Downtown Jonesboro Splits Its First November Weekend Into Day and Night
October 29, 2026
October 29, 2026
At 2 p.m. on Friday, November 6, the Granite Jubilee pop-up shop inside the Historic Train Depot on North Main Street closes for the day. Three hours later and a few blocks away, the City of Jonesboro opens its Harvest Festival on City Green. The two events have different hosts. The Road To Tara Museum and the Clayton County Convention & Visitors Bureau organize one, and the city and the Jonesboro Beautification Committee organize the other. Their hours still fit together. The Depot has the mornings and early afternoons, City Green has Friday night, and downtown stays busy all weekend without the two hosts competing for the same hour.
Friday is the one day both clocks run. Here is the sequence, based on the published schedules:
Saturday and Sunday use only the daytime clock, with the pop-up open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. both days.
The Granite Jubilee marks 90 years of Gone with the Wind. It's a weekend-long event split between Jonesboro and Marietta. The Jonesboro events take place inside the Depot, which also houses the Jonesboro Depot Welcome Center. The visitors bureau's Jubilee page describes Jonesboro as the novel's original literary setting. The local events lean on that connection and on the museum's own collection, without importing a touring production.
The main attraction at the pop-up shop is the stock. According to the bureau, the museum is opening its archives and selling duplicate items that are rarely made available to the public. It's open three days, four hours each day, and each day ends before the afternoon does.
The two parts of the Jubilee are priced very differently. The Friday and Saturday events in Marietta are held at the Marietta Gone With the Wind Museum, which sells a $100 weekend ticket. The bureau says those are the only Jubilee events that require payment. The Jonesboro side has no ticketed component listed. For a Jonesboro resident, the drive to Marietta is optional. The free part of the weekend is on North Main Street.
At 5 p.m. on Friday the activity shifts to City Green, which the city describes as sitting directly behind Nouveau Bar & Grill. According to Best of Clayton County's preview of the Harvest Festival, the evening includes:
Costumes are welcome, and the organizers suggest bringing lawn chairs for the movie. No attendee registration is listed. That list sets the festival apart from the Depot's daytime program. It's aimed at families with young children, while the pop-up is aimed at collectors and film history fans. The two events draw different crowds, and the schedule keeps them from crowding the same block at the same hour.
The festival also wraps up a month of downtown decorating. The City of Jonesboro Scarecrow Decorating Contest runs from October 10 through November 6. The city invited businesses, families, residents, clubs, civic groups, churches, schools and community organizations to enter, and participation was free. Registration closed October 5, so the field is set, and the winner will be named on Friday night.
The city's Porch Fest porch decorating contest is also listed for Friday, November 6. The rules and logistics are on the poster on the city's Porch Fest page, which is the place to check entry details before decorating.
Friday's gap runs from 2 p.m., when the pop-up closes, to 5 p.m., when the festival opens. Downtown's regular businesses cover those hours.
Nouveau Bar & Grill, 103 W Mill St, is the closest to the festival because City Green sits right behind it. Its site lists online ordering and posted hours. An early dinner there puts you a short walk from the lawn when the festival starts.
Slutty Vegan Jonesboro, 164 N McDonough St, is open Tuesday through Sunday and closed Mondays, so it's open for all three days of the weekend.
Swint's Feed & Garden Supply, 252 North Main Street, is on the same street as the Depot and welcomes visitors during business hours. It's a practical stop after the pop-up. Its online calendar is updated for October 2026, which helps when checking whether the store is open on a given day.
Taken together, Friday is a day-into-evening circuit of a few blocks: the Depot at the north end of Main, lunch or an early dinner nearby, and City Green behind Mill Street at 5.
The museum's regular hours, as listed by the visitors bureau, are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. That makes Sunday, November 8, a break from the museum's usual week. The Jubilee keeps it open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and packs in most of the weekend's programming.
According to the bureau, Sunday's schedule includes:
The tour is free. The Jubilee page links an "RSVP Today" button to a Facebook event, and the published listing gives the overall 10-to-2 window without separate tour times. If you want a particular tour slot, RSVP ahead and check that event page for timing.
During the museum's regular Monday-through-Saturday hours, admission also covers the Hattie McDaniel Legacy Experience. The bureau describes it as a highly interactive exhibit about McDaniel's career and the contributions of the film's African American actors beyond their roles on screen. Explore Georgia lists regular admission at $12 for adults, $10 for seniors 55 and older, military and students, and free for children 10 and under. That listing isn't dated, so call the museum at 770-478-4800 to confirm prices and whether the exhibit is open during Jubilee hours.
Saturday, November 7, has the fewest Jubilee events. The pop-up shop keeps its 10-to-2 hours, and nothing is scheduled on City Green. Clayton County has a separate event that day. A Youth Townhall for ages 14 to 18 runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Jim Huie Recreation Center, 9045 Tara Blvd., and registration is requested. It runs during the same hours as the pop-up, so a household with a teenager may want to split up that morning.
Later in the month, on Saturday, November 21, Clayton County holds a Veterans Health and Resource Fair from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Lake Spivey Recreation Center, 2300 Walt Stephens Road, with free health screenings and resources for veterans. After the scarecrow winner is named on November 6, that fair is the next date on the county calendar listed in Jonesboro.
At Zotique International Realty, we pay attention to how a town actually spends its time, including which blocks are busy at 10 a.m. and which fill up after 5. If downtown Jonesboro's calendar is part of how you think about where you live, we'd be glad to talk it through with you. Work With Us.
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