The Western Carolina University Office of Alumni Engagement is stepping up to the plate and taking a swing at a new summer event designed to bring together members of the Catamount family at baseball stadiums across North and South Carolina. 

Join Haywood County’s Misfit Mountain Animal Rescue for the second-annual Pigs & a Blanket Festival & Campout this weekend.

The event will be held from 1-8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21, at the animal rescue at 922 Incinerator Road in Clyde.

The Main Street Sylva Association will host its “Social District of Sylva Celebration” from 4-7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21, at Bridge Park and throughout downtown Sylva. 

The “Brisket, Bourbon & Beer” fundraiser for REACH of Haywood County will take place from 5:30-9 p.m. Thursday, June 20, at the Shelton House in Waynesville. 

It’s a sunny afternoon in downtown Bryson City. The Great Smoky Mountains Railroad is pulling into town with numerous locals and visitors alike spilling off the train. A stone’s throw from the tracks is Bryson City Brewing, its co-owner Stan Temple gazing happily at the scene unfolding before him. 

Swain County Board of Commissioners added a referendum to November ballots that will allow residents to vote on the on-premises or off-premises sale of beer and wine. 

The 21st annual Whole Bloomin’ Thing Festival will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 11, in the Historic Frog Level District of Waynesville. 

“There is no such joy in the tavern as upon the road thereto.”  

— Cormac McCarthy, “Blood Meridian” 

The Safe Passage Fund Coalition is hosting The Crossing, a free event and screening of films highlighting road ecology in Southern Appalachia and beyond.