The Old Fourth Ward Arts Festival returns to Historic Fourth Ward Park on June 20–21, 2026, for its 14th annual spring/summer edition. This free, all-ages event, set along the Atlanta BeltLine Eastside Trail, showcases curated artist booths, live DJs, food, and a children's area. But the festival is more than an arts market; it is a celebration of a neighborhood that has shaped Atlanta's identity in ways often overlooked.
The Old Fourth Ward (O4W) is best known as the birthplace of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but its contributions to Black education and community self-determination run deeper. Morris Brown College, founded in 1881, established its original location here. Dr. Kevin E. James, president of Morris Brown College, noted, 'Morris Brown College was established on January 5, 1881, by the Big Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Atlanta, Georgia—born in the heart of the Old Fourth Ward, at the storied intersection of Boulevard and Houston Streets. From that founding moment, we stood apart: the only institution of higher learning in Georgia founded by, completely funded by, and created exclusively for African Americans.' As the college marks its 145th year with projected enrollment growth of 20 percent, its roots in O4W remain a source of pride.
The neighborhood also gave Atlanta one of its most iconic street names. In the late 1860s, a local physician named natural springs east of town 'Ponce de León Springs,' leading to the avenue that now defines the area. Historic Fourth Ward Park sits near those springs, its two-acre lake tapping the same water table that drew Victorian-era Atlantans. After the Great Atlanta Fire of 1917, O4W reimagined itself around Ponce de León Ballpark and an amusement complex, drawing crowds that later attracted Sears, Roebuck & Company to build its Southern Regional Distribution Center—now Ponce City Market.
The phrase 'Old Fourth Ward' technically emerged in 1937, when Georgia legislators restructured Atlanta's ward system, and residents informally adopted the name. Though the ward system was abolished in 1954, the community retained its identity, making O4W one of the few Atlanta neighborhoods to outlast the governmental structure that created it. Long before the BeltLine's 2012 opening, O4W served as a canvas for public art, from Living Walls murals to Sol LeWitt's permanent installation '54 Columns.' Artists like HENSE, whose large-scale abstract works have since attracted clients from Apple to the High Museum, began their public-art careers on O4W's walls.
The festival, located at 592 N. Angier Ave. NE, Atlanta, GA 30308, runs Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free, and dogs are welcome. For more information, visit www.oldfourthwardparkartsfestival.com.
