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Dillsboro’s annual antiques festival to include live auction
By Justin Goble
Dillsboro residents are gearing up for the town’s fourth annual fall antiques fair, which is set for Saturday, Oct. 7.
Sponsored by the Dillsboro Merchants Association, the festival will feature 15 antiques vendors lining front street from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Food vendors and music will be located on Church Street throughout the day.
Dillsboro’s Front Street was filled with shoppers last October during the town’s annual antiques festival. This year’s event is set for Saturday, Oct. 7, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m and will again feature antiques vendors on Front Street, while music and food will be available on Church Street. In addition, entertainment will be provided in the Hamilton Court parking lot all day. While people can expect another great selection of antiques, organizer Janet Chinners said this year’s biggest addition is a live auction to benefit the Monteith Park project from 3 to 4 p.m. on Church Street. For more information, or to donate goods for the auction, call Chinners at 586-1600 – Herald photo by Nick Breedlove.
According to organizer Janet Chinners, festival attendees can expect the same selection of antiques that have been the event’s staple in the past. In addition, this year’s festival will also include a live street auction, conducted by autioneer Ron Raccioppi, that will be held from 3 until 4 p.m. on Church Street. Proceeds from the auction will benefit the town of Dillsboro’s planned Monteith Park.
“It’s something that we think will not only benefit Dillsboro, but all of Jackson County,” Chinners said. “We just want to help get that project moving along.”
Donations for the auction are still being collected, and will be accepted up to the day before the festival. Vendors will also be able to put items in the auction with a 20 percent seller’s fee that will be donated to the Monteith homestead, she said.
A list of auction items and those who donated them will be handed out to fesitval attendees, Chinners said.
“We hope people will stop by and say ‘thank you’ for helping out with the Monteith project,” Chinners said.
Dillsboro leaders purchased the 16-acre tract in 2002 from the Monteith family, and plan to turn the old home into a heritage museum. Officials are also planning to erect a performing arts center with an amphitheater, a picnic shelter with horseshoe pits, playground and a sand volleyball court.
“The homestead is going to be a museum that will be restored exactly back the way it was,” Chinners said. “And Dillsboro has the charm of a small, old mountain town. The first time I drove through here I loved it, and I ended up moving here seven years later. It’s the perfect setting for a festival like this.”
Phase one of the Monteith project started in June when Cherokee Construction broke ground and began grading for a planned parking lot.
“I think it’s a tremendous opportunity for not only Dillsboro, but Jackson County as well,” Dillsboro Mayor Jean Hartbarger said of the Monteith project. “The Greenway will be a part of the park, and it will connect Dillsboro and Sylva. I really think the park will be a tremendous asset.”
Also new to this year’s antiques festival will be a day-long set of performances in the Hamilton Court parking lot.
Music will be provided by Catch the Spirit of Appalachia and the Ammons Sisters. David Ammons will provide a caning demonstration, and there will be storytelling at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.
For more information about the event or to donate an item to the auction, call Chinners at 586-1600.
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