The Townsend Artisan Guild is a prime organizer of the festival with support from the Tennessee Valley Handspinners Guild. I am a member of both guilds so can't help but be involved.
As in previous years we set up the tent at a campground across the road from the Heritage Center. It's very convenient and a simple walk across the road once everything is set up. There are plenty of places to eat and we tend to sample local BBQ and Mexican and then always make the most of there being a great coffee shop located just down the road. The folk at the Artistic Bean know us well now - and my standard large latte is typically underway before I get to the counter each morning.
Our
tent is a fairly large tent and we normally get a site that has power
on so that we can recharge phones and use the fan in the muggy heat
typical of the Smoky Mountains at this time of year. Pitching the tent
is now pretty fast - I've done it often enough. With both of us it
takes barely 10 minutes, and not a lot longer with just me. Taking it
down again and packing it away takes about the same time. This year the
weather forecast was for a lot more rain than previous years and on the
day I traveled up I managed to arrive in a break in the light rain and
was able to get the tent up and everything unpacked before the main rain
came that night. As we have discovered previously we have a couple of
seams on the sides that leak a little, but otherwise everything stays
dry - more on that later too.
I decided to use the TAG loom again this year - it's a Harrisonville
Design 22" portable jack loom. The warp on it had been there for at
least two years and was nearly at the end so I had prepared a cotton
warp at home and planned to dress the loom in the couple of nights
before the festival began. There is plenty of room in the center of the
tent and winding on went pretty well - only broke one thread when I
took my eye off the lease sticks for a second. I dressed back to front
and certainly missed my two big looms where I can remove the breast beam
and sit down low right in front of the reed and heddles to thread the
warp.
On Friday night after dinner and after sitting around the firepit with some of the Scenic Vally Handweavers members the heavens decided to open up and along with thunder and lightning we retreated to our tent for the evening to watch some Netflix episodes. Unfortunately the noise of the rain on the tent pretty well killed that idea! It was late enough so we climbed into bed only to discover an hour or so later that we had a small lake in the tent that had come about by leaving a small gap unzipped at the bottom of the back door. It must have poured in there and been soaked up by the large rag rug we have until such time as it reached saturation and then flowed down to the lower side of the tent. Our bed and in it us stayed dry but our clothes and other bits and pieces were soaked. We headed for the laundry and managed to pop everything in dryers to dry - and as the rain had stopped continued watching some Netflix.
The following day (Saturday) was fine all day, but the weather forecast was for thunderstorms and rain from late in the day and all through Sunday. With the prospect of packing ourselves and the tent in the rain we decided to pack up and head home once I finished at the festival that afternoon. Best decision we ever made as Anne was able to pack the car and prepare the tent and when I arrived back at the camp ground we packed the dry tent etc into the truck and headed away. Heading south we drove through parts of the storm that would have hit us an hour or so later in Townsend - it would have been terrible. Safely home we were able to unpack a little and settle down as the rain started here.
Before leaving Townsend I ended up volunteering taking on the job of vendor coordinator for the festival next year to give the current guild member a break. Our first meeting will be in the next couple of weeks. I'll time that with a trip up there to visit the shop/gallery.
