38th Annual Mountain Makins Festival

Published by Editor on November 4, 2013.
Published under Hamblen County

38th Annual Mountain Makins Festival, Morristown, TN – Staff Photo by Robin McMahon

It was perfect weather for the 38^th Annual Mountain Makins Festival at the Rose Center in Morristown held Saturday from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm and on Sunday from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm. The festival was a wonderful event to attend, with a hobby for each member of the family; from mule drawn rides and kettle corn to paintings and home crafted wooden bowls.

The Mountain Makins Festival consists of local and small business artist, performers, crafters, demonstrators and authors. While this is an opportunity to sell homemade, hand crafted pieces of work, it is also greatly about catching up with the other artist in the area. This festival has been around so long that many of the vendors have build lifelong friendships with other vendors as well as annual customers who attend the event just to catch their favorite artist in the area.

This year’s lineup was quite impressive with three stages running constantly from open to close both days. The Performance stage included cloggers, dancers and twirlers with the Tsoyaha Indian Dancers. The Music Stage included fourteen bands on a continuous lineup providing a wonderful atmosphere of the days past. The Story Telling stage consisted of twelve amazing narrators who had the audiences rolling in laughter one second and on the edge of their seats in anticipation moments later.

Fifty one craft vendors filled the RoseCenter. Fine art filled the walls along with handmade soaps, scarves, and dish cloths. Artist showed off hours of laborious work with hand carved faces, pottery and metal sculptures. Attendees were able to purchase locally grown and made jellies and jams, hand painted gourds.

Food was abundant throughout the event, from beans and corn bread to Italian Ice. A diversity of foods were available from several vendors such as fried green tomato BLT’s, jambalaya, and chicory coffee. The North Hamblen Co. Volunteer Fire Dept was selling food such as smoked beef brisket and Buffalo wings. The country store this year was filled to the brim with donations from individuals and organizations who donated their baked goods. All of the proceeds from the country store support the RoseCenter’s Programs.

The lawn and side streets were filled with demonstrators showing their trade to the eager audiences. Black Smiths heated and manipulated metals, a Salt Maker created salt on site, while apple butter was turned. Baskets were woven as bees worked within their boxes creating honey to be sold next to them.

Nine Authors filled the author hall, promoting wonderful books created from experiences, memories and adventures throughout the Appalachian region. The authors’ works ranged from humor, history inspiration and to the Appalachian culture. Bill Landry the voice, host and narrator and co-producer of The Heartland Series which airs on WBIR-TV was onsite with his multiple books and also took the time to tell a few stories.

Becky Guinn, a Carson Newman graduate and a Jefferson County native whom currently resides in Alabama, enjoys the event so much that she plans her vacations just to be able to attend the festival.