The last full week of September is when Marietta stops performing for the season and settles into it. Glover Park hosts the final outdoor concert of a forty year old series, the art museum on Atlanta Street turns over two galleries on the same Saturday, and the restored theatre on North Park Square runs a 1926 feature with its house organ in play. Four things are worth holding space for on the Historic Marietta Square between Sunday, September 20 and Monday, September 28, 2026, and each is an easy run in from East Cobb.
Glover Park Concert Series: Nashville Nation
Why It Stands Out
2026 marks the fortieth year of the Glover Park Concert Series. The city stages one free concert a month from April through September, always in Glover Park at the center of the Square, and the September date closes the season. Sponsored by Wellstar Health System, it has stayed the same size and shape long enough to feel like a tradition rather than a programming decision. For anyone new to the area, it is the fastest way to understand how the Square functions on a warm Friday night.
What to Expect
Nashville Nation takes the stage on Friday, September 25 from 8 to 10 pm in Glover Park, 50 Park Square, Marietta, GA 30060, playing modern country. Admission is free and no ticket is required. The park sits inside a ring of restaurants and storefronts, so the sound carries across the block and the evening spills outward from the lawn. Two hours is the full run, which keeps it a manageable night.
Timing and Planning
Treat this as a full evening. Dinner on the Square before eight, then music, is the sequence that works. Arrive with enough margin to find a place on the lawn before the first song, because a season closing date on a Friday draws more people than a midsummer one would. Parking is street and lot based around the Square, and the city publishes downtown parking information on its website. Best for couples, friend groups, and anyone who has just moved to Cobb County.
Marietta Square Farmers Market
Neighborhood Angle
The market is the Square's standing appointment. It runs Saturdays, 9 am to noon, year round, from 41 Mill Street on the Historic Marietta Square, and it is the reason a good number of residents structure their Saturday morning the way they do. On Saturday, September 26 it falls neatly into the middle of this window.
What to Expect
Growers and makers set up within easy walking distance of the Square's shops and coffee counters, which is what separates this from a parking lot market you drive to and leave. The three hour run keeps it brisk. Bring a bag and plan on less time than a full morning.
Insider Tip
Stack it. The market closes at noon and the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art, a short walk down Atlanta Street, opens at 11 am on weekends. That overlap gives you a morning that starts outdoors and finishes inside two new exhibitions, with a lunch stop on the Square in between.
Two New Exhibitions Open at the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art
Why It Stands Out
Museums rarely open two shows at once. On Saturday, September 26, the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art does exactly that. Legendary Georgia Musicians by Jackie Dorsey goes up in the Terri Strickland Cole Galleries upstairs, and MCMA Permanent Collection: Recent Acquisitions opens in the main galleries downstairs. Both run through December 13, so this window is the chance to see them first.
What to Expect
The museum occupies a handsome building at 30 Atlanta Street, SE, Marietta, GA 30060, a short walk from Glover Park. Alongside the two new shows, MCMA Permanent Collection: America's 250th Celebration remains on view in the Northside Hospital Board Room through December 13, which means three distinct bodies of work under one roof. The Dorsey exhibition gives the visit a through line, and the recent acquisitions room shows where the permanent collection is heading.
Best For
Couples looking for a Saturday afternoon that is not a restaurant, friend groups who want something to discuss over a drink after, and newcomers building a mental map of what Marietta offers beyond food and retail.
Timing and Planning
The museum is closed Mondays and open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 am to 7 pm on weekdays and 11 am to 4 pm on weekends. Admission is $10 for adults and $8 for students, military and visitors 65 and older, with free entry for children under 6 and for members. A ramp entrance is on the left side of the building and an elevator reaches all floors. An opening Saturday draws more traffic than a Tuesday evening, so if you prefer a slower room, come midweek while the shows are still fresh. Current listings are on the museum's exhibitions page.
Silent Films at The Strand: Sparrows (1926)
What to Expect
On Sunday, September 27, the Earl and Rachel Smith Strand Theatre at 117 North Park Square, Marietta, GA 30060 screens Sparrows, a 1926 feature, as part of its Silent Films at The Strand series. The draw is as much the room as the film. The theatre keeps a four manual Allen organ with thirty three digital ranks, donated by the Atlanta Chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society and voiced to replicate a large 1920s Wurlitzer, with the effects a silent accompanist needs: car horns, whistles, a train whistle, thunder. Ron Carter is the theatre's house organist and a specialist in silent film accompaniment. A hundred year old picture in a historic house with that instrument in the room is not something the multiplex can approximate.
Insider Tip
The theatre lists the date but not a published showtime for this screening, so confirm before you build an evening around it. The box office is reachable at 770.293.0080, open Tuesday through Thursday from 12 to 4 pm, Friday from 12 to 6 pm, and two hours before any showtime. The Strand's calendar is the place to check the time and availability.
Neighborhood Angle
The Strand sits directly on North Park Square, a short walk from Glover Park, the museum and most of the district's dining. That geography is the argument for a Sunday here: park once, eat on the Square, and walk to the show. It is a casual stop that can expand into a full evening, and it is the kind of civic asset that surprises people who have only driven past Marietta on the way somewhere else.
Event Q&A
Which single night is the best introduction to Marietta Square?
Friday, September 25. The Glover Park concert is free, runs two hours from 8 to 10 pm, and puts you in the middle of the district with restaurants on every side. There is no ticket to arrange and no commitment beyond showing up.
Do any of these events require tickets in advance?
Only the Strand screening. The Glover Park concert is free with no ticket, the farmers market is open to the public, and the museum charges admission at the door. For Sparrows, contact the box office or use the theatre's site, and confirm the showtime at the same time.
What is worth doing on Sunday, September 27?
The Strand screening anchors that day, and the museum is open Sundays from 11 am to 4 pm with all three exhibitions on view. Pairing an afternoon at the museum with the film gives you a complete day on the Square without moving your car more than once.
How should visitors handle parking and arrival on the Square?
Everything here sits within a walkable radius of the Historic Marietta Square, so the strategy is to park once and stay on foot. The city publishes downtown parking information on its website, and the museum directs visitors there as well. Give yourself extra margin on Friday night and Saturday morning, the two busiest stretches of this window.
