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Sylva's Greening Up the Mountains spring festival to be staged April 22
Greening Up the Mountains festival organizers are predicting crowds at this year's event to fill the streets of Sylva Saturday April 22, (the day before Easter).

An ever-extending lineup of things to do, the people involved, the interest of the community, the extended marketing are all components predicted to produce tremendous growth, making this festival the most talked about and anticipated spring event ever in Jackson County.

Early risers are invited to walk around downtown with naturalist George Ellison, who will lead the first Nature of Sylva event at 7 a.m. A renowned knower of all that is natural, Ellison will teach beginning birders to recognize by sight and sound other early risers.

The day will continue with the long-standing tradition of an "all-you-can-eat" homemade breakfast offered by the Golden Age Center at 7:30 a.m. Then, the ever expanding lineup of things to do begins with a main stage filled with an all day entertainment schedule (beginning at 9:30 a.m.) featuring local entertainers: the award-winning Queen Family, the Fiddling Dills Sisters with the Cullowhee Valley Band, the Smoky Mountain Drum 'n' Bass Band, a Celtic music group, bagpipers from the Highland Pipes and Drums, a special keynote speaker and more.

The Parade of Many Colors, with its theme "Things That Fly, Connecting Earth and Sky, will fly, wind, wheel, dance, and strut down Sylva's Main Street at 10 a.m. displaying just a taste of what the festival holds for the day, including bicycle riders, cubmobiles from the region's Cub Scouts, animals from Snips, Dips, and Bows' petting zoo and other local "animal trainers"; theme-costumed children from the Jackson County Public Schools; costumed adults with the Jackson County Arts Council making a splash with a huge dragon; a wheelchair brigade from Pathways for the Future, which will be conducting an extremely popular "Wheeling in the Mountains" challenge course on Sylva's streets; representatives from a slew of children's activities... clowns, balloon twisters, magicians, pony rides, and many others.

For Catch the Spirit of Appalachia, one of the original three organizations to come together in support of a spring festival for Sylva, the day will begin with what has become a Mother's Day tradition - providing a breakfast of stuffed French toast, coffee and orange juice - this time on the street for festival-goers.

Up until 4 p.m., at the foot of the historic Jackson County Courthouse, CSA and the legendary Lymon Powell will host an open mike for "Picking on the Steps," sending out a call for all the area's front porch pickers to come on down to "make music" for the day. Catch the Spirit of Appalachia is also asking the community to contribute homemade cakes for a traditional "Cakewalk Around the Fountain," which Lymon will conduct as long as the cakes hold out.

Each year Catch the Spirit of Appalachia conducts an area heritage contest of canning, quilting, baking and hand-crafts, and along with the display of these winners will be some of the history of Jackson County seen through heritage demonstrations - blacksmithing, displaying handtools, drum making, chair caning, making corn shuck dolls, quilting, appliqueing, treadle machine sewing, pottery turning, old style "Kettle Korn" popping (in an 80-gallon kettle, stirred with an oar), cake decorating and many others - displays to be dovetailed within the area around the steps of the courthouse.

Nearby on the lawn of the historic Hooper House, the Jackson County Genealogical Society will host a new component to this year's festival, "Just Talkin." The group is inviting friends and neighbors to bring their old pictures, old stories, old secrets... and come down to spend the day like the locals did years ago... sitting on Sylva's benches just sharing, swapping and talking. The group will also have order sales information on Volume II of the Jackson County Heritage Book.

An outstanding new component to the festival - a Fiber Fair - demonstrating the chronology of wool fabric, including shearing, cording, spinning and weaving will be conducted by Joyce Moore (owner of City Lights Bookstore), Susan Morgan Leveille (owner of Oaks Gallery), and friends.

The Nature of Sylva continues throughout the day with two additional bird walks and the popular tree walk sponsored by the Sylva Garden Club. Those interested in participating should come to the SPIR information booth for more details. Carlton Burke, who has for the past two years demonstrated his wild creatures the night before the festival, will this year be appearing during the day on the lawn of the First Baptist Church.

Vendors of all kinds and shapes will line the streets, providing just about anything a festival-goer wishes to experience and buy (openings remain in the Mountain Marketplace for vendors of crafts, food, and beverage.)

Sylva Partners in Renewal invites everyone to come out and spend the day at one of the biggest spring events in Sylva's history. Call 586-1577 for more information.

Back to Archive: 04/06/00.