October Heritage Events in East Tennessee

Appalachian Heritage Festival

Performers this year include Ron Short, Fire in the Kitchen, Tennessee Skyline, Robby Spencer, CrossWise Quartet, Short Hill Ramblers, Wires and Wood, Ken Childress and Jimmy Mullins, HIS Singing Servants, ETSU Bluegrass Band, and Celtic Air.

Several blocks of the historic district will be closed to traffic allowing pedestrians to browse among demonstrators re-enacting skills such as basket weaving, woodworking, crocheting and apple butter making, just to name a few. Representatives from the many quality historic and cultural venues of our region will be on hand to provide information and answer questions regarding their sites.

Traditional handcrafts will be available for purchase as well as tasty festival food.

Sponsored by Food Country USA , First Bank and Trust, and WGOC AM 640 radio, this larger 2 day event will replace the single day Harvest Hoedown held in years past. For a complete schedule visit sullivancountytourism.org

East Tennessee Historical Society Brown Bag Lecture "The Music of Our Neighbors on the Cumberland” will be the title of a Brown Bag lecture by Bob Fulcher at the East Tennessee Historical, October 11. A Cumberland Trail State ranger and naturalist for more than 25 years, Fulcher has recorded and presented musicians from the Cumberland Mountains at the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, the Bureau of State Parks, and the Tennessee Folklore Society. He is the host of the popular radio program, “The Cumberland Trail,” on WDVX each Sunday morning, in which he shares with his radio audience the rare recordings made in the basements, living rooms, front porches, and small studios by musicians of the Cumberland Mountain region.

The program is free and open to the public and begins at noon at the East Tennessee History Center, 601 S. Gay (across from the Tennessee Theatre). Directions to ETHS are available at www.east-tennessee-history.org. For additional information, call 865-215-8824.

“Cultural Crossroads: Heritage Tourism and the Arts" - As part of the Tennessee Arts Commission's Cultural Crossroads Heritage Tourism conference, a performance by Trey Hensley, the Roan Mountain Hilltoppers, and Paul Williams and the Victory Trio will perofrm at the Niswonger Performing Arts Center in Greeneville, TN on Otober 19. The event is free to the public. Based on the success of the inaugural conference, the Tennessee Arts Commission has announced plans for a second cultural tourism conference scheduled for Fall of 2006. Cultural Crossroads…Heritage Tourism and the Arts 2 will return to Historic Jonesborough, Tennessee, on October 19 and 20 with a full slate of new workshops and exciting guest speakers. Those attending the two-day conference at the International Storytelling Center will include tourism professionals, individual artists, and cultural and arts organizations from all areas of the state. Session topics will include strategic planning, marketing and promotion, economic impact, African-American heritage tourism, Web site development, and funding of cultural tourism projects. Individual consultations on marketing through print and the use of Web sites will also be available. For conference details and registration information, please visit our website:www.arts.state.tn.us/culturalcrossroadsinfo.htm

As part of the traditional music scheduled for the event, there will be a special concert at the Niswonger Performing Arts Center in Greeneville at 7:15 on the evening of Thursday, October 19. In addition to conference attendees, the concert will be free to the public, and we hope to generate a respectable local audience for the first performance of grassroots music in this fancy new highbrow hall.

The concert will feature:

* 15-year-old flatpick guitar whiz Trey Hensley, of Telford, along with his fine bluegrass band Drivin’ Force.
* Carter County’s Roan Mountain Hilltoppers, one of Upper East Tennessee’s favorite old-time bands.
* Paul Williams & The Victory Trio, bluegrass gospel band from Russellville, featuring original songs and precision harmonies from a former principal in Jimmy Martin’s classic sound.

Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts and national coordinator of Arts and Humanities month, says “The arts and humanities play an important role in our lives year-round. Now is the chance to recognize and celebrate the positive impact the arts bring to our schools and communities."

This month-long celebration grew out of National Arts Week, which was begun in 1985 by the National Endowment for the Arts and Americans for the Arts. With 45 years of service, Americans for the Arts is dedicated to representing and serving local communities and creating opportunities for every American to participate in and appreciate all forms of the arts.

More information about National Arts and Humanities Month is available online