SITE’s art is meant to be temporary. The annual experimental art festival returns to Goat Farm’s 12-acre West Midtown campus Saturday, Oct. 3, with six hours of installations, live performance and music for one night. Then much of the work is gone.
The festival’s fleeting nature is part of its appeal. “There’s an energy to knowing it only happens once. If you miss it, you miss it,” said Allie Bashuk, creative and design director at Goat Farm.
Why create SITE?
Goat Farm developed SITE with Atlanta curator Jacob O’Kelley in 2024. The multidisciplinary cultural center had just reopened after years of construction, and its team wanted in on Atlanta Art Week and the first Atlanta Art Fair.
“We imagined something that would complement the fair while taking a different approach: ephemeral, one night only, installation-based, and focused on work that couldn’t simply be bought and taken home,” Bashuk said.
Three years in, SITE has found its footing. “The first felt a little impossible and chaotic,” Bashuk said. The second was more ambitious. This year, she said, “feels more polished, while still leaving room for surprise.”
SITE 2026 lineup
Thirty featured artists and artist teams, including Dana Haugaard and Hermes Mangialardo, are on this year’s bill, along with eight musical acts, including Frankly Dope and csndra. Bashuk said SITE has 20 original works this year, drawn from an open call Goat Farm put out in April.
The mix is local, national and international, with artists coming from Canada, France and Italy. “It creates an exchange,” Bashuk said. Visiting artists get to work in Atlanta, and local artists show alongside people practicing across the country and abroad.
The work traveling farthest is Mangialardo’s “OCULUCIS” from Italy, a light installation of two large, luminous eyes suspended in space. It plays with the feeling that what you’re looking at is looking back.
Haugaard’s “This Place Is Happening” treats the notion of “site” as something that unfolds over time. Independent sound and light systems switch on at irregular intervals, so no two moments are quite the same. Where you stand and how you move shape what you experience.
Many entries are collaborations, including Living Walls x Addam Yekutieli and Maia Jones x With Width Dance Company. Bashuk said the pairings were the artists’ own idea. “We didn’t pair people up; we were excited by what they wanted to make together.”
One she’s especially looking forward to is “DIFFUSION_2” in Goodson. Brandon Sadler will use a fire extinguisher filled with enamel to write in his Single World Character system across a 36-by-23-foot surface while Rocko Walker contributes music. The piece takes shape over the course of the night.
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Twenty sponsors, including Tribridge Residential and The Fountain Companies, made the festival possible.
The SITE 2026 schedule
Gates open at 5 p.m., and SITE runs until 11 p.m. Music moves among spaces with different moods. “A set in Warhorse feels more intimate, while the Main Stage has a larger, more theatrical presence,” Bashuk said.
First-timers should come early, Bashuk suggested, using that time to explore the open studios, where Goat Farm’s studio artists will show work, and to spend time with installations before performances pick up. “SITE really comes to life as the sun goes down,” she said.
Rideshare and biking are the simplest options to get there, Bashuk said. MARTA riders can take the train to Midtown or Arts Center station, then transfer to a bus or rideshare for the last stretch.
Advance tickets are $35; at the door is $40. Kids 12 and under get in free. Learn more at thegoatfarm.info.
