Festivals sponsored by Catch the Spirit
of Appalachia
CSA's community work has been involved in festivals
since inception almost 17 years ago. It is our belief that we must celebrate our
heritage and provide an avenue for our artists and crafters to earn monetary
favors, while encouraging our young to honor the works of their family and
friends. We began with the "Festival of Many Colors," that grew into a
partnership with Downtown Sylva Association in producing "Greening Up The
Mountains." It is with sadness that we
are announcing that Catch the Spirit of Appalachia will no longer be
participating in Greening Up the Mountains. We're now co-sponoring two other
INSIDE festivals with the Jackson County Recreation Department and the
Appalachian Homestead Farm & Preserve—The Patchwork Fabric Festival and the
Appalachian Arts & Crafts Bazaar (information listed in this website).
For the "Greening Up the Mountains" festival, we encourage all
crafters to email Downtown Sylva Association at:
info@downtownsylva.org
—Amy
The
History of Greening Up the Mountains Festival —Fourth
Saturday in April — Downtown Sylva
In 1996, in the shadow
of such a new beginning, a dedicated group of individuals sat around a table at
City Lights Bookstore, discussing how to combine three ongoing smaller Main
Street festivals into one larger Downtown Sylva Festival. The committee
included Joyce Moore of City Lights Bookstore, representing the newly formed
Sylva Partners in Renewal (SPIR), Amy Ammons Garza and Doreyl Ammons Cain
representing Catch the Spirit of Appalachia, Inc. and the heritage of Jackson
County, and Avram Friedman who represented Earth Day Celebration and the
Sustainable Businesses. During the brainstorming, all participants grew
excited as a plan to implement this NEW festival began to emerge—a festival that
would include a mosaic of music; rides and games for children; traditional
heritage demonstrators, contests for adults and children; opportunities for
local vendors to sell their wares; ways to enjoy the surrounding
environment of Sylva; demonstrations, children contests, displays from the
sustainable businesses of Jackson County; and a parade that would spotlight all
of the above while conducting a costume contest to “color” the season.
Joyce Moore, who had been greatly affected by the climbing green syndrome of the
mountains, came up with the name “Greening Up
the Mountains Festival!” Thus, history was made. (Photo credit Jennifer Petosa)
Linda Vinson has
been a demonstrator in the Greening Up the Mountains Festival since it started
in 1996.
