The name and the dates are different, but Cades Cove Preservation Association’s Cades Cove Family Harvest Festival on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 4 and 5, will have all the popular attractions of its former Homecoming, normally held in August. Vendors will sell a variety of unique items, descendants of Cades Cove will be on hand to talk about life prior to their former home community becoming part of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and authors will have their books for sale. Visitors can tour the Cades Cove Museum, shop at its store with no sales tax and also find bargains on items at the perpetual yard sale at 50% off.
The Family Harvest Festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days on the grounds of the Cades Cove Museum, located in the historic Thompson-Brown House at 1004 E. Lamar Alexander Parkway, Maryville, near the Blount County Justice Center. Admission is free, and everyone is welcome to attend.
What’s happening
Gloria Motter, director of the Cades Cove Museum, said, “We changed this to October because of the heat in August, plus the vendors and crafters had a rained-out spring at our Spring Festival event.” Motter also pointed out that severe weather from Hurricane Helene the previous weekend caused the Townsend Fall Festival as well as Old Timers Day in Cades Cove to be cancelled. “I hope we get a good turnout for these crafters,” she said. “They have lost so much in materials and income.”