This year the celebration takes place April 16-18. The official website states:
Spring, with its warming days encouraging trees to bud and flowers to grace the landscape, is always a reason to celebrate, and Pickens takes full advantage of the opportunity.
A 1989 brochure promoting the city’s annual festival said it best with the words “When the azaleas are blooming in Pickens, South Carolina, the little town celebrates!”
And having fun in a family-oriented atmosphere is exactly what they do during the Azalea Festival, which occurs each year in April.
Events include amusement rides, classic car cruise in, entertainment for all, arts/crafts, carriage rides and hot air balloons.
The Hagood Mill Historic Site welcomes Tater Hill Toppers, Shoals Junction and CassRoxx for a concert July 5, 2008.
The Pickens County Cultural Commission invites one and all for a free house concert at the Hagood Mill Historic Site & Folklife Center Saturday, July 5. From 12:00 to 3:00 in the Visitor Building, the mill site is proud to host a concert by three great Upstate groups. The show will start at 12:00 with husband and wife duo, “CassRoxx” (Donnie & Sandy Foster) performing a variety of blues, folk and country. At 1:00, the driving bluegrass of “Shoals Junction” will take stage, and at 2:00, the tight old-time sounds of the “Tater Hill Toppers” will round out the day. This last group, consisting of John Fowler, David White & Michelle Turner, is well known to the regional old-time music community and has given award winning performances all over the VA, NC & SC area. Come out and hear a great slice of Southern music! Seating is limited and first come – first served. CD’s of some of the individual performers are available in the gift shop. The Mill Site will be closed Friday for the Fourth of July Holiday but will be open Saturday for this special concert.
There will also be a table of baked goods and treats. There will be spinning and iron works demonstrations.
The Mill Site is open Wed. through Sat. from 10:00 to 4:00, to tour the buildings and grounds. Hagood Mill is located three miles north of Pickens or five miles south of Hwy 11, just off Hwy 178 on Hagood Mill Road. For more information contact Hagood Mill at 864-898-2936 or the Pickens County Museum at 864-898-5963.
Six Dances Lessons in Six Weeks plays through June 7th, 2008 at the Flat Rock Playhouse in Flat Rock, North Carolina.
This comedic presentation is the story of a woman who hires an angry young dance instructor to teach her how to cha-cha, foxtrot and tango in her home. The two forge an unlikely friendship despite their differences. Due to subject matter and language, this play is for adults only.
Sliding Rock is and has been a well known summer time “escape the heat” recreation area located in close proximity to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Administered by the US Forest Service in this Pisgah National Forest protectorate, the 60' natural rock slide boasts a 6 - 7 foot deep pool at the base in normal non drought conditions. In recent years, the area has been developed by the park service with observation decks, a rope line to steady yourself as well as pull yourself up by while waiting your turn to slide, lifeguards, and ranger staff. The latter are on duty from approximately Memorial Day week end to Labor Day. Kids have to be a certain size to slide by themselves but can sit on the lap of an adult and slide.
So as Memorial Day Weekend rolls in, be sure to bring your swimming suit too since Sliding Rock really is a natural slide that visitors and locals alike have been enjoying for eons long before the water theme parks came into being. This mountain fed river is refreshingly cool you can be sure in the summer time and you too will remember sliding on Sliding Rock as a highlight to a nice summer time getaway in the Carolina Mountains. There is a fee of $1 per person to access the area, which is 7.5 miles north of Hwy 64 on Hwy 276. For more info, call the US Forest Service at 828-877-3350. The Pisgah National Forest is located on Highway 64 between Brevard and Waynesville on the North Carolina side of the Carolina Mountain Paradise. Gotta getaway this summer? Do it in the Blue Ridge Mountains here in the Carolinas.
