Downtown Atlanta Inc. is lending a $130,000 projector to Cabbagetown next month, and that loan is the clearest sign yet that Forward Warrior has outgrown its origins as a weekend paint jam. The 12th annual mural project runs Sept. 18-20 and will put 80 new murals on a .6-mile stretch of Wylie and Tennelle streets, up from 60 last year.
The walls in question belong to CSX Transportation, which already hosts more than 130 murals along a corridor that runs beside a heavily used Atlanta Beltline trail. CSX also controls the 70-acre Hulsey Yard freight facility next door, the long-stalled parcel that has been called the Moby Dick of Atlanta development. This year the railroad is listed as a Forward Warrior partner, a notable posture from a company whose land holdings have frustrated eastside planning for years.
The Downtown Atlanta Inc. projector, a unit called the Rover, will be used Friday night for projection mapping on a new mural by Forward Warrior founder Peter Ferrari at the Krog Street Tunnel entrance, turning the painted surface into moving video. Friday is new to the format: it is free, all ages, and also carries a "Words on Wylie" showcase enlisting poets, spoken-word artists, rappers and songwriters to respond to the existing Cabbagetown murals.
Saturday runs 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and is built as a street festival, with a Georgia Vintage Goods artist and vintage market, a "Mini Krog" kids area at Esther Peachy Park, DJs, and local food trucks and bars. The Cabbagetown Initiative, the nonprofit that produces the event, supplies participating artists with materials, equipment, scaffolding and security. The roster each year mixes sculptors, chalk artists, tattooists, aerosol writers and graphic designers.
Ferrari, who started Forward Warrior in 2012, framed the appeal in terms of what the walls do not demand. He described it as a rare chance for professional artists to work at large public scale without client expectations, and said the setup lets them take chances and pursue directions they would not otherwise attempt.
For downtown readers, the practical read is a short trip east: Krog Street Tunnel sits about two miles from Five Points, and the Wylie corridor is reachable on foot from the Beltline's Eastside Trail. The Friday projection debut is the piece worth planning around, since a downtown-owned projector aimed at a Cabbagetown wall is a one-weekend arrangement, not a permanent installation.
Original reporting: Urbanize Atlanta (2026-08-27)