This year’s Hook, Line and Drinker Festival is scheduled for Saturday, May 16. The STS Top 20 Festival and Event Awards have highlighted programs around the Southeast since 1985.

Travel industry experts select 20 events per month, and STS publicizes them throughout the United States. The complete list is published on two websites: Southeast Tourism Society and Travel Media Press Room.

The Jackson County Chamber of Commerce will present the fourth annual Hook, Line and Drinker Festival. The event will be held from 3 to 7 p.m. May 16 at the Bridge Park Pavilion in Sylva.

The festival features fly fishing guides and fishing industry vendors, food trucks, children’s activities, music by the Carolina Soul Band, clean water, outdoor activity and wildlife advocates, and Western North Carolina craft beer vendors.

Jackson County is the proud home of the WNC Fly Fishing Trail and the NC Trout Capital. The WNC Fly Fishing Trail features 15 hot fishing spots that run from the northern end of the county to the southern end along the Tuckaseigee River. Jackson County is stocked with more trout than any other county in the state and is home to the largest recorded rainbow trout caught in North Carolina.

New for 2020, the festival will introduce its very own festival brew. This special seasonal craft beer is being created as we speak by Innovation Brewing in Sylva (and Dillsboro). Stay tuned for more information about this exciting collaboration. Proceeds from each pint sold will benefit the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce’s continued operation of the festival.

For more information, visit the festival website at www.hooklinedrinkerfest.com, call the organizers at 828.586.2155 or visit the festival’s Facebook page.

For 35 years, STS has been spotlighting the best festivals and events in the Southeast with our Top 20 Festival and Events program. The goal is to highlight the efforts of devoted event organizers and provide additional media exposure and accolades for their events.

Events considered for the STS Top 20 recognition must be at least three years old and have attendance of at least 1,000.

STS, founded in 1983 and headquartered in Roswell, Georgia, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting travel and tourism within 12 states — Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.