After suffering in a mall parking lot this year, the once popular Atlanta Dogwood Festival is returning next year to the green shade of Piedmont Park.

The Dogwood was one of five of Atlanta’s biggest public events that faced a choice Friday. They could have rolled the dice and hoped to win a random drawing to have their event next year at Piedmont. Or they could make a deal with the city and settle for another site.

Three of the five chose the sure thing.

Left with two events competing for Piedmont Park — the Dogwood Festival and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race — city officials went with the Dogwood.

Brian Hill, the Dogwood’s executive director, expressed relief at the outcome. The festival suffered mightily when it was ejected from Piedmont and relocated to Lenox Square because of the city’s concerns about damaging the drought-stricken park.

The festival, which traditionally had drawn 150,000 to 200,000 people in Piedmont Park, saw crowds reduced to about 50,000 this year at the mall in Buckhead. The festival also suffered financially.

“We’re appreciative of the other festivals and their willingness to compromise on a second venue,” Hill said. “If they hadn’t been willing to do that, then we don’t know [what would have happened].”

Race organizers said they needed more time with city officials to work on a new plan. While the race won’t have full use of the park, they will be able to use the meadow along 10th Street.

“What we really need to understand is what elements can we put in the meadow so we don’t have to adjust the finish line,” said Tracey Russell, the race’s executive director.

Two weeks ago, city officials told organizers of the five events that only one could get full use of Piedmont Park next year. None used the park this year because of the drought, and city officials decided against allowing all of them back in 2009.

“We are nowhere near out of the woods on [the drought],” said Atlanta Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Commissioner Dianne Harnell Cohen.

With all of the groups hoping to use Piedmont next year, city officials proposed a random drawing between the groups to decide who would get to use the park. The other option was working with the city to operate at another site.

Organizers of the Atlanta Jazz and Pride Festivals and Screen on the Green decided not to take their chance at getting a permit for Piedmont so they agreed to alternate venues.

The Jazz Festival will operate at Grant Park. The Pride Festival can use Central Park and the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center. Screen on the Green will show movies for a second consecutive year at Centennial Olympic Park.

“It was the responsible thing to do to get a park we know would work,” said Pride Committee Chairwoman Deirdre Heffernan. “We couldn’t gamble on a one-in-five chance that we would [get Piedmont Park].”

Cohen stressed during a meeting Friday with the organizers that the city wanted to find a fair solution for all groups.

Yvette Bowden, president and CEO of the Piedmont Park Conservancy, which partners with Screen on the Green, said of Centennial Olympic Park, “We have some experience there. We know how to do it there. I think going there next year is a little bit easier in terms of replicability. Of course, our preference would always be to go back to Piedmont Park.”