Fort Loudoun State Historic Area and the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum present the annual Great Island Festival from10 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, September 6th and 7th 2008.

The Great Island Festival offers simultaneous events held at the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum and Fort Loudoun State Historic Area in Vonore, Tennessee. The festival name refers to the “Great Island” which was a Cherokee village site 250 years ago. Today, Fort Loudoun and Sequoyah Birthplace Museum occupy an island that was created by the Tellico Lake Project. Fort Loudoun and the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum are separated by approximately 1.5 miles. The sites collaborate on the Great Island Festival to provide a richer cultural and historical experience for visitors.

At the 18th Century Trade Faire visitors can expect to see a couple hundred costumed re-enactors participating in various 18th Century related activities.  Merchants and artisans will be on site to demonstrate and peddle 18th Century style wares.  Soldiers, settlers and Cherokee Indians will be encamped.  There will be artillery and musket drills and there will be skirmishes and battles on both days.

Entertainment will be performed from two stages at Fort Loudoun.  On the Main Stage, visitors will be treated with music performed by the ever engaging Celtic band “Father, Son and Friends” who make use of traditional instruments such as penny whistles, mandolins, bones, fiddles and of course bagpipes.  Music selection includes traditional Irish, Scottish and English, both new and historically themed composition.  

Other entertainment performances include “The Travelling Caudells”, a traditional vocal duo; “Common Stock and their Amazing Booth of Wonders” and “Mr. Bayly” the 18th Century Magician.  Performing at The Oak Tree will be “Otto the Swordswallower” and “The Amazing Juggling Budabi Brothers” showing their amazing acts of skill, courage and imagination – guaranteed to thrill and astonish visitors of all ages. Under the Oak Tree will be the Beggar Boys along with their talent for fiddle playing and singing.

There will be food and drinks of the 18th Century on hand.  Red beans and rice, beef and cabbage, gumbo and homemade lemonade is a few of the dishes offered.  The bake oven in the fort will be in operation, baking delicious short bread and scones. Water, Root Beer and Ginger Ale from Colonial Williamsburg and other sodas will be sold at various locations in the park.

At the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum visitors can experience Native American food, arts and crafts demonstrations, music and dance and a Native American encampment featuring the time periods of the 1400’s,1700’s,1800’s and 1900s. Other activities include a Cherokee history quiz and a poster contest featuring children of the Cherokee Elementary School in Cherokee North Carolina.

Special entertainment will be provided by the Raven Rock Dancers, Warrior Dancers of Ani-Kituhwa, performance artists Paula Nelson and Diamond Go-Sti, an educator and native culturalist. Cherokee flute player Eddie Bushyhead and storyteller Bob Elderidge will also perform throughout both days. Darts, beads, talking sticks, face painting and free Cherokee name cards will be available for children. In addition, there will be a special display highlighting the Cherokee experience in the Viet Nam War. Food and drinks will also be available.

The Great Island Festival will be held in Vonore Tennessee. To visit the site, travel highway 129 to Maryville, then take Highway 411 to Vonore. Once in Vonore, turn left on Highway 360. Festival Parking is at Sequoyah Birthplace Museum and shuttle buses will provide transportation for visitors from one site to the other (approximately 1.5 miles).

Adult tickets are $5.00 to the Trade Faire and $5.00 to the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum. Kids 12 and under are admitted free of charge. For more information on the Great Island Festival, contact the Fort Loudoun State Historic Area office at 423-884-6217.