Several types of festivals set in North Georgia this fall

In these parts, fall may be all about football, but for much of small-town America, autumn means festival season. And with the Bulldogs' miserable displays as of late, even the most die-hard fans may want to turn a blind eye to the hometown madness and seek a weekend's entertainment elsewhere.

As the temperatures cool and the leaves start to change, hundreds of thousands of city-dwellers head to the mountains for camping, hiking, antiquing and leaf peeping. Over the next few weeks, dozens of fall festivals will take place in quaint mountain towns throughout Northeast Georgia's breathtaking hill country, offering the perfect excuse for us city folk to seek out a little taste of the simpler life.

Even in our own backyard, this weekend brought the 26th annual North Georgia Folk Festival to Sandy Creek Park. And just up the road, the Comer Fair took place Sept. 28-Oct. 2, with all the traditional livestock shows, carnival rides, games and nightly live entertainment. And this year's 77th annual Elberton 12 County Fair (www.elbertonfair.com) runs Monday-Friday, offering the requisite rides, games, fair food, live music, and livestock displays, as well as camel rides, professional wrestling, a diaper derby, taxidermy displays, chainsaw carving and the Miss Elberton pageant. This year's exhibit theme, "Climate Change? Cause and Effect on Agriculture" offers classrooms and clubs from throughout the area an opportunity to share their knowledge on this issue.

But for those eager to head north for a relaxing drive into the mountain counties, there is no shortage of festivals from which to choose:

► 40th annual Oktoberfest, now-Oct. 31, Helen

For four decades now, Helen has been throwing its own version of the German beer-fueled celebration. For seven weeks each fall, tens of thousands of visitors flock to this former logging town turned faux Tyrolean village to enjoy an Alpine-style celebration in the Festhalle as well as countless tourist-oriented attractions. From mini-golf to old-timey portraits, the theme park atmosphere has transformed tiny little Helen into Georgia's third most popular tourist town (just behind Atlanta and Savannah). For more in