The beautiful setting of the historic Cumberland Homesteads Community is the location for the 8th Annual Homesteads Apple Festival which will be held on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 24 and 25. The festival will be held on the grounds of the Homesteads Elementary School/Homesteads Tower Museum located at the junction of Highways 68 and 127S, four miles south of Crossville, Tn.
Festival hours will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and from noon until 4 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $1 with children 6 and under admitted free. Parking for the event is free and handicap spaces are available.
The live entertainment on Saturday, which will offer a variety of performing artists and musical styles, will be headlined by Cumberland Heart bluegrass band. On Sunday, the focus will be gospel music.
At 2:00 on Saturday afternoon, there will be a live auction of a hand-pieced quilt in beautiful fall colors. Also up for bid are a hand-forged hunting knife with antler handle and custom leather sheath, and hand-crafted log cabin doll house and child’s glider-swing made by a 94 year old Homesteader.
Festival activities include a quilt show, bake sale, antique tractor show, craft show and sale, and kids’ zone playground and activities. A new event this year is Spinning Yarns, an area dedicated to story telling and sure to be a hit with adults and children alike. A wide variety of food will also be available, including barbeque, beans and cornbread, hotdogs, hamburgers, chicken, everything apple, kettle corn and more.
The Homesteads Tower Museum and gift shop and the Homesteads House Museum will be open at no additional charge. Visit the story room at the tower to learn the history of the Homesteads, a subsistence community developed during the Great Depression and often referred to as the Showplace of the New Deal. Climb the 97 steps to the top of the tower for a panoramic view of the area, and spend a little time viewing the display of artifacts and items typical of a home of the 1930s and 1940s. A side trip to the House Museum offers the opportunity to walk through an original Homesteads house furnished as it would have been when it was occupied by original homesteaders.
This 8th Annual Apple Festival is hosted by the Cumberland Homesteads Tower Association, a non-profit organization whose purpose is to preserve and promote the Homesteads. Funds raised from the Apple Festival support the operation of the Museums and educational outreach programs. For more information, visit the CHTA website at www.cumberlandhomesteads.org or call the Tower Museum at 931-456-9663.