The High Museum Turns 100 and Is Closing Peachtree Street for a Free Block Party

This is a one-off, outside the usual weekly rotation, because it is the kind of thing that is easy to miss until it is over. On Sunday, October 18, the High Museum of Art turns 100 and is closing a section of Peachtree Street outside its front door to throw a block party for the whole city. It runs from noon to 5 p.m. at 1280 Peachtree Street NE in Midtown. Everything here comes from the museum's own event page and the AJC's write-up of it, read this week. Check the museum's page again before you go, because programs and times on a day like this move.

Start with the part that matters for planning. Access to the block party is free and it goes ahead rain or shine. The museum asks you to register, and says plainly that the reason is to help it plan for the day, so it is a headcount and not a ticket. Going inside the galleries is separate: general admission for non-members is $23.50, according to the AJC and the museum's page. If you only want the street, you do not pay for that. If you want the street and the art, you do.

The stage program on Peachtree starts early and builds toward the afternoon. DJ XZACT opens at noon and DJ LV follows at 1. At 2 p.m. there are official welcome remarks, and the museum lists Director Rand Suffolk, Adriane Jefferson of the Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs, Mayor Andre Dickens and Killer Mike, who sits on the museum's board. The Biological Misfits play a live set at 2:30, and the afternoon ends with the Come Together Dance Party at 3:30 with DJ Keimt and Salah Ananse. Around that, Bautanzt Here, a dance theater piece made for the site, is listed at 3 p.m. and a Dance Canvas performance at 2:30.

There is more for families than I expected from a museum party. All Smiles Theatre for the Very Young, a sensory-friendly show for children from newborns to age five, is listed at 1 p.m. Drop-in art-making for all ages runs from noon to 4:30, and the project is a birthday hat inspired by pieces in the museum's collection. Reflections by Dash Studio is billed as an immersive kaleidoscope experience. The museum also lists activations from Atlanta United and the Atlanta Hawks, plus partners including Midtown Alliance, the Alliance Theatre and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

For food, the museum lists Bomb Biscuit, The Giant Quesadilla, just add honey and Sweet Auburn BBQ. Refuge Coffee Co. is doing coffee, and there is a custom HIGH x Wild Heaven beer, described as a Belgian IPA brewed with Grains of Paradise, honeysuckle and Citra hops. I would not plan on a sit-down lunch anywhere else first. With the lineup staggered from noon to 5, you can eat on the street and still catch the 2 p.m. remarks.

One item is not free and has conflicting times online, so treat it carefully. A public conversation called 100 Years of Art in Atlanta is separately ticketed. The museum's event page lists it at 3 to 4 p.m. in Hill Auditorium, with Julia Forbes and Katherine Jentleson in conversation and WSB-TV's Wendy Corona moderating, and says the ticket includes block party access and museum admission. The AJC's write-up puts it at 2 p.m. I have gone with the museum's own page, but if you want to be in that room, confirm the time and price at the link before you buy.

Here is why this sits on a realtor's site. Midtown is the part of the city where you can test whether you want to live without a car, and a Peachtree Street with the traffic taken off it is about the easiest way to run that test. The museum's centennial page describes the High as across from MARTA's Arts Center station, so you can take the train in, walk out onto a closed street and see how much of a normal day fits inside a few blocks. If you are a buyer weighing intown against the suburbs, spend an hour of that afternoon noticing how far you walk and what you pass, rather than only looking at the stage.

What I would do: register ahead, ride MARTA rather than hunting for parking on a day when part of Peachtree is closed, and aim to be on the street by 1:45 so you catch the 2 p.m. welcome and the live set after it. Eat on the street, make the birthday hat if you have kids with you, and decide in the moment whether you want the $23.50 galleries on top. Then walk a few blocks past the stage before you leave.