Columbus State celebrates 10-year Pasaquan partnership with Oct. 24 ‘PASAFEST 2026’

October 9, 2026

The Pasaquan Preservation Society will host PASAFEST 2026 on Saturday, Oct. 24, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Pasaquan in Buena Vista, Georgia. Free and open to all ages, this year’s festival marks 10 years since Columbus State University became the site’s custodian.

PASAFEST is an annual celebration of Pasaquan and the singular vision of its creator, Eddie Owens Martin, known as St. EOM. It brings together artists, musicians, performers, vendors and visitors for a full day of live music, art and community.

The day will feature live country, rock and psychedelic music; an artist market showcasing folk and self-taught artists; food vendors; tarot readings; drum circles; guided tours; and an all-ages, drop-in weaving craft inspired by Pasaquan. Jake Xerxes Fussell will close the music lineup, after sets by James Huggins III and John Kiran Fernesdes.

Schedule of events:

• 10 a.m.: PASAFEST and Artist Market open
• 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.: Drop-In Weaving Craft
• 11 a.m.: Pasaquan Tour 1
• 12 p.m.: Drum Circle
• 1 p.m.: Pasaquan Tour 2
• 3 p.m. to 3:25 p.m.: Music by James Huggins III
• 3:25 p.m. to 4 p.m.: Music by John Kiran Fernesdes
• 4 p.m.: Talk on St. EOM, Pasaquan and the 10-year celebration
• 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.: Music by Jake Xerxes Fussell
• 5:30 p.m.: Drum Ceremony
• 6 p.m.: PASAFEST ends

Set amid Pasaquan’s colorful murals, sculptural forms and hand-built environments, PASAFEST celebrates the site’s enduring spirit of imagination, individuality and artistic freedom while showcasing the rich cultures of the Southeast. The festival also advances the shared mission of Columbus State University and the Pasaquan Preservation Society: preserving this world-renowned visionary art environment and teaching future generations about its history and significance.

“A decade ago, we reopened Pasaquan’s gates to the public without knowing what to expect. We found a community that showed up—and kept showing up. PASAFEST is our way of saying ‘thank you,’” said Mike McFalls, director of Pasaquan and a professor in Columbus State’s Department of Art.

“St. EOM built this place as an act of radical self-expression, and each year, this festival reminds us that his vision remains alive, welcoming and inspiring people to create something of their own,” McFalls added.

Admission to the event [map] is free. Visitors should bring their own picnic blanket or chair. For more information, visit the PASAFEST 2026 webpage.

About Pasaquan

Since 2014, under Columbus State University’s stewardship, Pasaquan has gained recognition as one of America’s most significant visionary art environments and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The site dates to the 1950s, when Eddie Owens Martin (pictured)—later known to his Pasaquoyan devotees as St. EOM (pronounced “ohm”)—established Pasaquan. A fever-induced vision from the future instructed him to leave New York, return to his native Georgia and “do something.” That “something” became the immersive, internationally recognized, seven-acre visionary art environment in Buena Vista.

Martin spent more than 30 years developing Pasaquan, his “mock-Pre-Columbian psychedelic wonderland,” on his late mother’s farm in Marion County. The artscape features six buildings—including structures with mandala murals, pagodas, a kiva and vibrantly colored totem poles—decorated inside and out with bold patterns and vivid imagery of human figures and nature. The rest of the site includes a thousand feet of elaborately painted masonry walls that blend Pre-Columbian, African and Native American symbols with a 1930s New York City aesthetic, connecting the buildings and thousands of St. EOM’s other artistic artifacts.

The Kohler Foundation funded the site’s restoration, which began in 2014, and transferred ownership of Pasaquan to Columbus State upon completion. The site reopened to the public in 2016.

Since then, St. EOM’s legacy has continued to grow through exhibitions at institutions such as the American Folk Art Museum and the High Museum of Art, an international artist residency program, and Columbus State’s Archives & Special Collections, where students and scholars engage with his artistic work and ideas. For more than a decade, Department of Art students and faculty have partnered with the Pasaquan Preservation Society to restore and steward the site, develop arts programming, and maintain a Resident Artist Program.

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Media contact: Charles Fowler