The Foxfire Mountaineer Festival is a one-day celebration of the rich heritage of the Southern Appalachian mountains, featuring traditional music from numerous regional performers, showcases and demonstrations of time-honored handicrafts and trades, and all manner of mountain-flavored games and challenges for young and old alike. The Festival also honors the people of Southern Appalachia, represented at the event by the kind folks who have shared their tales and their lives with Rabun County high school students since 1966 and allowed those stories to be shared with the world through the pages of Foxfire books and magazines. Go ahead and plan on making a day of it — lunch won't be a problem, with everything from BBQ to burgers to hot dogs on offer. There will be top-notch bluegrass and a bit of gospel music on stage throughout the day, ranging from true traditional to more-current styles, but all mountain-grown, through and through. Keeping the old skills alive, the crafts folk will be showing finished goods and/or demonstrating their mastery of woodworking, blacksmithing, folk pottery, textile crafts, and many other talents. The outdoor field events give more-adventurous visitors a chance to see how they would fare in the mountains of old, with physical and mental challenges from the past: brute-strength and endurance contests like wood-chopping and log-sawing, skill and speed trials like archery and greased-pig chases, and simple schoolyard fun like three-legged races and sack races.
