BY SHIKHA DAS SHANKAR
Johns Creek, GA, November 12, 2026: In the heart of the city of Johns Creek, along the newly constructed Boardwalk, thousands of people saw the faces of young dancers illuminate the stage, vendors welcoming shoppers with warm smiles, and drones lighting up the night sky with the words “Happy Diwali.”
That was Saturday evening, Nov. 7, at the City of Johns Creek’s annual Diwali Celebration, presented by Macy’s Technology and held for the first time at The Boardwalk at Town Center.
The event saw more people turn up than expected. “We didn’t expect that kind of a turnout,” says Johns Creek City Council member and Mayor Pro Tem Dilip Tunki.
Five Years and Counting
It started in 2022 at Shakerag Park as Georgia’s first city-organized Diwali, and about 12,000 people showed up. The crowd grew bigger in 2023. A field across from the Atlanta Athletic Club, where the celebration was held, drew around 20,000. City Hall hosted the Diwali celebration in 2024 and 2025, first as a two-day market, then as one afternoon and evening of food, music and vendors. This year, with Johns Creek’s new Boardwalk and a new dining and shopping center, Medley, Tunki says, “The city saw 2026 as a perfect opportunity to bring back the grand festival.”
The Boardwalk, which opened in May, is a $39 million park behind City Hall with a 15-foot-wide trail around a pond, an amphitheater and terraced seating, according to news reports.
Mayor John Bradberry called it “the most important thing to happen for our community since we were incorporated.”
Together with Medley, the $560 million mixed-use center that held its grand opening in late October, it forms what the city hopes will be its new gathering place. Tunki says, “The vision was a gathering place for the entire community and we couldn’t ask for a better occasion than the Diwali Festival of Lights.” The city invites everyone to celebrate its meaning, a “victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance.”
Culture on Display
The celebration was too big to fit in one place. It stretched across the Boardwalk at Town Center, with cultural performances at one end in the amphitheater, vendors along the walking trail, and food trucks and kids’ activities at the other end of the lake. The park was built that way, Tunki says, so “people are not at one place and it doesn’t look like crowded.”
Children turned out in large numbers, from toddlers to teenagers. About 400 stopped by the activity tables organized by GROW 360°, a group that specializes in STEAM and coding-based learning. The group combined Diwali-themed activities with STEAM learning so kids could use their creativity and learn something along the way.
“The turnout was absolutely incredible! We originally anticipated and prepared materials for about 300 children to participate in our Light-Up Diya paper circuit workshop. However, the community’s enthusiasm was off the charts, and we ended up serving around 400 kids,” says GROW 360° founder Sri Krishnavi.
“Working with the City of Johns Creek coordinators, especially Corinne and her team, was a fantastic experience,” says Krishnavi. “They were incredibly supportive with the logistics, from our initial booth setup right through to the teardown process,” Krishnavi says organized event managers make a big difference when hundreds of children are taking part, and that the city’s team clearly cares about the experience the community gets.
Cultural performances ranging from contemporary Bollywood to classical dance forms like Bharatanatyam filled the stage. Students from local dance schools such as Nataraja Natyanjali, Balli’s Dance Studio and Shiv Institute of Dance, to name a few, kept the audience engaged throughout the evening. Macy’s Technology has been the presenting partner since the first year, Tunki says, and this year was no different. The drone show, which attendees felt was a great alternative to fireworks, was sponsored by ALM Automotive Group. Tanishq was a silver sponsor. Other sponsors included Astro Celebrations, Rockfort Café, ACG Heart & Vascular, Milton Medical Group and IndiaCo, with Bytegraph Events as an in-kind sponsor.
The city around the Boardwalk is a diverse one. Of Johns Creek’s roughly 80,400 residents, 29.5% are Asian and nearly 35% were born outside the United States, according to the Census Bureau, and about 39% speak a language other than English at home. Across the Atlanta region, the Atlanta Regional Commission counts about 147,500 Asian Indian residents and names Johns Creek, Alpharetta and southern Forsyth County among the areas where they are most concentrated. Looking at the crowd, Tunki says, “it was a mix of everyone.”
The Team Got It Right
“An event this size cannot happen without people coming together, with a shared vision and a purpose,” Tunki says. He credits the community volunteers, who came back after hours to help set up and stayed to clean up. The city went out of its way, too. The Johns Creek Police Department and Fire Department kept watch, with officers walking the grounds, volunteers and police managing the crowds, and a safety drone sending a live feed to both departments. Communications and public works pitched in as well, Tunki says.
He credits City Manager Kimberly Greer, Recreation and Parks Director Michael King and Special Events Planner Corinne Wilde, whose events team, he says, went above and beyond in coordinating and helping vendors, performers and attendees throughout the day. By his account, no trash was left on the grounds, as volunteers were on hand to ensure cleanliness. While onstage, he also thanked presenting sponsor Macy’s Technology and drone and light show sponsor ALM Automotive Group.
Planning for next year has already started. “We’re already talking about it,” Tunki says. The city may add more food vendors and more parking next year, considering the turnout. Some people have already shown interest in next year’s event and asked how to become sponsors, but he told them it was too early.
Johns Creek Mayor John Bradberry was no distant host. He moved through the crowd talking with people, and from the stage, he made sure the people behind the night heard their names, thanking the volunteer committee and crediting City Council members, the parks and recreation team, the city’s event management team, volunteers, sponsors and the people attending the event.
Asked about his favorite part of attending events like Diwali, he says, “I like the music.” And what would he tell the Indian American community in Johns Creek? “Great things are happening in Johns Creek with the Medley, the Boardwalk, many cultural events like Diwali,” he says. He ends on a welcome. “Johns Creek is a great place to live. All are welcome here.”
