For years, Townsend has been known as the quiet side of the Smoky Mountains.
It serves as a gorgeous gateway to the National Park and a pleasant alternative to the tourist-driven offerings of the Pigeon Forge corridor.
Townsend is home, instead, to rafting companies, a high quality fly-fishing shop and a bicycle trail that runs almost the entire length of the main drag.
It’s also home to a few luxurious mountain retreats, none of which are more impressive than the Dancing Bear Lodge. This Saturday, the lodge will host its first ever music festival. The appropriately named Sweethearts of the Smokies will feature acts that are either led by or prominently feature female artists. Earlier this week, we caught up with Mark Oldham, owner of the Dancing Bear, to asked him about the event and what to expect from the lodge in the future.
BLANK: How did you come about purchasing Dancing Bear Lodge?
Mark Oldham: We were looking for something different in life after selling our business we started after college in Nashville (U.S. Hospitality Corp). We wanted to live and work in the mountains. We saw the listing for Dancing Bear the day after they put it on the market. The rest is history!
BLANK: What do you love about Townsend?
MO: We love the Peaceful Side in general but we particularly like the “outdoorsy” nature of Townsend and the Little River flowing straight out of the Smokies. It’s a little slice of heaven tucked into the Valley under Rich Mountain.
BLANK: What gave you the idea to do a festival?
MO: When we decided not to build back the Lodge in its past manifestation (after a fire), and when we then decided to construct an Event Lawn, the architects (Andy Morton and John Wallach) convinced us to build this beautiful stage and entry foyer. When these two structures came together along with our Executive Chef Shelley Cooper, we knew we had to jump off into festival land. And then when we got our Resort License allowing us to sell LBD– the die was cast! We upped the electrical capacity for our stage and the electrician thought we were nuts.
BLANK: You’re focusing on high quality food. Tell us a bit more about that?
MO: Yes the festival is certainly about Music but it’s also about gourmet concessions from Chef Shelley. Our Dancing Bear Appalachian Bistro concept was tested for 3 years in Chattanooga – so we know how to operate a casual upscale farm to table restaurant. We simply source the freshest ingredients possible and serve the creations in a rustic mountain setting. We will take that one step further and introduce culinary delights to the festival scene whenever we do a show. We are doing two this summer and hopefully more next summer – or possibly a Townsend wide event!
BLANK: What can people expect who are planning on attending on Saturday?
MO: A great day of women inspired and women led bands…Aka our “Sweethearts”…In a truly unique park like setting enhanced with awesome food and beverage concessions. Our Blackhorse Brewery and Sugarlands distillery sponsors —promise to add to the mix. We provide chairs so we can’t allow blankets or tents or outside coolers. Today we added large tents in the case of inclement weather. Basically it should just be a blast!
BLANK: What are the future plans of the Lodge?
MO: We have 21 accommodations and we plan on getting back to 30-35 in the coming years. We are considering luxury treehouses in the immediate future and so a “Lodge” in the traditional sense has been pushed out further while we make plans for the upscale tree houses.
Find more information or purchase tickets at https://dancingbearlodge.com/sweethearts-of-the-smokies/
