I’m a little late writing this blog, but I have always felt that it is better late than never. I had the pleasure of going to Dollywood several times this season for the Harvest Festival. I was at the Great Pumpkin Luminights one night as well. Once darkness fell on the park, all of the decorations out for Halloween came alive once the sun went down.

The Harvest Festival itself is just a wonderful concept. Artisans from all over come to Dollywood for a little over a month to set up booths and sell their crafts. It is amazing to walk from booth to booth and see all of them hard at work. My personal favorite one to watch was the sorghum syrup being made. A mule was hitched up and walked around in circles while sugarcane stalks were inserted in a device that squeezed them and the liquid from the stalks landed in a bucket. Each time I went by a group was always watching the process of the syrup being made.

While I have to admit that I am not a thrill seeker, I do enjoy riding the Dollywood Express. The Dollywood Express is the train that takes you on a behind the scenes tour of Dollywood. You will either have Cinderella or Klondike Katie as the engine that pulls the train throughout the park. Both times we rode the train in September, Cinderella was the engine that took us out on our tour. Unfortunately we did not ride the train on our last visit, but I wish we would have since I noticed that Klondike Katie was pulling the train that day. Maybe next time.

The Harvest Festival is also when Southern Gospel acts come to Dollywood. This year over 800 concerts were planned throughout the park. Due to restrictions that were in place due to the crazy year that 2020 has been, all of the concerts took place outside or in outdoor theaters. This year in addition to the gospel music that the festival is known for, bluegrass bands were also invited to the park to fill the park with sounds of music. I am not much of a bluegrass lover, but the acts that we did watch were simply amazing. The guys had the banjos and fiddles lit up while playing their songs. I do believe that I was keeping time with the music myself on some of the songs.

One of my most favorite things about Dollywood so far has to be the festival food. I hate to say that we ate our way through Dollywood, but we did. On the first day we went, we were about to starve. We ordered the pork belly and the fried green tomatoes blt that had corn salad with it. We weren’t too crazy about the pork belly, but the blt and corn salad were so good that we ordered it again on the next visit. I had read good things about the pumpkin spice funnel cake, so after we finally tracked it down on our last visit, we indulged in it for lunch. I highly suggest that you have someone to help you eat it if you order one. It’s large and it is sweet. We have also found that we love the highly touted cinnamon bread, kettle corn, and pork rinds. Somethings are worth standing in line for.

Since the Harvest Festival for 2020 has already come to an end, I hope that you enjoyed the blog and pictures. This has been a year of me questioning myself whether I should let people know if I have been traveling or not, but in the end, I still want to get out and explore. Dollywood has done an excellent job at trying to keep people safe this year. Park attendance is limited each day, only people from the same family can get on each row of the train, hand sanitizer is placed all over the park, and seats are wiped down as soon as someone gets off of a ride. It’s an overall enjoyable experience on each visit I have had so far. Now I am looking forward to the Smoky Mountain Christmas that starts this month and runs through January of 2021. I shall attend that as well and write about it too. Until next time….

Published by travelingthesoutheast

My name is Donna. At an early age I had a love for photography. There was nothing more fun than taking film to a store and then having to wait several days to get the photographs back, sometimes only to find out that none of the pictures turned out the way I wanted them to. Quite a few years ago digital came out, and the rest is history. I can always be found with a camera around my neck, on my arm, or in my hand. I have always had a love for telling stories and sharing them with others. My imagination has always been a little on the wild side. About ten years ago, I decided one day that I wanted to start traveling, and I have never looked back. There is nothing in the world that I enjoy more than traveling and taking photographs. View all posts by travelingthesoutheast