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The Peachtree Corners Festival 2023 Gearing Up for Another Great Year
By Zoey Schlueter
The Peachtree Corners Festival is no doubt one of the greatest traditions in the city of Peachtree Corners because of its continual improvement and growth year after year. Filled with music, food, arts and crafts — and much more — the family-friendly festival continues to be a symbol and trademark of our community’s excellence.
Located in and around the Town Center, the Peachtree Corners Festival will be hosted on September 22 through 24, with times on Friday, 7:30 to 10:30 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Sunday, 12 to 5:00 p.m.
As the festival celebrates its 12th year of continuation, Peachtree Corners Festival brings something new to the table this year. With the recent passing of long-time Peachtree Corners resident, First Lady of Peachtree Corners and Peachtree Corners Festival Vice President Debbie Mason, the festival plans to commemorate Mason this year and the legacy she not only left with the festival but with the community.
Dave Huffman, Peachtree Corners Festival President, has been heavily involved in the festival for over a decade and worked closely with Mason for many years. To bring light to the lasting impact Mason left on the city of Peachtree Corners, the organizing committee of the festival has many plans in store for the upcoming weekend.
Celebrating Debbie Mason
Huffman shared that the professed theme of this year’s festival is “Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Debbie Mason.”
“Normally we don’t have a theme to our festival, but this year is special,” said Huffman. “In addition to all of her many activities and contributions to our community, Debbie was a co-founder of the festival and its Vice-President until her death from cancer earlier this year.”
Within the festival, to celebrate Mason’s legacy during the festival kickoff, there will be a tribute to Mason in the opening speech, the festival t-shirts will have Mason mentioned on them, and on the festival booths, there will be mention of Mason, too.
Even before the festival, Peachtree Corners Festival worked to install the Debbie Mason Drama Scholarship at Norcross High School (NHS) to celebrate Mason’s love for the NHS drama department.
Aside from these meaningful attributions, the Peachtree Corners Festival has many other plans in store to make this year special.
Foremost, with the festival set to take place in the middle of September rather than mid-summer, the cooled weather will surely create an enjoyable setting for the festival. Huffman and his team also have worked to improve the festival and its dynamics for this year’s event.
“Each year we try to improve a little bit on the previous year,” said Huffman. “I know people — organizers like myself — will always say, ‘Oh this is going to be the greatest festival we’ve ever had.’ But when we do a process like that, that’s actually true because each festival, we try to improve on it a little bit, take our lessons learned.”
“We’ve got more arts and crafts booths than we’ve ever had, and the music is always a plus,” Huffman continued. “We’re one of the few festivals in this area that pays our bands. So, we do get, I think, a higher quality of band. Our car show is always fun, and I think that’s something that makes our festival stand out, I believe, from some of the other ones in the area.”
Scan the QR Code to make a contribution to the festival to honor Debbie’s memory