2026 Festival Wrap-Up and Slideshow

Written By Bart King

We must be living right, because the rain held off until Flash to Bang Time played their last notes to conclude this year’s Blueberry Jam. The forecasted rain didn’t impact the festival at all, and it and felt really good when it finally arrived during breakdown!

Thanks to everyone who came out and participated, especially our volunteers and this year’s organizational partners: Athens Land Trust, Oglethorpe Garage, Forest Heights Baptist Church and BikeAthens.

The final fundraising tally isn’t complete — and we still have about two dozen shirts for sale, if you want one email me at bart.king@4newgrowth.com— but we expect to raise a similar amount as last year (around $7,500 before expenses). All proceeds will support the Community Blueberry Project, the Festival and other community-building initiatives.

The winners of this year’s Blueberry Cook-off competition were:

  • Bob Fernandez - Best Overall

  • Alfredo Lapuz - Best Presentation

  • Gabrielle Burns - Most Delicious

  • Hind Yahyaoui - Most Original

Congratulations to the top finishers in the Blueberry Hill 5K! They were:

  1. Noah Shephard

  2. Caroline Dickey

  3. Haley Clark

  4. Ben Penso

  5. Avery Ryan

Top finishers in of the 1-mile Fun Run were:

  1. Byron Spraggins

  2. Athena Cordon Cotsakis

The first-ever 5K relay teams were:

  • Yondero

  • Cannonballs Run

  • Team Lemon

Check out the slideshow!

Bart King

Bart King is a writer, artist and father who is passionate about regenerating communities and ecosystems. His children’s books are available at NewGrowthPublishing.com. He is also the principal consultant at New Growth Communications, which provides marketing and PR assistance to clients in sustainability-related fields. Full bio here.

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