The third annual Old Fort Pow Wow Event is scheduled for the second weekend in May at the Old Fort Fairgrounds. So all you Native American Dancers, get your dancing moccasins on and plan to be in attendance. It’s pow wow time again! Come and enjoy the Third Annual Old Fort Pow Wow at the Rodeo Grounds in Old Fort, North Carolina. The dates are May 9-11, 2008. Activities start at 9A.M. Friday, Saturday and Sunday and go until 9 P.M. on Friday and Saturday and 5 P.M. on Sunday. There will be dancing, drumming, and singing. Hey, even you can dance! There will be story tellers, flint knappers, pipe carvers, craft makers and Native American food comprised of fry bread, Indian tacos, and buffalo burgers.Dave Trezak,
with a fine maternal lineage mixture of Cherokee and Lakota, is the much traveled Emcee. He is a Native American Music Award Nominee. Now that man can flat put on a show! There will be something going on all day, so bring your lawn chairs and stay all day. Grand Entry is at 7 P.M. on Friday, 1 and 7 P.M. on Saturday, and 1 P.M. on Sunday. Luck of the draw dance money for registered dancers. Admission donation is $5 for Adults and $2 for Children. For more information, call McDowell County Tourism Bureau at 888-233-6111 or Mabel at 813-765-3073.
This rainy day Saturday weekend marked yet again another successful Azalea Festival in Pickens County, South Carolina this year! The traditional afternoon/night festival kick off was held on a gorgeous Friday in downtown Pickens on the main drag. The weather was absolutely beautiful and the foot traffic for the Classic Car Drive In built up a steady head of steam for the always popular live entertainment/dance night on the Center Stage. As always, there were a few hundred different vendors, food, a kid's carnival, live music and a car show. Talk about fun for the whole family! Even a rainy Saturday morning, could not dampen the spirits of the celebrants at this two-day festival. This has always been a perfect way to kick off spring in the Blue Ridge Foothill Country here in Upstate South Carolina. Nothing quite like going native, drive into the area to experience local arts and crafts, live entertainment, delicious food, and games for children.
This year’s Azalea Festival highlight for this intrepid reporter was the Alabama Blues Brothers. What a great, great show for young and old alike. Check out some of the tom-foolery on the You Tube video below from other performances that these consummate showmen have done in other venues throughout the southeast. Gets better and better every year, don't you know! Ya’ll come back next year now, you hear?
There is no confusion among the inhabitants here in The Western North Carolina Mountains about the Christian Faith of our Forefathers. Given the abundance of mountain community churches, it is no great surprise to find an extraordinary tribute to the Old Testament, The world's largest Ten Commandments Monument located just outside of Murphy, North Carolina. Residing in these parts since it’s completion during the early 1940’s, Reverend Ambrose Tomlinson erected this tribute along with other well known Biblical themed Old Testament Monuments. Revealed in a vision to Rev. Tomlinson years before, the founder of the Church of God of Prophecy (700,000 members strong throughout the world) also fashioned replicas depicting Golgotha and Joseph’s Tomb.
His monumental Ten Commandments construction project feature concrete letters 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide on the mountainside across from where he had prayed and received his vision. According to the Western Carolina Attractions website, “Other oversized markers include, the world's largest altar, a concrete structure 80 ft. long erected where Tomlinson prayed, the world's largest New Testament, an open concrete Bible 30 feet tall and 50 feet wide, and the world's largest cross, a prone concrete structure 115 feet wide and 150 feet long, lined by the flags of the eighty-six nations in which the church can be found. A replica of Christ's tomb was also built at the park, and an outdoor baptismal pool which is used by thousands annually.” So all you Christian faithful looking to reinvigorate your faith through a mountain themed pilgrimage, this blended mountainside attraction situated amongst the Carolina Mountains might well be worth a day trip drive or a weekend getaway excursion.
Calling all traveling gourmets,Carolina Getaways has the latest
Upcountry information on where discriminating taste buds are most likely to be
titillated while sampling the tastiest local barbecue with your preferred
sauce, or merely have a hankering for your basic home cooked southern staple of
collard greens with ham hocks, black eyed peas, and cornbread in any of our
trademark Carolina Restauranteateries? If so, then open your mouth for a taste of the Old South along our
Carolina Blue Ridge Culinary Trail! As cultural tourism is on the grow
all across the country, the foothills and mountains of the Carolinas and
Georgia has led the charge in proactively hooking up regional restaurants and
international tourists that are just now becoming familiar with our traditional
meals.
