Dance around the Maypole…jump up and buck dance…hear great old-time music… tour antique filled buildings….visit with more than 80 crafters and artists… all at Historic Rugby’s Festival of British and Appalachian Culture on May 17-18.    Festival activities are at the restored Victorian village on East Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau.   Festival hours both Saturday and Sunday are 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. EDT.

Performers will appear indoors at the new Rebecca Johnson Theatre and outdoors under the main Festival Tent.  Come hear national touring artists Sparky & Rhonda Rucker, with tales & music of the Civil War and after;  high, lonesome bluegrass by Butch Hodgkins & Lonesome County Line: old time gospel harmony by The Johnson Sisters; old time country music man Roy Harper with champion dobro, mandolin, and dulcimer player Rob Pearcy: haunting Celtic tunes on hammered dulcimer by Ricko Donovan; Appalachian coal mining songs by Tony Thomas, Cherokee stories and songs by Joni Lovegrove; and more to be announced.

The Rugby festival will showcase more than 80 traditional arts and crafts exhibitors and demonstrators including potter Hugh Bailey, broom makers Ann and Steve Bell, blacksmith Stephen Feinstein,  tatter Joye Gowan,  treenware artist Karen Davis,  chair caner Betty Newman, animal call maker Homer Hooks,  cornshuck doll maker Helen Cargile, shoemaker Matt Matteson,  stained glass artist Sara Senft, white oak basket maker Scott Gilbert , rug hooking by Gail Hill,  Sue Duncan spinning and weaving, David Scutt, long rifles, the Amsdens making hammered and lap dulcimers, goat milking and goat milk soap by LaBelle Acres, and many more.  Children will especially enjoy live animal demonstrations plus special hands-on activities on the Christ Church lawn.

Regional crafters and artists will display and sell pottery, dolls, weaving, woodwork, handmade soaps, jewelry, white oak and reed baskets, candles, stained glass, honey and beeswax candles, wreaths, bird carving, art prints, watercolors, photographs and much more at booths throughout the historic grounds.          

Lark In The Morn English Country Dancers will teach and perform on the grounds, including traditional Maypole dances for visitors of all ages.  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 1880s furnishings original to the colony and the Rugby Schoolhouse, all with guides to share their history.  Historic Christ Church Episcopal will also be open to visitors both days, and all will be welcome to the regular 11:00 a.m. Sunday church service.    

The new Rugby Visitor Centre & Theatre will show the national award winning history film, RUGBY: The Power of a Dream, throughout the weekend.  Visitors can also view the recently completed 32-foot wall mural of the Rugby village in its 1880s heyday.

Plenty of traditional food and drink will be available at Historic Rugby’s Harrow Road Cafe for home cooked meals, sandwiches and desserts plus booths with pit cooked barbecue; country ham and sausage biscuits; pinto beans and cornbread;  lemonade, funnel cakes, Muddy Pond Mennonite goodies; and the Wilsons of Monterey serving homemade ice cream cranked by an old-time hit & miss engine.

There’ll  be 19^th century letterpress demonstrations at the restored Rugby Printing Works; the  Commissary Museum Store will be full of handcrafts, British foods, old time Watkins products, bone china teapots and other old time wares plus Victorian period  books, antique prints and gifts and an extensive selection of Rugby and area history books. Spirit of Red Hill Nature Art & Hodgkins Art Gallery will also be open both days.

ALL ACTIVITIES are included in one $8.00 daily admission for adults, $4.00 for K-12 students.  Preschoolers and Historic Rugby Members are free.   Two-day admission is $12 and $6.   One-day rate of $6.00 is available for groups of 12 or more when reserved in advance.   Performers are sponsored in part by grant support from the Tennessee Arts Commission, Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville, and East Tennessee Foundation Arts Fund.  Media sponsors include Knoxville’s WUOT-FM, and WDVX-FM