Music and Molasses Festival Offers a Weekend of Family Fun

NASHVILLE – The annual Music & Molasses Arts & Crafts Festival on Oct. 18 and 19 at Ellington Agricultural Center in Nashville will feature an array of events for the entire family. Many favorites showcased each year will return and several new and exciting options will also be added to the festivities.

“It’s a weekend of family fun with sorghum molasses making and tasting, music, clogging and great food,” Buddy Vaughan, festival chairman, said. “From the horse-drawn wagon rides, to the beautiful hand-crafted items, there’s something for everyone, including many activities for the kids.”

Children can see and touch farm animals, take a pony ride, visit with Smokey Bear, tour Smokey’s log cabin, climb the fire tower with their parents, find farmer-for-a-day activities in the paddock, play in a corn box and see a working blacksmith’s forge alongside demonstrations of many traditional crafts.

“This year we are extremely excited to partner with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture Division of Forestry to celebrate the division’s centennial anniversary and Smokey Bear’s 70th anniversary,” Jennifer Watson, festival spokesperson, said.

A host of forestry exhibits and activities will be found across the festival site, including selections from the Jessup Collection, a special display of tree specimens from the 1880s, the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Musical Petting Zoo to see how the trees make music, a forestry treasure hunt, hands-on activities in planting trees, and a diagnostic lab with microscopes to look at bugs, bark and leaves just to name a few.

For the first time, festival patrons can take tour portions of Brentwood House, the former home of Rogers and Margaret Caldwell who built it in 1927 and fashioned it after Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage. Known today as Ellington Agricultural Center, Brentwood Hall is home to the Tennessee Department of Agriculture and other state agencies. An actress portraying Margaret Caldwell will lead the guided tour to share history of the house.

Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $6. Children 4 and under are free, parking is free and kids’ activities in the paddock area such as pony rides and visiting animals in the petting area are also free.

Ellington Agricultural Center is located 10 miles south of downtown Nashville, accessible from Franklin Pike or Edmondson Pike. For more information call the Tennessee Agricultural Museum at 615-837-5197 or visit www.tnagmuseum.org.