So what separates our mountain destination vacation area
from other vacation destinations, you might ask, from a cultural tourism
standpoint? Here in the Upcountry, tourists are attracted to hundreds of
thousands of acres of breathtaking Western Carolina and Georgia
territory which includes thirteen state parks in South
Carolina alone. When taking a scenic tour along
Cherokee Foothills Highway 11, the scenery reveals a great deal about the
area’s heritage and history. Running
parallel to this route across the state line of South
Carolina, the northern neighbor in North Carolina features winding highway 64 which runs the Blue
Ridge Mountains east to west on into Georgia
through some very well known resort mountain towns that are refreshingly far
removed from the congested Interstate Highway Systems. With that in mind, plan your cultural getaway
to the Western Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains and sample the mouth watering
cuisine found in the local non-chain restaurants of these mountain
communities. You’ll be returning for
second servings, of this you can be sure.
With over thirty downtown Asheville Art Galleries, it is no wonder that Western North Carolina’s recognized Art Center provides creative outlets for thousands of working artists of every genre here in their Carolina Mountain home tucked away in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The themed festivals crank up early in Asheville’s trendy historic district and serious art collecting connoisseur destination with the kick off next weekend of the 2008 winter season’s Fringe Festival. The brainchild of ACDT’s Artistic and Co-Directors, Susan and Giles Collard, the AFF’s mission rides literally on the Asheville Art Community’s ability to initiate cutting edge performances of “avant garde work” as their website states below:
The Asheville Fringe Festival serves patrons of art from Asheville and beyond by facilitating the creation and production of avant garde performance art work
that may otherwise not find a venue. In past years the artistic mix has included actors, dancers, singers, videographers, painters and musicians, presenting a varied range of interesting work including cross-genre improvisation, Butoh dance, sketch theatre, modern dance, and multi-media performance art. The spirit of the festival also leaves the city “vulnerable” to random acts of art, such as fire-dancing in the street or mass mobs of poets.
Holding a high standard for artistic integrity, the Fringe Advisory Board, comprised of representatives from each participating venue, holds an open call each fall. Artists are invited to show their work or discuss their working concept. Video submissions are also accepted. The board adjudicates the work and assigns accepted artists to appropriate venues. Each venue plays host to a variety of performers, assuring an interesting mix to challenge and delight audiences.
So plan a weekend road trip to Carolina Getaways own personal favorite mountain town, Asheville, North Carolina, next weekend and observe some highly creative and visually pleasing performance art renderings.
Now that the icy chill of the winter season has set in here in the upcountry, a not inconsequential number of returning travelers to the Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains are making their early plans for their Carolina homecoming vacation for spring, 2008. And why not, spring's early return being just eight weeks away now as we speak, give or take a week or two. These pontoon cruise loving travelers have set their sights on the clear crystal waters of Lake Jocassee or the scenic beauty north of this pristine mountain lake up the Blue Ridge Mountain Escarpment towards Cashiers, North Carolina. And other outdoor loving travelers seek miles and miles of hiking trails along the Foothills Trail in and around Table Rock State Park towards Pinnacle Mountain and beyond. Weekend getaway sojourns of the summer season just passed in the land of Bluegrass pickers keeps the beat in one’s mind’s eye along with the fond remembrances of idyllic days in the Carolina Mountains.
Our Carolina Getaways Mountain Cabins and Golf Course Condo Homes provide the perfect base camp for that already anticipated early spring getaway excursion including weekends filled with mountain golf, a rafting trip down the Chattooga River, an historic tour of Stumphouse Mountain or an invigorating visit through the land of waterfalls in Transylvania County, NC. Throw another log on the fire and think in terms of the return of spring along the Blue Ridge Hill Country here in the Carolina Mountains. We’ll be right here when the spring rolls in for your affordable cabin rental.
