Athens-Clarke County commissioners are poised to approve an annual list of community events like AthFest that receive local government funding, but next year, event organizers are hoping for more.
The $250,000 Community Events Program will fund about two dozen concerts, markets, parades, film festivals and other activities that draw people downtown and stimulate the economy. The Athens Downtown Development Authority approved a list of recommended events for 2026 last week, which will go to the commission for final approval in August. (Mayor Kelly Girtz canceled the July voting meeting).
“The events downtown have been tremendous,” said Kim Long, co-owner of Flicker Theatre & Bar. “It has really shifted and gotten people out who don’t usually go out.”
At the June 6 meeting—just prior to the commission voting on the county’s 2026 budget—several speakers like Timi Conley, founder of the Wild Rumpus Halloween parade, asked commissioners to double CEP funding to $500,000. Conley said Visit Athens uses Wild Rumpus as “an example of what makes Athens Athens when promoting tourism,” so special events deserve a larger share of ACC’s 7% hotel/motel tax, which brought in $5.8 million last year. Most of that revenue currently goes to the Classic Center.
Conley said he put together a group of downtown event organizers that did research and discovered that Chattanooga, TN spends $600,000 on special events and Gainesville, FL spends $1.2 million.
Mary Joyce, executive director of AthFest Educates, said she decided to move to Athens after interviewing for a job at UGA while the festival was going on, and that attending the Twilight Criterium and an early Wild Rumpus convinced her to stay. “These events bring folks here. These events make folks stay here. And I can testify to that,” Joyce said.
Commissioner Mike Hamby, who wrote the final version of the budget, told Flagpole that CEP was recently bumped up from $60,000 to $250,000, so he included the figure from Girtz’s budget proposal. Girtz described $250,000 as “a floor” and said more funding could be included in next year’s budget.
“That increase has been incredible,” Conley said. “With rising costs and events that are getting bigger every year, we needed that.”
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