Welcome to Harvest Festival season! This is the magical season where we reflect and celebrate our Appalachian culture and history to its zenith quality while enjoying the blooming colors that will soon explode across the mountains. In this article, we wanted to share with you some things you can do throughout the week in the Smokies that help fully bring the Harvest Festival season to you, as well as helping you see those awesome colors!
Pigeon Forge Rotary Craft Club Tent
Now – October 29th, 2016
39 years going strong with this awesome Harvest Festival tradition! In the parking lot of Patriot Park, the big red tent goes up and hosts artists and crafters from around the city and nearby areas underneath it. It's a small but fun little affair that really adds to the autumn season with locally made paintings, halloween items, clothing, jewelry and much more.
There is also occasionally some musical entertainment. Admission is by donation.
The Old Mill
Open Year-Round
Just across the street from Patriot Park is Pigeon Forge's most famous shopping center and town square. It's also the classiest little area in the city offering a general store full of locally made foods, gifts and Smoky Mountain curios, a hiking store, a pottery, ice creamery, two restaurants, candy store, forge works, distillery, winery and some beautiful walking along the famous mill that gives its name along with the waterfalls and Pigeon River.
Dollywood's National Southern Gospel and Harvest Celebration
Now – October 29th, 2016
Dollywood celebrates Harvest Festival and pays tribute to the culture as well as everyone else with the added bonuses of being able to fly through the mountain colors and see them in thrilling ways via the numerous rides and rollercoasters they have on site. For the festival specifically, they open stalls throughout the park and bring artists, crafters and genuine inheritors of the pioneer ways that demonstrate those old ways to a modern audience. THEN we have the Southern Gospel entertainment – if this is a genre you have even a passing interest in, then you've gone to heaven early! Southern Gospel groups are in marathon sessions throughout the park for nearly the entire month of October.
Gatlinburg Arts and Crafts Community
Open Year-Round
No trip to the Smokies during the Autumn season is complete without taking a trip through the highly atmospheric and culturally reverent Arts and Crafts Community in the Glades off of Highway 321. It would take a full day to see all the stores both pristine and rustic offered at the 8-mile loop. Famous and off-the-beaten-path stops include Alewine Pottery, the Fox and Parrot Tavern, Blackwolff Knives, Cliff Dwellers Gallery, Glades Soda Fountain, Jim Gray Gallery and much, much more.
Ober Gatlinburg
Open Year-Round
Oktoberfest: Now – October 30th, 2016
You want to see some colors? Take a ride on the Ober Gatlinburg tram up to and/or down from the famous mountaintop amusement park and you'll get to see miles and miles of Smoky Mountain bloom. The tram is not just the transport to the amusement park but an attraction in and of itself – of course, you'll want to stay for the park anyways as it offers a full zoo, indoor ice-skating and the only Oktoberfest in our area where you can indulge your inner German with fine beers, yodeling, oompah music and, as always, more!
That should get you more than started on your Harvest Festival trip to the Smokies! Choose one of our cabins here to find the one that best accommodates your Autumn needs and convenience for the attractions/events you hope to indulge in. We hope to see you this October!
