Tryon Arts and Crafts will present the 3rd Annual Fall Festival on October 16 and 17. The festival will be open to the public Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Featuring more than 40 of the finest artisans and craftspeople of the region, this two-day event will be held rain or shine on the grounds of Tryon Arts and Crafts located at 373 Harmon Field Road. In addition to shopping for handmade, one-of-a-kind arts and crafts, visitors to the festival will enjoy food from local eateries, live entertainment and fun activities for the kids.

Guests will hear a great music lineup on the stage that includes the Shane Pruitt Band, Dana and Susan Robinson, Bradley Ditto, and the Red Hot Sugar Babies and will experience the entertainment of Thee Inner Cirkus performance troupe. Visitors at the event will see demonstrations in a variety of crafts throughout both days. &bsp;

This year, the festival will have work on display from artists all across the region with a huge selection of items that vary in style, media and price. In addition to the artists booths, Tryon Arts and Crafts will have student work for sale and a tent for work created by weavers and fiber artists.

Tryon Little Theater, Tryon Painters and Sculptors, Tryon Fine Arts Center, Childrens Theater Festival, and the Tryon Doll Makers have each been invited to have a booth. Artists and organizations will present works in everything from pottery to jewelry, handmade soaps to watercolors, wooden crafts to woven blankets, photography to leatherwork and more.

Tryon Arts and Crafts will have a large demonstration area for numerous crafts and methods, and several artists will demonstrate their talents in their own booths. Visitors at the event will see pottery making, lapidary, jewelry making, woodturning, weaving, as well as metalworking in the forge throughout both days. Some demonstrators will offer guests the chance to try the crafts for themselves.

Music lovers will be treated to the sounds of some regional music. Saturday afternoon, the Shane Pruitt Band from Spartanburg, S.C., will perform and the Red Hot Sugar Babies from Hendersonville, N.C., will close the day. Sunday afternoon, festival-goers will enjoy music from Bradley Ditto of Tryon, and Susan and Dana Robinson of Marshall, N.C., will close the festival. In addition to the music, Thee Inner Cirkus, from Greenville, S.C., will perform in the crowd and on stage both days.

Children of all ages will be entertained with a variety of activities and several free craft projects. The kids can paint and decorate small pumpkins and then make masks, hats, and other components for dress-up just in time for Halloween. They will be able to watch blacksmiths in the forge, try their hand at weaving, observe wood-turners creating bowls, search for semi-precious stones in the rock pool, and more.

The fall festival is free and open to the public. All donations collected over the weekend will go to support the mission of Tryon Arts and Crafts. Packard Woodworking, Tryon Estates, WNC Magazine and St. Lukes Hospital are sponsors of the festival. The festival also received support from the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Cultural Resources, and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes a great nation deserves great art.