Rain holds off, crowds don’t
Fall Antique Festival still fills the streets of Clinton
Russell Cotter carves a bear statue in the Maude Brown Park in downtown Clinton on Saturday (Oct. 1) during the Clinch River Fall Antique Festival. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
“We’ve had a great turnout today,” Katherine Birkbeck of the Historic Downtown Clinton organization said early Saturday afternoon as people lined the downtown streets to take in the numerous vendor booths and other events.
The event, sponsored by Historic Downtown Clinton, began at noon Friday, and resumed Saturday morning. It included live music and other entertainment, street antique and crafts vendors, food trucks and trailers, and special sales in Clinton’s popular downtown stores.
Events primarily took place on Main, Market and Cullom streets in the historic shopping district, and Main Street was closed for about two blocks on Saturday to accommodate the Clinton Car Club’s antique and collector car show.
About 75 vendors were on hand selling a variety of new and used merchandise, along with giving various demonstrations of crafts and other activities.
Even though the rain never came on Saturday, the crowds were much bigger on Friday, probably because of the rain forecast for Saturday, said antiques vendor Ann Thompson of LaFollette, whose booth was set up on Market Street.
“While it has been very busy today, we were truly covered up with people yesterday,” she said Saturday afternoon. “I think everyone who came Friday probably thought it was going to rain today.
“We were so busy Friday that we had to bring more stuff today.” She and her husband run a regular store in LaFollette, Thompson’s Custom Picture Framing and Antiques.
Live entertainment was presented both days, beginning with the gospel group Old Men with Guitars and the Fountain City Ramblers, an acoustic trio, on Friday.
On Saturday, the Sons of the Revolution performed a Burr-Hamilton. Other entertainment included the Jasper Hollow Duo, featuring “country soul,” and Travis Bigwood and the Lonesome Doves, an “Americana folk” group.
Popular with festival visitors was live chainsaw carving of wooden bear statues by Russell Cotter of Smoky Mountain Woodworks. He created two bears, measuring two feet tall, which were sold in a live auction late Saturday afternoon.