Fort Loudoun State Park and the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum to Present the Great Island Festival

VONORE, Tenn. – The Fort Loudoun State Historic Park and the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum are partnering for the Great Island Festival, slated for September 12-13, from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. each day.

 

The Great Island Festival is actually a series of concurrent events, designed to take visitors back in time to an 18th century Trade Faire and a Cherokee encampment. 

 

The 18th century Trade Faire at Fort Loudoun will feature encampments of soldiers, settlers and American Indians. There will be demonstrations throughout the day in artillery and musketry, along with several battle and skirmish re-enactments. Merchants and artisans will be on hand to peddle food and wares reminiscent of the time. Period food will be sold by Beggar and Boar, including dishes like red beans and rice, beef and cabbage, gumbo and smoked turkey legs. Additionally, Fort Loudoun’s bake oven will be in operation, offering delicious breads and scones and Crown Point Bread Company also will be providing freshly baked goods.  

 

Music and other entertainment acts will include The Traveling Caudells, a traditional vocal duo; Out of the Ordinary, featuring a hammered dulcimer, English guitar, harp and vocals; and the Beggar Boys, talented singers and fiddlers. An 18th century magician, Common Stocks Curious Booth of Wonders, Otto the Sword Swallower and the Amazing Juggling Budabi Brothers will also delight and astonish visitors of all ages. New this year will be Faire Wynds Circus, featuring musicians, a conjuror, equalibrialist, contortionist and an escape artist – just a few highlights of their whimsical act. 

 

Meanwhile, at the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum, visitors will have the opportunity to experience Cherokee food, arts and crafts demonstrations, music and dance. Other special demonstrations and displays will include a look into the Cherokees’ military service, an exhibit from the University of Tennessee’s Frank H. McClung Museum and a Cherokee timeline encampment featuring time periods of the 1400s through the 1900s. Special entertainment will be provided by the Warrior Dancers of Ani-Kituhwa; Paula Nelson, an educator and performance artist; Diamond Go-Sti, a native culturalist; Eddie Bushyhead, a Cherokee flutist; and storyteller Bob Elderidge. 

 

Wings will take flight when Tennessee State Parks’ own David Haggard presents his Birds of Prey demonstration on Saturday at Sequoyah. Also, the new 1809 Cherokee log cabin-style Blacksmith shop will be open for demonstrations on both days.   Other activities include a Cherokee history quiz, and a poster contest featuring children from the Cherokee Elementary School in Cherokee, North Carolina. Darts, beads, talking sticks, face painting and free Cherokee name cards will be available for children. Traditional fry bread and tacos, fresh squeezed lemonade, kettle corn, along with other food and drinks also will be sold.

 

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.  

 

Festival parking is at Sequoyah Birthplace Museum, located at 576 Highway 360 in Vonore, Tenn. Free shuttle buses will provide transportation for visitors from each site (approximately 1.5 miles). Adult tickets are $5.00 to the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum and $5.00 to the Trade Faire. Kids 12 and under are admitted free of charge. 

 

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 Great Island Festival, contact the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum at (423) 884-6246 or Fort Loudoun State Historic Park at (423) 884-6217. For more information about Tennessee State Parks, please visit www.tnstateparks.com.

  

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