Fort Loudoun State Historic Area and the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum present The Great Island Festival

September 9-10 Festival takes visitors back in time Vonore, Tenn. – Fort Loudoun State Historic Area and the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum are partnering for the annual Great Island Festival. The festival will feature concurrent events at both the state historic area and museum on September 9-10, 2006 from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. each day.

The Great Island Festival at Fort Loudoun State Historic Area will take visitors back in time to an 18 th Century Trade Faire where visitors will find encampments of 18 th Century soldiers, settlers and Native American Indians with demonstrations in artillery and musketry. Merchants and artisans will be on hand to peddle food and wares reminiscent of the time. Music and other entertainment will be featured on two stages, with acts including the Celtic band Father, Son and Friends, The Traveling Caudells, and a traditional vocal duo. An 18 th Century magician, a puppet show, Otto the Sword-swallower and the Amazing Juggling Budabi Brothers will also delight and astonish visitors of all ages.

Meanwhile, at the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum, visitors will have the opportunity to experience Native American food, arts and crafts demonstrations, music and dance, a Native American encampment, and an exhibit from the McClung Museum, among other features. Special entertainment will be provided by the Warrior Dancers of Ani-Kituhwa; Paula Nelson, an educator; Diamond Go-Sti, a native culturalist; Mike Serna, a Native American modern musician; and storyteller Bob Elderidge. Darts, beads, talking sticks, face painting and free Cherokee name cards will be available for children.

The festival is named for the “Great Island,” a Cherokee village site 250 years ago. Today, Fort Loudoun State Historic Area and the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum occupy an island created by the Tellico Lake Project.

Adult tickets are $5 for the Trade Faire and $5 for the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum. Children 12 and under are admitted free of charge. To get to the festival, take Highway 129 to Maryville, then Highway 411 to Vonore. Once in Vonore, turn left on Highway 360. Festival parking is at the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum and shuttle buses will provide transportation for visitors from one site to the other, a distance of approximately 1.5 miles.

Fort Loudoun State Historic Area is a 1,200-acre site on the location of one of the earliest British fortifications on the western frontier, built in 1756. Nearby were the principle towns of the Cherokee Nation including Tenase, namesake of our state, and Tuskegee, birthplace of Sequoyah. Today the fort and the 1794 Tellico Blockhouse overlook TVA’s Tellico Reservoir and the Appalachian Mountains.

For more information about the park or the Great Island Festival, contact the Fort Loudoun State Historic Area office at 423-884-6217 or visit the Web site at: http://www.state.tn.us/environment/parks/FortLoudoun/index.shtml.

For more information contact:

Tisha Calabrese-Benton
Office (865) 594-5442