Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019 - 36

THELEAF.ORG

repare to party in 2019: Our annual festival guide points the
way to great gatherings from the Virginias and the Carolinas
to Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky. Find food, beer and wine
plus rubber ducky races, apples, peaches, barbecue, bluegrass - and
Santa Claus. Your adventures await.
As we all know, the mountains are full of great festivals throughout the year, and most have the full complement of fun-food, music,
culture, kiddie stuff and more. But more than a few have an overarching theme, even though they usually include other aspects as well.
We're leaving most festivals-those of general interest-in good
oI' black type. But just for the aficionados, we're highlighting those
with a theme for easy find:
Names of festivals with a food focus are highlighted in blue.

Festival names with a music focus are highlighted in red.

Those with an outdoor focus are in green.

Festivals with a focus on wine, beer or spirits are in orange.
Those with a focus on arts and crafts are in brown. Those
with history/heritage focus are in yellow.
Let's get started!

MAY
2-5

Come Savor Blowing
Rock with the ripening of spring at

Blowing Rock, North Carolina, as wine
and food tastings mix with live music
on Main Street (828-295-7851).

3-4 The Firefighter's Parade (May

3) and Grand Feature Parade (May 4)
rank as highlights of the long-running

Shenandoah Apple Blossom
Festival in Old Town Winchester

Virginia (thebloom.com). Also in
Virginia: Roanoke's Strawberry
Festival offers family-friendly
farm fun (540-563-5036). Look for
the Wild Edibles Festival at
Watoga State Park in Pocahontas
County, West Virginia (304-7994087). Clinch River Spring
Antique Fair comes to downtown
Clinton, Tennessee, with a Friday night
kick-off party and all-day exhibits on
Saturday (865-457-4547). You can
also celebrate the shortest season with
Townsend's Spring Festival &
Old Timers Day in Tennessee,
featuring Appalachian history and
crafts, bluegrass music, wildflower
walks, storytelling and clogging (865448-6134).
36

BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM

May 9-12
North Carolina's Lake Eden hosts the LEAF FESTIVAL to share community and
culture through music and arts (theleaf.org).

3-5

A gathering of the world's
most luxurious and exotic automobiles
can be found at the Greenbrier
Concours d'Elegance at The
Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs,
West Virginia (greenbrierconcours.
com).

Take a sip of the Budbreak
Wine & Craft Beer Festival,

running noon-6 p.m. in downtown
Mount Airy, North Carolina
(budbreakfestival.com). Or wander into
Waynesboro, Virginia, for Riverfest,
offering Reptile World shows and
Stream Safari (riverfestwaynesboro.
org). In Georgia, WineFest hits the
Habersham Winery of Helen (706878-9463). You'll also find craft beer,
artists and vineyards at the Toast of
Toccoa in Toccoa, Georgia (706-2823309).

4-5

Georgia Apple
Blossom Festival eases

into East Ellijay, Georgia
(georgiaappleblossomfestival.com).

7-11

Wilderness Wildlife
Week offers educational programs

and guided hikes of the Great Smoky
Mountains at Pigeon Forge, Tennessee
(mypigeonforge.com).

9-12

North Carolina's Lake Eden
hosts the LEAF Festival to share
community and culture through music
and arts (theleaf.org). You can also take
the Wildflower Pilgrimage at
Blackwater Falls in Tucker County, West
Virginia (304-259-5315/canaanvalley.
org).

10-12

Explore handcrafts,
games and yummy festival food for
three days at the Pilot Mountain
Mayfest in North Carolina
(pilotmountainnc.org). In South
Carolina, Artisphere returns to
downtown Greenville with a nationally
renowned festival featuring more
than 250 artists plus 20 live musical
performances (artisphere.us).

11 The Crooked Road

Youth Music Festival features 15

bands at Southwest Virginia Cultural
Center and Marketplace in Abingdon,
Virginia (276-492-2409). Also in
Virginia: Of Ale and History
Beer Festival beckons at the
Belle Grove Plantation of Middletown
(bellegrove.org).

16-18 Plein Air Festival

blows into Blowing Rock, North
Carolina, with a Wet Paint Show &
Sale at the Blowing Rock Art & History
Museum (828-295-9099).

17-18

You'll find live music,
beer tastings, wine and barbecue
at Racks by the Tracks in
Kingsport, Tennessee (racksbythetracks.
com). Bloomin' BBQ and
Bluegrass Festival fires up
downtown Sevierville, Tennessee
(888-889-7415). Or you can watch the
Georgia Mountain EggFest

roll into the Georgia Mountain
Fairgrounds at Hiawassee with a
cooking celebration of the Big Green
Egg (mountainegg.com).

17-19

About 20,000 trail hikers
are expected to dance into Damascus,
Virginia, during the Appalachian
Trail Days festival (traildays.us).
Rhythm N' Blooms Festival

enlivens Knoxville, Tennessee, with
a celebration of culture and history
plus music by The Black Lillies and My
Brightest Diamond (rhythmbloomsfest.
com). For more music, wander to the
Wanderlust Muzik Fest near
Sandstone Falls in Hinton, West Virginia
(304-466-4199).

http://www.THELEAF.ORG http://www.theleaf.org http://www.theleaf.org http://www.budbreakfestival.com http://www.pilotmountainnc.org http://www.thebloom.com http://www.artisphere.us http://www.mountainegg.com http://www.traildays.us http://www.georgiaappleblossomfestival.com http://www.bellegrove.org http://www.mypigeonforge.com http://www.BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM

Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2019

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