Wilderness Wildlife Week™ in January and A Mountain Quiltfest™ in March have been named to the Southeast Tourism Society’s monthly list of “Top 20 Events in the Southeast.”

Wilderness Wildlife Week (Jan. 10-17) and A Mountain Quiltfest (March 11-15) draw thousands of visitors to this gateway city to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Both are on the official calendar of the national park’s 75th anniversary, which will be celebrated throughout 2009.

The “Top 20 Events in the Southeast” program is a long-running project of the Southeast Tourism Society (STS), an association that promotes travel in a 12-state region stretching from West Virginia to Florida to Louisiana.

More than 150 experts volunteer their time to present lectures, teach classes and lead hikes for Wilderness Wildlife Week, which is in its 19th year, and some of the nation’s most respected quilting designers, artists and instructors lead sessions for A Mountain Quiltfest. This is the 15th year of the quilting event.

The City of Pigeon Forge organizes both festivals. The Piecemakers and Sevier Valley Quilters Guilds co-host A Mountain Quiltfest with the city.

“Wilderness Wildlife Week and A Mountain Quiltfest are tremendous projects that involve many people in the community and benefit the entire area because of the visitors they attract. It’s great to have outside evaluators acknowledge their quality,” said Leon Downey, executive director of the Pigeon Forge Department of Tourism.

Both festivals have been on the STS Top 20 Events list previously and have received numerous other awards. A Mountain Quiltfest received an STS Shining Example Awards as “Festival of the Year” in 2004, and Wilderness Wildlife Week has won three Pinnacle Awards from the International Festivals and Events Association for “Best Environmental Program” and “Best Educational Program.”

Information courtesy of Pigeon Forge Department of Tourism