Whether it’s the cooling temperatures or an abundant harvest, there’s a long-standing American tradition of gathering and celebrating the arrival of fall. These can’t miss festivals showcase the season along with Southern music, culture, craft, and cuisine.
September 7–8, Vonore, Tennessee
A two-day celebration of Native American culture, the Cherokee Fall Festival takes place at Tennessee’s tribally owned Sequoyah Birthplace Museum. The festival includes Cherokee art, craft, and cooking demonstrations as well as Native American music, dance, and food. Kids and adults can compete in a blowgun competition, and this year the museum will showcase an 1800s Acorn Printing Press. As the official ambassadors of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee, the Warrior Dancers of Ani-Kituhwa will provide the entertainment, while members of both the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma and the Eastern Band of the Cherokee will be on hand to answer questions.
September 21, Hartselle, Alabama
Hartselle Depot Days is a free one-day fall festival that nods to the railroad industry and its historical and economic importance to the region. At this beautiful celebration of community and small-town Americana, youngest visitors will delight in trackless train rides, carnival games, balloon animals, and face painting, while the young-at-heart will enjoy the antique and classic muscle cars on display, artwork from local students, and live music throughout Hartselle’s historic downtown.
John C. Campbell Folk School Fall Festival
October 5–6, Brasstown, North Carolina
At almost one hundred years old, the John C. Campbell Folk School, a 270-acre campus nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, is a community artistic and cultural hub, welcoming students from around the world to engage in weekend or week-long courses about gardening, homesteading, folklore, storytelling, leather crafting, soap making, basket weaving, blacksmithing, and more. Each October since 1974, its namesake fall festival has been celebrating Southern Appalachian history, music, culture, and craft. It’s got all the classics you’d crave at a Southern shindig: banjo picking in the festival barn, homemade kettle corn, and lots of local barbecue.
October 11–13, Greenville, South Carolina
Fall for Greenville was established in 1982 to attract locals to a newly revitalized downtown. Today, the three-day event—billed as the largest free fall festival in the South—features sixty local restaurants, fifty beer and wine vendors, and eighty musical artists across six stages. The event is well known for bringing rising talent to its stages; past artists have included St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Turnpike Troubadours, Cedric Burnside, and the Lone Bellow. This year Black Opry Revue will headline the kickoff concert, while Leyla McCalla will take the main stage on Friday night. Stroll through Falls Park on the Reedy, take a selfie on the Liberty Bridge, and enjoy some of the best music and small bites the region has to offer.
October 14–15 and October 21–22, Ellijay, Georgia
Since 1971, Ellijay, the apple capital of Georgia, has been sharing its abundant fall harvest with visitors from around the country. The festival kicks off with the Georgia Apple Festival Parade, but visitors to this delightful North Georgia town will find no shortage of apple-themed activities including the Apple Classic Car Show and an Apple Festival 5K. There’s even a sister festival, Apple Arts, located in downtown Ellijay. Expect to fuel up on homemade apple dumplings as well as fair classics like funnel cakes and fried Oreos.
October 26, Lexington, North Carolina
Known as “the barbecue capital of the world,” Lexington is home to what it dubs simply the Barbecue Festival. Since it started in 1984, it has grown to take over nine blocks of Main Street and includes live entertainment across six stages, over three hundred vendors, craft and culinary competitions, and no shortage of kid-friendly activities. Keep an eye out for the release of nearby Childress Vineyards’ Fine Swine Wine—slightly sweet and specifically made to complement barbecue. The label for Fine Swine Wine is annually designed by local artist Bob Timberlake. While you’ll have the opportunity to savor some of the finest slow-cooked barbecue in the country, be sure to save room to share a banana split from the Barbecue Center, uptown Lexington’s oldest barbecue restaurant that still cooks on pits.
November 1–3, Ocala, Florida
The “horse capital of the world” transforms into a culinary hotbed as this festival returns to the World Equestrian Center for the fourth year in a row. Guests can participate in seminars and chef demonstrations, indulge in a wine-paired, multi-course chef dinner, and enjoy an elegant Sunday Jazz Brunch. This year’s festival features celebrity chef Lorena Garcia returning for the fourth time; Marc Murphy, a regular on Food Network’s Chopped; executive pastry chef Yohann Le Bescond; master sommelier Roland Micu; and a Food Network MasterChef Junior finalist, twelve-year-old Michael Seegobin.
Highlands Food & Wine Festival
November 7–10, Highlands, North Carolina
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a place more beautiful than the Highlands-Cashiers plateau in the fall. This charming area is home to the wildly popular Highlands Food & Wine festival, with four days of ticketed events that frequently sell out in a matter of hours. Guests can expect to taste bites from such renowned local and regional chefs as chef Masatomo Hamaya of O-Ku Atlanta and Trey McMillan of Lowcountry Oyster Company while enjoying music from this year’s headliners, Greensky Bluegrass, Lee Fields & the Expressions, Love Canon, and Wilder Woods.
