Friday, Saturday or Sunday: what each 2026 Moonshine Festival day holds

Go Saturday for the parade and the big program, Sunday for the Kids Market and the closing draws, and Friday only if cars are the whole reason for the trip. That is the short answer for the 59th Mountain Moonshine Festival & Car Show in Dawsonville, Georgia, October 23 to 25, 2026. The three days are more different than most listings let on, so here is what the organizer has actually put on each one.

The schedule below comes from the Kare for Kids 2026 flyer and the organizer’s entertainment page and car show page. All 2026 times on this page are as published by Kare for Kids and subject to change. Confirm them at kareforkids.org the week you go.

The three days side by side

Friday, October 23: car-show and Moonshine Run day

Friday is the day people misread. The flyer gives it four lines: car show registration from 8 a.m. to noon, the car show from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Moonshine Run check-in at 9 a.m., and the Run’s 10 a.m. departure from Bearden’s Funeral Home. Saturday and Sunday each get a “Festival Opens” line. Friday does not.

Other listings muddy this. Explore Georgia shows 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on all three days, and the organizer’s vendor terms give 8 to 5 as festival hours. That leaves room for some booths on Friday, but nobody has published which ones, so we treat Friday as a car day. If a Friday visit only makes sense with vendors and music, call Kare for Kids at 706-216-5273 before you drive up.

The 18th annual Moonshine Run is a rolling car show through the North Georgia mountains to a lunch stop, per the Moonshine Run page. It is capped at 70 cars, registration closed September 1, and the 2026 lunch destination was still listed as “still being decided” when we checked. For spectators, that mostly means the send-off at Bearden’s. Drivers come back on their own, expected by mid-afternoon. Our Moonshine Run and parade guide has the details.

Two more Friday facts. The organizer’s parking page says shuttle buses run all day Saturday and Sunday and says nothing about Friday, so do not count on one. And the City of Dawsonville lists City Hall as closed all three days.

Saturday, October 24: the full program

Saturday stacks nearly every headline event into one day. In order:

• 8 a.m. Festival and car show open; car registration runs to noon.
• 9 a.m. Entertainment starts with The Phoenix Dance Academy (9 to 10), then The Jaywalkers (10 to 11).
• 10 a.m. Parade of historical race cars, led by 2026 Grand Marshal Danny “Chocolate” Myers. The route has not been published.
• 11 a.m. Opening ceremony and the National Moonshiner’s Hall of Fame induction.
• 11:45 a.m. onward Wendell Cox, Mark Mundy & Family, then Anthony Hill at 12:45 and Georgia Fire Band at 1:45. The flyer marks noon as the start of live music.
• 1 p.m. Car show judging ends.
• 3 p.m. Judged car show awards, and Don’t Tell Danny’s concert (listed 3:00 to 6:00 on the entertainment page).
• 5 p.m. The flyer’s closing time for the festival.

If you have seen a 9 a.m. parade or a 10 a.m. ceremony somewhere, those were the 2025 times. The 2026 flyer moved both an hour later. The concert also runs past the 5 p.m. close on paper, so do not plan on vendors staying open for it.

One extra worth knowing: Destination Dawsonville lists Tommy Townsend playing at Grandaddy Mimm’s Distilling Co. from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday. That is the distillery’s own event, beside the Hall of Fame.

Sunday, October 25: kids, People’s Choice and the closing draws

Sunday has no parade and no ceremony. What it has instead:

• The festival and car show, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Music from 9 or 10 a.m. The flyer says live music begins at 10, while the entertainment page starts Jessi Evans at 9. After that come Sons of Thunder (10 to 11), Uncle Samsquatch (11:30 to 1), Oriental Rug Shop (1:30 to 2:30) and Music Authority: Eclipse and Beyond (3 to 5).
• The Kids Market, which the organizer’s 2026 event map marks “Sunday only.” Its hours have not been published.
• The People’s Choice car show award at 3 p.m.
• The 50/50 raffle drawing and the end of the silent auction, both at 4 p.m.

The Georgia Racing Hall of Fame’s regular Sunday hours are 1 to 5 p.m., per its visit page. It has not posted separate hours for festival weekend.

Pick a day by what you came for

Old race cars are less tied to one day than you might think. The organizer’s parade page says parade cars stay parked in town all weekend and their owners often stay with them to talk. The car show itself runs all three days. If you want to see the cars and skip the parade crowd at the curb, Sunday still has them. Our car show guide covers where each class parks.

For quieter browsing, we have no crowd counts for any day and will not guess. What the schedule does show is that Friday has the smallest published program and Sunday has no parade or ceremony. Those are the days with less on the clock. For families, we wrote a separate piece on the festival with kids.

Getting in on the day you pick

Admission is free. Parking is a donation of $10 to $25 depending on the lot, as published by Destination Dawsonville, subject to change. The organizer lists nine lots, each with handicap spaces. The festival goes on rain or shine. Lot addresses and the shuttle stop are on our parking and shuttles page, and the full hour-by-hour plan with calendar buttons is on the 2026 festival schedule.

Questions people ask

Written by the Dawsonville Moonshine Festival Guide Editorial Team. AI tools help us draft; people check every fact before it publishes.