Wears Valley Fall Fest

It’s officially the season of hot apple cider, warm blankets, and pumpkin patches. It’s also the season for fall festivals, and the Smoky Mountain area is full of them!

Here are three festivals you can enjoy while on your Smoky Mountain vacation.

1. Dollywood Harvest Festival

If you love Dollywood and the fall season then you won’t want to miss this event! From early September to late October this annual celebration marks the best weather and some beautiful fall foliage in the Smokies. Stay late into the evening to see beautifully carved pumpkins, lit up and on display. During the day you’ll enjoy fall themed food, and colorful leaves all throughout the park.

2. Gatlinburg Craftsmen’s Fair

In early to mid October the Gatlinburg Craftsmen’s Fair heads into full swing. Artisans from across the country gather to peddle their wares while musicians serenade the crowds. You’ll see everything from woodworking and pottery to handcrafted jewelry and leatherworkings. If you have an appreciation for handmade goods then this event is for you.

3. Wears Valley Fall Festival

The Wears Valley Fall Festival takes place in mid October and is a favorite event for locals. Come experience the hundreds of vendors, melodic live music, and incredible Southern cuisine. If you’re interested in a true rustic, Appalachian festival with plenty to do and see for the whole family, then this one is for you.

No matter the festival you choose you’ll need a place to stay. Choose from one of our many options at Bear Camp Cabin Rentals today!

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. The colors are coming out more and more with each passing October day here in the Smokies and with this short but sweet window of time, visitors will often want to know what activities the Smoky Mountains offers that let them really get to dive into the spirit of fall in Appalachia.

All that is old comes new again while the rest of life in the Smokies begins to wind down or die out until they come back in the Spring. In Wears Valley, you get this poignant, haunting but fulfilling essence the moment you arrive to the community. So-named for its sudden great expense of flat land and tall, protective mountains and hills in the distance, Wears Valley is practically the living spirit of Harvest Festival in the Smokies, and that spirit gets its spotlight and chance to shine at the Wears Valley Fall Fest.

Going from October 20th to the 22nd for 2017, this 3-day festival is practically everything you came to the Smokies in fall to see: colors, mountains, crafts, Appalachian life thriving with a blend of modern sensibility and bringing the "old ways" back to the front, music and much more. Crafts featured will include many locally made items that exhibit the best in art and generations-old skills handed down that Wears Valley has to provide - woodwork, birdhouses, home decor, furniture, kitchen items, UT sports pride, shirts, scarves, sweaters, dresses, foods, popcorn, honey, jam, photography, paintings, frames for photography or paintings, knick-knacks, metalwork... the list just goes on. There will also be food vendors onsite and visitors can expect to have access to BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, steak-on-a-stick, pizza, Greek, corndogs, hamburgers, grilled chicken or some treats that include fried oreos, fried twinkies, funnel cakes, nachos, kettle korn (basically sweet popcorn), cotton candy and ice cream (subject to changes in availability).

As for entertainment, would you believe the Wears Valley Fall Fest is big and popular enough to feature TWO stages? Indeed. In times past, we've had dozens of excellent artists and groups come play at the Wears Valley Fall Fest with expected genres like bluegrass, Gospel, singer-songwriters and country. No Fall Fest in the Smokies is complete without them, but then we also get some unexpected performances too - Elvis Presley and Native American traditional/interpretive dances just to begin with and who knows what other sorts of acts we might get to see?

That's not the end of the fun at the Fall Fest either. On Friday night, there will be a Miss Fall Fest beauty pageant where local beauties get to take stage and compete for the eponyous title. There will be tractor rides, an obstacle course, interactive craft stations you and the fam can enjoy and a kids' tent. Items and games will make use of recycled and repurposed materials and there will also be inflatable attractions, an obstacle course, a petting zoo, pumpkin painting, face painting and train rides.

Yes, you are going to enjoy it and we can't think of a better way to celebrate our Harvest season in Wears Valley than the Wears Valley Fall Fest.

Keep up to date on any news on that event CLICK HERE.