We're passionate about all things Dollywood and Sevier County, and we want to share that passion with you. Come along as we explore all that this beautiful area has to offer. From Dollywood and Splash Country to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Cades Cove, there's something for everyone in Sevier County.
We're also big fans of Dolly Parton, and we'll be sure to keep you up-to-date on her latest news and projects. We're sure you'll find something to love here.
Dollywood has posted images of Big Bear Mountain's track arrival to Dollywood, on social media. This is exciting because it means that vertical construction will begin soon enough, and we'll be able to start seeing noticeable progress in Big Bear Mountain. Up until now, we've seen site preparation and footer formations taking shape. Well, now or sooner than later we'll see columns on the footers and then the track can begin to be added.
I was checking out a recent post from The Dollywood Blog - Dollywood’s official blog, and they have a great post about DreamMore and how they celebrate the Harvest Festival there. I thought it would be a great share, so here you go.
I always say - Follow the Dollywood Blog and my blog for helpful Dollywood information.
Throughout the duration of the Harvest Festival, you can enjoy the Harvest Refreshment of the Moment including Pumpkin Punch, Pomegranate and Citrus Mocktail, and Autumn Harvest Punch. These delicious, family-friendly beverages are served by our Camp DW Hosts from 4-6 p.m. in the lobby and come with a recipe card allowing you to recreate the special beverage and memories at home. Camp DW offers a variety of harvest-themed take-away crafts including DIY patchwork pumpkins, foam pumpkin painting, seasonal vintage wooden trucks, canvas painting and more. Camp DW also hosts nightly s’mores and bedtime stories, which features fall-themed children’s books from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
Camp DW Activities During Harvest Include:
Bedtime Stories in The Barn every night at 8 p.m.
S’mores roasting around the wood-burning fire pit every night at 7 p.m.
Pumpkin carving demonstrations in The Barn every Tuesday that Dollywood is closed
Giant Connect 4, Jenga, Dominoes, Cornhole and other outdoor games available all day
Outdoor family movie nights in The Barn every weekend at 8:30 p.m.
Themed craft afternoon hosted by Camp DW Hosts.
Guest can enjoy live entertainment by featured Harvest Festival performers in the resort’s atrium throughout the festival, including performances by The Young Fables, The Woods, Billy and Cruz Contreras, the High Beams, and Kate and Corey. Daily roaming performers also can be found around the resort.
Dollywood’s DreamMore Resort and Spa’s Culinary Team is cooking up dining experiences. In The Lounge, you can feast upon delicious harvest-themed food and beverage options.
In The Spa, you can relax with special treatments infused with fall scents and ingredients. For Dollywood’s Harvest Festival, you can choose from treatments that are reminiscent of harvest in the Smoky Mountains such as the honey chai massage or luminous pumpkin facial. Choose from three harvest-inspired manicure and pedicure combinations – campfire, mint, and perky pumpkin – before completing their service by adding a sweet apple cider back polish or big bear polish foot scrub.
Working in television can be a lot fun. The first television show I worked on was called Club Dance and it aired on TNN - The Nashville Network - during most of the 1990s and it was filmed in Knoxville in a television studio, and it was meant to look as though it were in a nightclub, or a country line-dancing club - those were wildly popular in that timeframe. By the end of September on Club Dance, we had already celebrated Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, and so that was always a sort of thing that would screw with your mind a bit. And sometimes it made me less exciting to celebrate those holidays in real life because mentally, I had already been there and done that. lol.
That's how my visit felt to Dollywood on August 31st! Not sure what part of the calendar I was living in. Nonetheless, Dollywood is amazing, and they're fantastic about hanging Christmas and Halloween stuff up simultaneously, only to pull Christmas back down again, and then put it back up again in a month or so! Crazy!
In this video I take a look at all of that. I have one last look at the Smoky Mountain River Rampage. I love shooting that ride, as you know if you look at my Dollywood videos. One last shot of Daredevil Falls before it goes down for the season as well. I have a Big Bear Mountain update of the construction site. I take a look at the Slidewinder site to see if anything new is happening. There's nothing I could see from the former entrance, but I'll show you a map of the potential area that could be used - it's really big. Lastly, I exit through the gift shop - Dollywood's Emporium has Dolly's new line of dog clothes called Doggy Parton, and they're available for puchase in the Emporum. I'll show you a few of the Christmas Ornaments that they are selling. And that does it for this visit!
Dollywood is just hours away - as of this posting - from their awesome fall Harvest Festival.
There are so many impressive components to the park this time of year. All the cool decor around the park, the seasonal food options, and then the seasonal merchandise available in the stores around the park, night rides on your favorite roller coaster, the crispness in the air - so many things to love.
In this post I'll cover The Tasting Pass, Fall themed Glass art from the Blown Glass shop in Rivertown Junction, a couple cool items from last year from the Blacksmith, and then I'll show you what Dollywood looked like during last season's LumiNights Festival, and tell you what's new in 2022!
Let's jump in to it!
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This is from the Dollywood Blog, link here. I always say, follow my blog and follow the official Dollywood blog to help you stay informed.
I’m going to be honest, my brain isn’t sure what season it is. We just wrapped the filming of “Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas” at Dollywood, and now our teams are taking down the park’s Christmas decorations and putting out the pumpkins—all while the summer weather is still very much here. However, fall will be here before we know it, and I for one am very much looking forward to it. One of my favorite parts about autumn—the food. I am a candy corn junkie and I am not afraid of who knows it.
Dollywood’s Harvest Festival presented by Humana starts Friday, Sept. 23 and with it comes the return of the Harvest Festival Tasting Pass. Similar to the popular tasting pass for the Flower & Food Festival and our Smoky Mountain Summer Celebration, the Harvest Festival Tasting Pass allows you to sample five different food items crafted specially for the fall season. The tasting pass will run you $34.99. If you have a Gold or Diamond Season Pass, you can purchase the tasting pass at the discounted price of $31.99.
