John C. Campbell Folk School Fall Festival

Today I embarked on my annual pilgrimage to the John C. Campbell Folk School Fall Festival that runs from 3 Oct to 4 Oct. It's located at Brasstown, NC, GPS coordinates N35degrees02.256 W83degrees57.696. Upon my arrival it became obvious that I wasn't the only one that had this idea. I don't know how may people were there, but it was kinda like a mini Woodstock. As I entered the area to pay my $5 cover charge, there was a band playing on the stage called "Beulah Land Gospel Band". They were playing some very nice accoustic sets of bluegrass music. I wandered further up the venue after watching the band and started on my journey to view the various art vendor displays. There were so may really good artists at this show, it is well worth the visit to see their crafts. Most of the crafts are not on the level of "Crafts stuff", these people are really artisans and I've previously purchased stuff for the cabin from a couple of them. One display I found very interesting was the guy that made his own knives (Mike Wilson) from Hayesville, NC. He has a website wilsoncustomknives.blademakers.com. In listening to him talk with another guy, he said that if a person was interested in learning the trade they could apprentice with him, but he didn't pay. A lady I talked with about her fabric display, told me of the process she uses to create her fabrics, which involve several steps and various paint put onto fabric and left in the sun. Her designs are mostly flowers and ferns. Some very interesting stuff. There were 104 juried exhibitors and 127 non-juried exhibitors. That didn't include all of the food stands, and yes they had funnel cakes. On the Festival Barn Stage they had a group called "Buzzard Mountain Boys" playing some pretty nice bluegrass also. A lady by the name "Dawn Gabrielli" from Murphy, NC, had some nice baskets and short benches made from wood and with woven seats.There were just too many exhibitors to show their exhibits on this blog. Throughout the area were people demonstrating various crafts, like pottery throwing, wood bowl turning, weaving, figure carving and others. At one point while watching the potter turn a bowl, a young girl asked, "Have you ever just torn up a bowl after you made it, just for the heck of it". The guy replied no not really, but you can tear up one if you want and he gave her a bowl he had turned so she could crush it. She seemed pretty content with destroying the pottery piece. After viewing all of the exhibits I returned to the cabin to rest up. Good thing I did because it started sprinkling.