IT’S FESTIVAL TIME
Downtown will come alive this weekend with fall event
Russell Cotter of Smoky Mountain Woodworks carves a bear during last year’s Clinch River Fall Antique Festival in downtown Clinton. He will be on hand again for this year’s festival. (photo:G Chambers Williams III )
Sponsored by the Historic Downtown Clinton group, this year’s festival will run from noon-8 p.m. Friday and from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday.
Live music and other entertainment, street vendors, food trucks and trailers, food demonstrations, and special sales in Clinton’s popular downtown stores will highlight the event, which primarily takes place on Main, Market and Cullom streets in the historic shopping district.
Market Street will be blocked to vehicular traffic both days, and on Saturday, Main Street also will be partially blocked for the Quality Matter Car Show, sponsored by Rusty Wallace Chevrolet, featuring the Clinton Antique Car Club.
Dozens of street vendors will offer a variety of new and used merchandise, and there also will be various demonstrations of crafts and other activities.
Antique vendors will line up along Market and Cullom streets, with food trucks on Cullom.
Among the food trucks and stands will be Waffley Good, Shirley’s Boy Country Cooking, Drink Smooth, Mucho Gusto, Rhyno’s Roadside, Good Hombres, Burgerito, Heavenly Sweets and Eats, Kona Ice, Bailey’s Beverage Bar, Popnotch Kettle Corn, Little Bird Macaroons, Nut Hut, Rainbo Shaved Ice and Funnel Cakes, Savannah Bee Company, Kennedy Grill, and the Clinton Lions Club.
On Saturday, there will be more than 40 artisans lining Main Street for the Heirlooms in Waiting show. They will include local artists, along with others from across the Southeast, including Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Kentucky.
Entertainment features a diverse lineup of local talent, beginning on Saturday with Clinton bluegrass/acoustic band 323 N Main, followed by international violinist Marki Violin. His unique sound is based in East Tennessee, but last month he performed in Milan, Italy, and Paris, France.
After that will be a performance by Wild Blue Yonder, an Appalachian highland Celtic group that has been together for more than 20 years.
Actors will be walking the streets on both days in historically accurate dress from different eras, including the Victorian (1880s), Edwardian (1900-1910), Roaring ’20s (1920s), War Era (1930s-40s) and the 1950s.
Most downtown stores and restaurants are going to be open throughout the event.
Event sponsors include Hoskins Drug Store, Y12 Federal Credit Union, Anderson County Chamber Foundation, Rusty Wallace Chevrolet, Evans Candy Company, Dr. and Mrs. Ray Labelle, and Chancellor Jamie Brooks.
The Clinton High School baseball team will be helping vendors move in on Friday morning.
“Easily our biggest event of the year, with hundreds of antique vendors lining Market Street, this year will be the biggest yet,” the Historic Downtown Clinton group says on its website. “It’s the perfect way to kick off the fall season.”
Among artisans already signed up for the event are Doodad Mosaics by Autumn Wilkins (handmade glass art), Creations by Penelope (handcrafted items), PL8Lady.com (recycled license plate art), Open Kiln (pottery), Jewelry by Renee, Sweet Nibbles Soap (handcrafted goat milk soaps), Briteyes Crafts (woodworking), and Precious Metals (functional garden art).
Ample free parking is available in the city of Clinton’s Commerce Street parking lots, one block west of Market Street.
More information can be found at HistoricDowntownClinton.org.