So what can you expect to enjoy with your Harvest Festival Tasting Pass? Here are a few items that I cannot wait to try!
BUSH’S Three Bean Pumpkin Chili & Pumpkin Cornbread
(Thanks to our friends at BUSH’s, this three-bean pumpkin chili is a taste sensation you have to try. The chili features ground bison, Monterey Jack cheese and an avocado crema. It is served with a slice of pumpkin corn bread.)
Smoked Sausage Mac & Cheese
(Take crisp fall weather and add the warm savory flavors of smoked andouille sausage and white cheddar for the ultimate mac ‘n’ cheese taste experience.)
Pulled Pork Sandwich with Pumpkin BBQ Sauce
(Take the delicious taste of pulled pork smoked onsite at Dollywood and top it with pumpkin-infused Memphis-style BBQ sauce and some cole slaw. Put it all in a brioche-style bun for the perfect fall meal.)
Pumpkin Sausage Pizza
(Tempt your taste buds with this fall-influenced twist on your favorite pizza! It’s an appetizing combination of crumbled Italian sausage, toasted pumpkin, whole milk ricotta cheese and parmesan.)
Sweet Corn Hushpuppies with Srirachia Aioli
(These hushpuppies are fried until they are golden brown then served with our own special aioli for dipping. The spicy aioli features roasted garlic, pumpkin puree and sriracha.)
Maple, Bacon & Walnut Funnel Cake
(Each season brings a delicious new topping offering for Dollywood’s funnel cakes. This fall, the salty and sweet flavors of walnuts in maple syrup and candied bacon are accented with powdered sugar and whipped cream – it’s sure to become a Harvest Festival favorite.)
Apple Dumpling with Ice Cream
(Don’t miss this perfect autumn dessert of baked apples and spice filling a delicious dumpling made of crispy pastry dough served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and warm caramel sauce.)
Apple Pie Milkshake (Ever wanted to have a slice of apple pie, but you wanted to keep moving to the next coaster? Here is the answer. The apple pie milkshake features vanilla bean ice cream and apple pie filling topped with streusel, whipped cream, caramel drizzle and a cherry!)
Pumpkin Spice Iced Coffee (Craving the ultimate taste of fall’s favorite flavor in a beverage? This iced coffee is made with Starbucks Cold Brew, cold foam and the sweet flavor of pumpkin spice.)
Pumpkin Spiced Churros with Pumpkin Fluff (Pumpkin spice makes everything nice! A crisp churro is made especially decadent with cinnamon, sugar, and… that’s right, pumpkin spice! It is served with pumpkin-infused fluff for the ultimate treat.)
Again, this is not a full list, but are you hungry yet?
In my visit to the Blown Glass shop back in April, they already had a lot of their fall themed items out for sale. Never too early! Let's check that out below...
Pretty cool stuff, huh? Again, this is all at the Mountain Blown Glass Shop near the bottom of Craftsman's Valley, but technically in Rivertown Junction. It's #104 on the official Dollywood Park Map. Check it out.
Here's a couple cool items from the Blacksmith shop back in 2021.
Blacksmith in the Craftsman's Valley Area, next door to the Chapel.
2021 Items for sale at the Blacksmith
2021 Items for sale at the Blacksmith
Perhaps you'll want to make a knife to carve your own jack-o-lantern? These prices are from 2021, so you may want to double check before you jump in.
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Let's take a look back at Dollywood's 2021 Great Pumpkin LumiNights and Harvest Festival and I'll tell you about what Dollywood has said will be included in this year's GPL&HF!
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New for 2022
Dollywood has some new stuff planned for GPL&HF. Here's what they've said about it...
Experience a Smoky Mountain fall during Dollywood’s Harvest Festival (Sept. 23 - Oct. 29, 2022), voted America’s #1 Fall Family Event by USA Today Readers. Soak in mountain majesty as the hills come alive with vivid color, the smells of apple and pumpkin treats waft through the streets and the sounds of our award-winning rides fill the air with adventure. As the sun sets, you'll be wrapped in a whimsical warming glow as the park transforms into an enchanting display of illuminated carved pumpkins and shimmering pumpkin icons. Don't miss a minute of Smoky Mountain splendor—visit today before it glows away! (source)
Award-winning Great Pumpkin LumiNights returns to light up the night with thousands of creatively carved pumpkins and larger-than-life pumpkin icons. This year, discover the NEW Hoot Owl Hollow, an enchanting hideaway for a gigantic, glowing owl and her dozens of friendly siblings roosting in the trees, atop buildings and across the hillside. Explore a world of not-so-spooky nighttime fun when you stroll through a forest of shimmering sunflowers, see a family of glowing frogs, and be enchanted by our towering Pumpkin Tree.
Dollywood released an image of Hoot Owl Hollow
Dollywood also mentions that they will have new performances during this festival as well. I noticed during the Flower Festival in the spring that there were noticeably more roaming musicians in the park, which I loved randomly running into and taking time to listen to them play - and watching others doing the same. It was pretty cool, so I am eager to see how Dollywood pulls that together for this years festival.
Last year they did have an Owl themed area in between Thunderhead and the Main Gate area, so it sounds as though a big expansion of the Owl theme is in the works. I'm wondering if it will be in the same general area or move somewhere else?
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Are you planning to go to this years Great Pumpkin LumiNights & Harvest Festival at Dollywood? What are you looking forward to the most? Let me know in the comments. Be Sure To Vote For Dollywood - Often!! Maybe I will see you at the park! Until next time - Jeff