Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 03/07/2026 00:33:00

Martin Luther King Sr. preached the first service; the bass bins arrived a century later. Believe Music Hall at 181 Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard occupies the 1907 church that Mechanicsville knew as the mighty fortress - designed by Alexander Campbell Bruce, Atlanta's first American Institute of Architects member, home to St. John's Methodist and later St. Stephens Missionary Baptist, whose opening-night sermon in 1958 was delivered by the elder King. The building passed through years of secular reinvention before Glenn and Madeleine Goodhand - founders of Imagine Festival, the Southeast's biggest EDM camping event, and the Iris Presents empire - reopened it in 2018 as the city's flagship dance-music hall. The renovation put festival-grade production inside the sanctuary: a d&b audiotechnik system, what the venue bills as Atlanta's largest LED video wall, and custom light, laser and effects rigs playing off the original architecture. Five spaces spread across three levels - the main hall and mezzanine, an underground lounge, the leafy Eden Patio and an upper terrace - flexing from 900-capacity headline shows toward 1,700 for full-building events. The calendar leans bass, house and trance with weekly Iris programming descending from the long-running ESP 101 institution, plus hip-hop, Latin nights and private events. The location seals the story: across the interstate from the Georgia State stadium district, minutes south of downtown, in the neighbourhood where Glenn Goodhand threw some of his first Iris parties in 1995 - the promoter's career and the building's second life closing a 25-year circle. ADA accessibility, in-house catering and event staff round out the venue's working spec. The stained-glass-to-strobes conversion kept the sanctuary's bones deliberately visible - arched windows and original brickwork frame the LED wall, giving the main floor an atmosphere no purpose-built warehouse can fake. Imagine Festival's booking relationships flow straight into the venue's calendar, landing festival-tier headliners in a room a fraction of festival size, and the five-space layout lets a single night run three simultaneous sounds without bleed.