NC Fall Leaf Event: The Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands

October 20 - 23   Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands   One of the largest and most notable craft fairs in the southeast, held twice annually at the Asheville Civic Auditorium.  Enjoy exhibitors, demonstrations and entertainment. The fair showcases the rich diversity of original crafts created by members of the Southern Highland Craft Guild, a non-profit organization with over 900 members throughout the mountain region.
This year's demonstrations include:

Asheville Bookworks:  Variety of bookmaking techniques including a letter press.
Charlie Patricolo:  An interactive demonstration of cloth doll making with a variety of dolls in various stages.
Dede Styles and Cassie Dickson:  natural dyeing and spinning.  Dede Styles of Swannanoa, NC and Cassie Dickson of Sylva, NC will demonstrate their traditional craft outside the Civic Center.
Gary Clontz:  Raku Pottery.  Gary will demonstrate all aspects of raku firing outside the Civic Center, from glazing the pot to firing it.  Raku is a ceramic firing process which uses fire and smoke to create unique patterns and designs.

Live mountain music will be performed all three days beginning at  11 AM.

Get a link for the
Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands
and other Asheville NC events, lodging and visitor information HERE.

The Flat Rock Playhouse Presents Kings of Country Music on the Rock Concert

October 16 - 31     Flat Rock Playhouse Music on the Rock  Kings of Country.   Summer Music on the Rock Concerts offer audiences a variety of music of well-known artists performed by exceptional singers and musicians.

Veteran performers Eric Anthony and Ryan Dunn bring you some of the greatest country songs ever recorded. This powerhouse of a show features hits from Garth Brooks, Johnny Cash, Keith Urban and many more. Fans of great country music won't want to miss this limited engagement event.

Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story, a live music extravaganza continues on the Main Stage through October 30.

Get a link for the event and other  
Flat Rock NC events, lodging and information HERE

The Blue Ridge Music Center Final Scheduled Performance

October 23 - This performance will mark the end of the 2011 musical programming at the Blue Ridge Music Center. Informal Mid-Day Mountain Music Jams will continue from noon to 4 p.m. daily until the end of the month before the music center closes for the winter.
Ballads & Songs of the Blue Ridge.  Traditional singers from North Carolina and Virginia will converge at the Blue Ridge Music Center for a special, free, performance-talk: Ballads and Songs of the Blue Ridge. It will be the last heritage event of the 2011 season.

Come Go Home With Me, a collection of short stories drawn from life in Madison County, and My Old True Love, a novel of love and family in Civil War-era Madison County. In 1997, Sheila Kay Adams won the North Carolina Society of Historians' Clark Cox Historical Fiction Award, and received the North Carolina Folklore Society's Brown-Hudson Award for outstanding contributions to the folklore of her home state.

  

Robert Lynn "Bobby" McMillon, a North Carolina Folk Heritage Award recipient, was heir to numerous strands of Appalachian culture. From his father's family in Cocke County, Tennessee, he learned Primitive Baptist hymns and traditional stories and ballads. From his mother's people in Yancy and Mitchell Counties, North Carolina, he heard "booger tales, haint tales," and legends. Because these songs and tales have deep roots in his own family and experience, Bobby has a passion for them and for sharing them. "Eventually, I began to realize," he says "that if I didn't perform the songs I was learning, most of the repertories of the people I learned from would be lost because they didn't have family members of their own to hand them down to." His greatest gift is his rare ability to convey to listeners a feeling for the world from which the stories come.

Musical duo, Martha Spencer and Jackson Cunningham, are known as the Whitetop Mountaineers. They both live in Whitetop, Virginia, in the highest mountains in Virginia and have been steeped in traditional music from a very early age. They are known internationally for their fine instrumental playing and beautiful duet singing. Martha has composed many moving songs about the Blue Ridge. Jackson is a well known as a luthier, (instrument maker), of the region. Both musicians also sing and perform with the Whitetop Mountain Band - one of the most popular stringbands in Virginia. The Whitetop Mountaineers have recorded two CDs: "Home on the Mountain" (2008) and "Go Away with Me: Songs from Virginia's Hills and Hollers"(2010). This is the first time that Martha Spencer, Jackson Cunningham, Sheila Kay Adams and Bobby McMillon have appeared on stage together and it sure to be an event not to miss.

Seating opens at 1:45pm. Free admission. Phone (276) 236-5309 x112 to reserve seating. Those with reserved seats must show up 15 minutes prior to the start of each event. At start-time remaining seats are given to drop-in visitors.  All October Heritage Events are free thanks to support from Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway and the National Council for the Traditional Arts.

Let's Do Lunch - Bryson City Chilli Cookoff Today

October 15   21st Annual Bryson City Chili Cookoff   What's better than enjoying some chili on a crisp October Saturday? For $5 sample chili from some of the best cooks in the area in 3 categories: red, white and veggie. It's a festive event with entertainment, decorated booths and costumed cooks. Cast a vote for your favorite chili to win the People's Choice Award. Get a link for the Chilli Cookoff and other Bryson City NC events, lodging and information HERE.