Pigeon Forge, Tenn., is gearing up for the 19th annual celebration of Pigeon Forge Winterfest™, an event made special by the opening of new attractions and the start of the 75th anniversary of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The four-month-long event starts Nov. 6 and concludes Feb. 28, 2009. Expansive and elaborate Winterfest light displays are located throughout the city. More than five million lights are used, and several displays – including the celebration’s signature snowflakes along the Parkway – have been fitted with energy-saving LED bulbs.

Dollywood enhances the first two months of Pigeon Forge Winterfest with its celebration of Dollywood’s Smoky Mountain Christmas. New this year is the Polar Express 4-D Experience, described as “a magical cinematic experience” full of multi-sensory thrills and surprises. It is based on the beloved Caldecott Medal-winning children’s book by Chris Van Allsburg.
Dollywood adds to Winterfest’s light displays with more than four millions lights of its own and the nightly Lighted Christmas Parade. Its musical entertainment lineup includes “Dollywood’s Babes in Toyland,” “Christmas in the Smokies” and “’Twas the Night Before Christmas.”
Pigeon Forge has more than a dozen theaters, and most of them offer special Christmas shows during November and December before resuming non-holiday shows after New Year’s Day.

After the excitement of Christmas and New Year’s, the city continues Pigeon Forge Winterfest with two festivals and a special night of mountain music in January and February:

Wilderness Wildlife Week, Jan. 10-17, is the first. It began the same year as Winterfest as a Saturday afternoon activity and now offers eight days of programs and activities to spotlight Great Smoky Mountains National Park. More than 100 experts on nature and outdoor life present programs on many topics, and there are daily hikes and excursions into the national park. Wilderness Wildlife Week is the first major participatory event on the official calendar of the 75th anniversary of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

AppalachiaFest on Jan. 13, is a one-night heritage musical event that complements Wilderness Wildlife Week. The Country Tonite Theatre is the venue, and the lineup features Tim O’Brien, Riley Baugus, Dirk Powell and Boogertown Gap. It, too, is a sanctioned 75th anniversary event.

Saddle Up!, a celebration of the American West, returns for the ninth year, Feb. 19-22 It brings some of the best western musicians and cowboy poets to the Smokies for a rare visit east of the Mississippi River. The lineup includes Wylie & the Wild West, the Quebe Sisters Band, Juni Fisher, Kent Rollins and Andy Wilkinson. Events include the Cowboy Symphony, concerts, a chuckwagon cookoff and Cowboy Church.

Pigeon Forge’s popular Trolley Tour of Lights, offered throughout Winterfest, allows guests to get a narrated tour of this Smoky Mountains resort town and a chance to see the major displays. One of the more elaborate displays depicts the city’s most significant historic site, the Old Mill. The actual mill was built in 1830 and still is in operation. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Information courtesy of Pigeon Forge Department of Tourism