To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the South Cumberland Community Fund, the Fund is staging the Round the Mountain Festival on Saturday October 22 from 1-9 PM at Old Roundhouse Park in Tracy City. The Festival will feature local musicians, crafts, exhibits, food trucks, and more and will cap off with a street dance. The Caverns is a sponsor of the Round the Mountain Fest.
Old Roundhouse Park is also site of the Special Places Project, a mural co-designed and co-painted by people of the Cumberland Plateau and the tist Andee Rudloff. The mural was finished on October 9 and will be dedicated during the festival.
A key activity for the 10th Anniversary Celebration for South Cumberland Community Fund is a special grant round for organizations that collaborate on a project and request funds. The Fund will be publicly celebrating two grants at the Festival, a $35,000 grant to Mountain T.O.P, Housing Sewanee, Green|Spaces, BetterFi, and the Littel-Partin Center to form a housing hub, a single source for housing information on the Plateau. In addition, Christians Celebrating God’s Bounty of Winchester, Volunteer Behavioral Health, and Catholic Charities will receive a $15,000 grant to support the launch of a free medical clinic in Tracy City. Come celebrate the achievement of these organizations.
One of the highlights of the Festival will be performances by Grundy County Elementary students, under the direction of Ben Ayers, the new elementary school music teacher for Grundy Schools. An accomplished multi-genre musician, Ayers has been working with students to build their knowledge of old time music, and that work has been supported by South Cumberland Community Fund and the Caverns.
Ayers will also perform with musical friends later in the afternoon.
While the schedule is being finalized, the initial order of performances is like this:
Program/Music Line-up
Laura Gifford is M.C. for the Day and may perform
1:00 Welcome and Ribbon Cutting for the Special Places Project
1:15 Ben Ayers and Grundy County Elementary Students
2:00 The Dixie Cloggers
2:45 Tracy Acoustic Jam
3:30 Ben Ayers and Guests
4:15 Jon Mallory & Sarah Douglas
5:00 Celebration of the Make Lasting Connections Grants
5:15 Shane Worley
6:00 Reverend Mojo (Michael Myers)
7:00 Street Dance (Midnight Blue--Kevin Sweeton)
Away from the main stage, the Festival will include plenty of activities for people young and old.
Margaret Matens will be bringing her educational animal menagerie to entertain and inform. Patrick Dean of the Mountain Goat Trail alliance will lead a short walk to provide an update on the trail and future plans. Lance Clay will exhibit pottery making, and Amy Ray, co-owner of a self-sustaining farm in Coalmont will bring a wool picker, carder and wheel to demonstrate working with fiber arts. Jackie Lawley: Swiss Historical Society, display of wine making using antique equipment. Volunteers in goat costumes will entertain children, as will bouncy houses. Grundy County Heritage Center will be open all day that day.
To keep up to date with plans as they develop between now and October 22, follow South Cumberland Community Fund on Facebook and Instagram, or visit the website at southcumberlandcommunityfund.org/events