Rugby plans British, Appalachian fest

Historic Rugby will welcome visitors to its 29th annual Festival of British and Appalachian Culture May 17 and 18 at the restored Victorian village on East Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau. Festival hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Eastern time.

Regional crafters and artists will display and sell their work at booths located throughout the historic grounds. The festival will showcase more than 70 traditional crafts demonstrations and arts and crafts exhibitors including a potter, woodcarver, bark and kudzu basketmaker, broom maker, dulcimer maker, quilters, tetter, chair caning, animal call maker, ribbon artist, rug hooking, cornshuck doll maker, spinner and weaver and more.

Children will especially enjoy the bunnies, baby goats and llamas.

Lark in the Morn English Country Dancers will teach and perform each day, including traditional Maypole dances. Visitors will also meet an “1880s Local Gentleman,” portrayed by Big South Fork National Park Service interpreter Howard Duncan while Sue Duncan will demonstrate sidesaddle riding in authentic 19th century costume.

Historic buildings open to festival-goers will include the 7,000 volume Thomas Hughes Public Library, unchanged since 1882; the founder’s rural Gothic home with furnishings original to the colony and the Schoolhouse Visitor Centre, all with guides to share their history. Historic Christ Church Episcopal will also be open to visitors both days with all welcome to attend the 11 a.m. Sunday church service.

Plenty of good traditional food and drink will be available at Historic Rugby’s Harrow Road Caf? and there will be 10th century letterpress demonstrations at the restored Rugby Printing Works. Rugby Commissary will be full of handcrafts, British food products, old time Watkins products, bone china teapots and other old time wares plus hundreds of Victorian period books, antique prints and gifts and an extensive selection of Rugby and area history books.

All activities are included in one $7 daily admission for adults; $4 for K-12 students with no charge for preschoolers. Two-day admission is $10 and $6. One-day group rate of $6 is available for 12 or more when reserved in advance.

The festival is presented annually to help preserve and share the region’s fascinating British Isles and Appalachian culture. Rugby was founded in 1880 by British author/social reformer Thomas Hughes as a cooperative, agriculture community. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places are 20 Victorian buildings in a wooded, river gorge setting.

Find a map and driving directions at www.historicrugby.org. Call 1-888-214-3400 for group admission, area lodging and other information or e-mail [email protected].