Spring has sprung in Pigeon Forge and with a new season comes plenty of fun and exciting new events!  The East Tennessee weather has warmed up and we are ready for beautiful flowers and green Smoky Mountains!

The Spring Grand Rod Run kicks off the car show season with classic Fords, Chevy/GMCs and Gold Wings. Pigeon Forge is known for their very popular car shows and we’re excited to see what this year’s Rod Run will bring!  The Spring Grand Rod Run will be from April 15 – 17.  Keep reading about the Rod Run and many more Pigeon Forge car shows.

April 26 – 30 is the 61st Annual Wildflower Pilgrimage.  Come out and celebrate the beauty of Great Smoky Mountains National Park with over 150 different programs, including hiking tours, motorcades, demonstrations and classroom lectures centered on the flowers, plants and wildlife in the great outdoors. For more information, call (865) 436-7318 ext. 222 or visit the website.

All you rib and wing lovers will LOVE Gatlinburg’s Ribfest & Wings Celebration on April 28!  Visitors enjoy a sampling of the area’s best ribs and wings as well as free live entertainment during this popular ninth annual event. One admission price allows sampling until the ribs and wings run out. The Parkway transforms into a Street Fair. (800) 568-4748.

These are only the big events happening in April.  May brings the Dolly Parade, Bloomin’ BBQ & Bluegrass and more car shows and fun festivals!  Be sure to check out ourcalendar of events and don’t miss your favorite events!

Dolly Parton kicks off her Better Day Tour in Knoxville, TN on July 17.  This will be the first time in at least 26 years she’s performed a local show outside Sevier County.  The show will be at Thompson Bowling Arena but no other information has been released.  Tickets will go on sale early April and Dolly’s  Dollyites, her online fans, will have first dibs on the tickets. If you’re interested in becoming part of her online community check out Dolly’s website. 

All the proceeds of her tour will go to Dolly Parton’s Dollywood Foundation and its Imagination Library, which delivers thousands of books to pre-schoolers around the world.  Her Better Day tour will also hit Texas, Virginia and Los Angeles. 

Dolly started her professional music career in Knoxville playing on local radio as a child. For most of her touring career, she has kept her shows in Sevier County, with many of those shows being set at Dollywood. Her 2011 tour supports her new CD “Better Day,” coming later this year.

Gabriella Solomon-Henry, a local doll maker, was discovered through her ETSY website by one of the movie’s prop masters.  Newly relesed movie, “Paul” is about about an alien who crash-landed in the 1940s and the government found him.  When the crash happened and the government cleaned up the area they took everything away including a girl’s teddy bear.  When Paul escapes (60 years later) he wants to find the little girl and return her teddy bear.  That’s where Henry comes in.

The directior provided Henry with photos of old bears to explain the look they were going for.  She purchased 1940s replica fur fabric and old-fashioned acrylic eyes to create the six bears she would need. She made a test bear out of muslin to test out her pattern and after the producers approved the test bear she started her process.  Since the bears all had to be identical she created her own assembly line to produce the bears. 

She put a lot of thought into the design to keep the bear authentic giving it plenty of shape and a longer muzzle.  She hand embroidered the nose, rounded the belly and padded the paws.  Since they wanted the bear to look huggable, she gave the arms more movement by removing some of the stuffing and handstitching seams to give that hugging affect.  Henry says the most difficult part came after she delivered the bears.  The prop master called with a special request: to distress the bears she had already sent. She agreed and had a deadline of 48 hours to distress the bears and send back. 

How did she distress the bears you ask? She created a mixture of tea, coffee, salt and a little vanilla and used a spray bottle to mist the mixture on the bears before popping them into the oven.  She says you must bake the bears at a temperature of 200 degrees, any hotter and you might melt the stuffing! After the bears were finished baking she used her husband’s sander to wear down the areas where a teddy bear might be hugged a lot.  This included the belly and the hand-embroidered nose, she even made a small hole near one of its eyes.  She said she hated to do that to one of her creations, but she did keep one of her bears that she didn’t distress for herself and she calls it the Hollywood Bear.

If you’re interested in checking out some of Henry’s work or to take a look at her Hollywood Bear she has a display at CliffDwellers in Gatlinburg where she sells her dolls, bears and handmade soaps.  You can’t purchase a Hollywood Bear there but you can put in an order for one and choose if you want it distressed or in its original state.

There are two spring cleaning events in Sevier County to help get ready for the upcoming tourist season.  If you’re in town we would love your participation!

Keep Sevierville Beautiful is hosting the semi-annual Roads and Rivers day this Saturday, March 26, from 9 am to noon.  Volunteers are asked to participate by signing up at any of the registration sites to receive their assignments.  Registrations sites are as follows: Sevierville Primary School, Welcome Center on the Spur, Dixie Stampede in Pigeon Forge, East Tennessee Realty Group in Wears Valley, Wilderness at the Smokies Resort in Sevierville, Sevier County Food Ministries on Old Knoxville Highway in Sevierville, First Baptist Church in Seymour and the Smokies Park clubhouse in Kodak.  All volunteers must come to these sites first to receive maps, trash bags and equipment.  Each participant is encouraged to bring gloves, wear sturdy shoes and long pants. They will also receive a free ticket for the Tennessee Smokies’ “Keep Sevier Beautiful” night scheduled during the baseball season.  For more info on volunteering call 865-774-6677 or find Keep Sevier Beautiful on Facebook. 

Today kicks off the City of Gatlinburg’s annual Sparkle Days where city residents and business owners get a chance to easily dispose of those items not usually included in garbage collection.  The Sanitation Department will pick up, free of charge, scrap metal, old appliances, brush and even junked vehicles.  Sparkle Days is scheduled for March 21 through April1 where the first week is reserved for commercial (21-25) and the second week will be residential collection (28-April 1).  Interested in scheduling a pickup time or a list of exclusions please call 430-1370.  The Gatlinburg Recreation Department is also encouraging neighborhood residents to form litter pickup groups where they will be provided with large garbage bags and the staff will retrieve from the roadsides.  Interested in a litter group please call 436-4990.

Help Keep Sevier County Beautiful!

TripAdvisor just released a new list for the 2011 Traveler’s Choice Awards, The Top 10 Great Places to Discover in the United States.  We are proud to announce that not only did Pigeon Forge, Tennessee rank as #4 on the list, Gatlinburg followed closely behind at #6. 

The article highlights the Smoky Mountains for the hiking, whitewater rafting, greatwildlife viewing and their ranger-led programs for kids. They also name Dollywood as “Pigeon Forge’s other main attraction” noting the park’s “old-fashioned, family-friendly atmosphere” along with fun roller coasters, waterslides and their live music.

Some of their “Don’t Miss” attractions are listed below.  These are the top rated Pigeon Forge attractions by visitors on TripAdvisor.

• Terry Evanswood Presents “The Wonders of Magic at WonderWorks”
• The Grand Majestic
• Parrot Mountain & Gardens 
• Magic Beyond Belief.

Interested in who else made the list?

1. Williamsburg, VA
2. Virginia Beach, VA
3. Lake George Region, NY
4. Pigeon Forge, Tennessee
5. Branson, Missouri
6. Gatlinburg, Tennessee
7. Corpus Christi, Texas
8. Port Aransas, Texas
9. Daytona Beach, Florida
10. Destin, Florida

Trip Advisor also named one of our Pigeon Forge hotels a Top 25 hotel, also a part of the 2011 Traveler’s Choice Awards!