Entertainment

Something big is about to happen behind a plain picket fence on the Parkway in Gatlinburg. A new hotel is planned for the two-acre parcel across the street from Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies and it will have a unique aerial lift system that transports guests to a 55-acre mountain adventure park. The Anakeesta Village and Lodge on the Parkway ...

Great Smoky Mountains Association’s “Carroll Best and the White Oak String Band” has been named among the best of the year by earning an award nomination in the International Bluegrass Music Association’s annual competition. GSMA’s compilation of old-time Smoky Mountain music, first recorded more than 60 years ago just outside the national park, has been nominated along with four other ...

Dollywood announced today that the park is hosting The Band Perry in concert as part of the Showcase of Stars on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2015. Tickets to The Band Perry concert go on sale to Dollywood season pass holders on Friday, Aug. 21. One of the most dynamic acts in music today, the sibling trio proved to be a powerful ...

The sounds of some of the biggest hits in country, gospel and bluegrass music will resonate through the streets of Gatlinburg when the Smoky Mountains Songwriters Festival comes to town Aug. 19–23, 2015. The festival will feature over 130 acts of songwriters and musicians who have shaped the top Billboard charts for generations as well as those just getting started ...

Pigeon Forge will honor America’s military with its Veterans Homecoming Parade on Saturday, Aug. 29, 2015. Robert Cato and Andrew White, members of Guardian for Heroes Foundation, will serve as this year’s Veterans Homecoming Parade grand marshals. Founded by U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, the foundation offers free, in-home fitness equipment, training, life coaching and much more to in-need veterans ...

Inside a crowded theater at Dollywood today, Dolly Parton unveiled the theme park’s latest project, a revolutionary new wood coaster named Lightning Rod scheduled to open in March 2016. Both the world’s fastest wood coaster and the world’s first launching wood coaster, Lighting Rod is a 1950s-era hot rod themed, 12-car train that takes 24 passengers on an adrenaline-charged lap ...

An employee of Wahoo Ziplines is in serious condition after a 50-foot fall from a zipline on Monday. The Sevier County Sheriff’s Office said it received a 911 call just after 11 a.m. on August 3, 2015 and responded to Wahoo Ziplines at 1200 Matthews Hollow Road in Sevierville, Tenn. where officers found Jeremy Blair, 35, had fallen from a ...

A groundbreaking ceremony was held Monday in Sevierville for the Sevier Air Trampoline Park, a new indoor family adventure park. When completed later this year, the two story 50,000 sq. ft. building will anchor one end of the Governor’s Crossing Shopping Center and house more than 34,000 sq. ft. of state of the art trampolines, three professional grade dodgeball courts ...

The biggest event in Southern gospel music, the National Quartet Convention (NQC), has committed to a third year in Pigeon Forge in 2016 and has options on dates through 2020, according to Clarke Beasley, NQC executive vice president, and the Pigeon Forge Department of Tourism. The weeklong event moved to the LeConte Center at Pigeon Forge in 2014 and recorded ...

One of the most treasured Titanic artifacts, the violin of Bandmaster Wallace Hartley, will be on display for a limited engagement at each of the Titanic Museum Attractions in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. and Branson, Mo. Titanic Museum Attractions has announced that it has secured worldwide rights to exhibit the Wallace Hartley Titanic Violin, which sold at auction for more than ...