The Dogwood Festival kicks of Atlanta’s festival season in April with a large artist market, live music, Disk Dog Exhibition, Kid’s Village and more in Piedmont Park. Although your overall commute might be a little longer if you take MARTA, you’ll save time not having to find parking or navigate in and out of grid-locked streets. And in some cases, the walk from the MARTA station to the festival can be shorter than those parking their cars on side streets.
Here are some basic tips and information for planning your trip to the festival:
- A roundtrip ticket cost $4, which you can purchase at any MARTA rail station.
- If you don’t ride MARTA often, purchase a Breeze Ticket and put a roundtrip fare on it. If you live locally and plan to ride MARTA again after the festival, purchase a plastic Breeze Card. You can put as many fares on the card as you like and it is reloadable.
- The train station closest to the festival is Midtown, on the red/gold rail line that runs north and south through the city. If you are coming from a station on the blue/green rail line, you will need to exit at the Five Points station and follow the signs pointing to the Northbound platform to get to Midtown.
- Be sure to tap your card to enter AND exit train stations. Tapping your card gives you a free transfer to a bus. There are three buses at the Midtown station that you can ride if you rather not walk. Those routes are 27, 36 and 99. If you plan to connect to a bus route, be sure to check www.itsmarta.com before you leave to view any services changes. Often buses are slightly rerouted to move around festival traffic. Bus 27 should be running a normal route and schedule and has a stop near the festival artist market (see route and schedule information).
- Likewise, if you are leaving the festival, you can use your MARTA card to get on a bus near the park. Tap your card and you’ll get a free transfer to the train.
- If you decide to walk from the Midtown station, turn right on 10th Street and plan for a 10 minute walk up a slight incline to the entrance to Piedmont Park. If you are bringing children, make sure you have strollers or wagons.
- If you don’t mind walking an extra five minutes, you can avoid some festival crowds by exiting at the Arts Center station instead. The Arts Center station is on 15th Street and there is a park entrance on 14th Street.
- For any emergency provisions, the Midtown Market is on 10th Street on the way to the park and has basic food and convenience items.
- Check the train schedules ahead of time to avoid long waits on the train platform. Trains run every 20 minutes on the weekend.
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