Preparations for a Festival.....OK let's take a deep breath

Well with anything new you have a learning curve.....

Once all parties agreed that we were going to have a "Moonshine" festival, preparations started.  Mark Rogers (our local celeb) has his own signature brand of moonshine that is distilled and distributed by "Sugarlands Distilling Co." in Gatlinburg, TN.  After talking with them they were excited to participate in a moonshine festival in the Murphy, NC area and went one step further to supply some "Samplin Moonshine".

Ok so we have a Moonshiner, moonshine and the beginnings of a festival........and the work continues.......

As it turns out, our new friend, neighbor and cousin to Mark Rogers has became a local celebrity as well...... "Huck" as he is known to us and now the Discovery Channel Moonshiners, made several appearances in the last few episodes of last seasons series.  As I watched one of the episodes, I soon realized that there were many familiar faces on the show.....whoa.....this adventure just keeps getting more and more interesting.....

Since my husband was on site at the campground, he was in charge of coordinating the event locally.  This included talking with local artisans, food vendors, and entertainment groups to drum up some additional activities so that this would be an event for families to come for and spend the day.  My husband also knew that we needed a name for this event.  He wanted something that was local to the area but also gave the event something that rolled off your tongue.......He told me later that he was looking at names of mountains on one of the local topographical maps of the areas surrounding Murphy, NC and found one called "Rocky Knob"

Rocky Knob

so the festival had a name....."Rocky Knob Show & Shine".

Now we need advertisements, so my husband, Huck, Mark and Deputy Sheriff Chuck??, oh yeah, another member of the Moonshiners cast.  If memory serves me isn't Deputy Sheriff Chuck trying to capture Mark.....might not works so well at the publicity shoot.



Yep looks like the cuffs are on......

I think my husband was having way too much fun that day considering I had to review quite a few photos before adding to this post.  On board the   pontoon boat is Deputy Sheriff Chuck (in the green shirt), Mark Rogers  (in the camo pants) and our friend and neighbor Huck (in the camo shirt).  I was also told (since I'm not a regular watcher of the series) that the pontoon boat was a part of some of the episodes but one in particular "Shine Overboard".

As for the Florida group we were missing all the excitement being down south.  Our IT expert and partner provided the internet advertisements and developed signs and flyers that were distributed locally at farmers markets, flea markets and the local tourism center.   

While I provided some suggestions I won't take any credit for the preparations because as I stated in an earlier post I was still....... "PACKING AND PURGING" and boy what you find after 28 years of living in one place......I figured I would be more help when I traveled back up to the campground for the festival.

So now we have Moonshiners, moonshine, a name, vendors and entertainment, now we pray for good weather and good times.....