Sorghum in the Mountains is Blairsville’s sorghum festival now: who runs it, and why old pages show the wrong dates

Search for the Blairsville sorghum festival this month and you’ll find at least three sets of dates. Only one of them is right for 2026, and it comes from the group that runs the festival now.

Who runs it in 2026

The October sorghum festival at Meeks Park is now called Sorghum in the Mountains. It is organized by Sorghum in the Mountains, Inc., a volunteer board, and its website, sorghuminthemountains.com, is the place to check for dates and the schedule. One event-listing site names the Blairsville Downtown Development Authority as host, but the organizer’s own site names Sorghum in the Mountains, Inc., and the DDA’s events calendar doesn’t list the festival at all.

Where it came from

According to the organizer’s history page, the Blairsville Sorghum Festival began in 1969 on the town square. The Blairsville Jaycees started it (the group later became the Blairsville Sorghum Syrup Makers), and the festival moved to Meeks Park in 2008. The original festival’s own website stops at its 55th festival in 2024. Sorghum in the Mountains carries the tradition on under a new name and a new board, still at Meeks Park and still in October.

The 2026 schedule

The festival was planned over two weekends. The organizer’s 2026 schedule page says the first weekend, October 10–11, was cancelled because of weather. That leaves one weekend:

The organizer lists syrup making (pressing the cane and boiling the juice down), pole climbing, log sawing, rock throwing, sack races for kids, food and craft vendors, and live music from the Riverbend Band, Davy Henderson Gospel and the Campbell Folk School Cloggers. The parade starts the day on the downtown square, so plan to be downtown first and drive out to the park after.

Two loose ends on the organizer’s pages: the parade page has the heading “October 17” but its body still mentions an October 10 check-in, and the schedule prints the 5 p.m. closing time under the Grandaddy Mimm’s address. The schedule page is the more recent of the two and puts the parade on the 17th at 10 a.m.; the festival itself is at Meeks Park.

Why older pages show the wrong dates

• Union County’s festivals page still shows October 12–13 and 19–20, which were the 2024 dates from the last year of the original festival.
• The Chamber’s Fairs & Festivals page lists “October 11-12, 18-19,” which are 2025 dates. The same page mixes years for other events too, so the Chamber’s dated event calendar is the better Chamber source.
• The original festival’s website is frozen at 2024, including its admission price and its pet policy.

The festival has historically run on the second and third weekends of October, which is why old pages look plausible even when the dates are a year or two stale.

Admission, parking and dogs

Admission: no 2026 price is published anywhere we checked, and the original festival’s 2024 price doesn’t carry over. Ask the organizer at (706) 400-0720 or sorghuminthemountains@gmail.com.

Parking: the organizer’s site doesn’t mention parking or a shuttle. The festival’s Eventeny listing says parking is spread throughout the park and volunteers direct drivers.

Dogs: the Butternut Creek Festival organizers, another Meeks Park event, say Union County rules don’t allow pets in the park and point to a dog park across the street. The old 2024 sorghum FAQ called the festival dog-friendly on a leash. With the two in conflict, leave dogs at home or check with Union County Recreation before you go.

What sorghum syrup actually is

Sorghum syrup is made by cooking down the juice pressed from sweet sorghum cane, according to the National Sweet Sorghum Producers & Processors Association. It isn’t molasses, which is a byproduct of making table sugar from sugarcane or sugar beets, even though plenty of Southerners call it “sorghum molasses.”

The UGA Extension office for Towns and Union counties calls sweet sorghum in the fall “part of culture and history in the mountains.” At harvest the seed heads are cut off and the leaves are often stripped from the stalks. The cane then goes through a roller mill that squeezes out the juice. Mules once walked circles to turn the press; most mills now are electric. UGA puts the yield at roughly 8 to 10 gallons of juice for one gallon of syrup.

The green juice is boiled in a wide, shallow pan over a fire. University of Kentucky Extension explains that proteins and other impurities rise as a foam that has to be skimmed off continuously until the juice thickens into a clear, amber syrup. If the cooking demonstration is running when you visit, the skimming is the part to watch.

The photo below shows a sorghum boiling shed in 1914. Its location wasn’t recorded, so it isn’t a Blairsville scene, but the mill, pan and fire are the same basic setup.

What about 2027?

The organizer signs off with “We will see y’all again in 2027” but hasn’t published 2027 dates. Our sorghum festival page and events calendar will list them once the organizer does.

Questions people ask

Written by the Downtown Blairsville Editorial Team. AI tools help us draft; people check every fact before it publishes.

Dates, hours and fees change. For anything official, the city has the final word: City of Blairsville official site