The three days are not interchangeable. Friday opens the festival with the Tractor Parade at 9 a.m. and the Tractor Rodeo at 4 p.m. Saturday is the biggest day: the Kid Zone opens, the second parade runs at 1 p.m., the rodeo repeats at 4 p.m., and the amphitheater music fills the afternoon. Sunday is the shortest and quietest day, closing at 3 p.m., suiting visitors who want the gin and the crafts without the Saturday crowds. The 2024 footnote: grounds opened Wednesday, October 9 at 10 a.m. for set-up only, never a five-day festival.
Visitor Checklist
- Head for Dallas Park in Dallas, not Gastonia, at 1303 Dallas Cherryville Highway
- Go on the second weekend in October, checking the year’s dates first
- Start at the Lankford Cotton Gin Building to see the gin running
- Ask the GAMTRA operators about the machinery
- Walk the Heritage Village and Heritage Arts Area for the working crafts
- Catch a Tractor Parade and the Tractor Rodeo (a tractor-skills event)
- Keep Saturday free for the Kid Zone and the amphitheater music
- Bring nothing for admission or parking, since both are free
- Budget for 2026 inside charges: ten dollars for a Saturday rides wristband, five dollars per round of mini golf, pony-ride fee unpublished
- Use the free 2026 Saturday shuttle and internal tram, and wear walking shoes
Beyond the Festival Grounds
Dallas rewards a little extra time, and the 2026 tourism layer recommends the historic district as a side visit. The Old Gaston County Courthouse, the Gaston County Museum, and the Old Jail stand in downtown Historic Dallas, telling the town’s story as the former county seat until 1911. That district is a side visit, not the festival grounds: the gin building, the village, and the engine show all sit at Dallas Park.
Why the Festival Matters
Cotton Ginning Days matters because it keeps a working skill visible. A gin in a museum case would teach something, but a gin that runs, powered by a diesel engine dragged out of the woods and rebuilt, teaches something else: that the machinery of the cotton South was maintained by hand and brought back to life by people who refused to let it rust. The festival’s mission is carried out in demonstrations: the blacksmith’s hammer, the spinner’s wheel, the weaver’s loom, and the gin’s steady work. The Library of Congress Local Legacies selection in 2000 recognised exactly that quality.
The attendance figures refuse to settle into a single number, and both billings are carried here unblended. The county layers bill more than 50,000 people and more than 300 exhibits; the 2025 press layer bills attendance exceeding 25,000 and describes thousands of visitors. The same press layer calls the festival Gaston County’s largest annual event, a press-layer billing, not a county ranking.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Cotton Ginning Days really free to enter?
Yes, in the presenters’ current wording: admission and parking are free. Inside charges are separate: in 2026, Saturday Kid Zone unlimited rides cost ten dollars per wristband, Monster Mini Golf cost five dollars per person per round, inflatable games were free, and pony rides carried an unpublished fee.
Where in Dallas is the festival held?
At Dallas Park, 1303 Dallas Cherryville Highway, in Dallas, North Carolina. Dallas hosts the festival; Gastonia is the county seat and does not host it. No Gastonia address, Gaston College address, or downtown Dallas address is the festival grounds.
What is the one thing a first-time visitor should not miss?
The working cotton gin. The restored 1900 Continental gin inside the Lankford Cotton Gin Building is the festival’s centrepiece, and watching it gin cotton while GAMTRA members operate and explain the machinery is the experience the festival is built around. The building itself is part of the story: a post and beam replica of a central Georgia original, finished for the 1992 show, with ginning on site beginning in 1995.
When does the festival take place, and how long does it last?
It is a three-day festival on the second weekend in October. The 2026 edition ran Friday, October 9 through Sunday, October 11, 2026, with Friday and Saturday hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday hours of 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The 2025 edition ran October 10 through 12, and the 2024 edition ran October 11 through 13.
What to Expect From the Next Gaston County North Carolina Cotton Ginning Days Festival
How often is the Gaston County North Carolina Cotton Ginning Days Festival held?
It is an annual festival, held once a year on the second weekend in October in the documented modern pattern. The dated editions follow that pattern: October 11 through 13 in 2024, October 10 through 12 in 2025, and October 9 through 11 in 2026.
When is the next Gaston County North Carolina Cotton Ginning Days Festival?
No next edition date is published beyond the 2026 edition, which ran October 9 through 11, 2026, billed as the 39th annual festival. The pattern points to the second weekend of the following October, but no future date is published.
Will the dates change?
The festival’s dates move with the calendar, since the second weekend in October falls on different days each year. The three-day October shape has held, but the exact span changes year by year. Hours have also varied by day, with Sunday closing earlier than Friday and Saturday in 2026.
A festival that began in 1988 to preserve the working heritage of the South now fills a county park each October with engines, crafts, music, and families, free of charge. Dallas Park is where the gin runs and the blacksmiths work, and the second weekend in October is when it happens. Come for the gin, stay for the village, and leave with a clearer sense of how cotton country once worked.
