Southeast Tennessee Tourism Association

Music Trail > Annual Events

Dunlap Coke Ovens Bluegrass Festival
Dunlap, TN

The festival is usually the first Friday and Saturday in June.

The Park has ample shaded space for camping. First come, first served - but all campsites are nice, in the shade and near a natural spring. Coke Ovens is one of the best 'picker's festivals' in the area.

Up a short road from the Coke Ovens Museum, the amphitheater stage is backed by beehive-shaped historic brick coke ovens, and the audience relaxes on a grassy slope surrounded by shade trees. In inclement weather, the music is performed in a covered portico nearer to the camp sites.

Camping is set among the maples and pines, and mountain hiking and a spring-fed stream are nearby. But who can hike or crawdad when there is music to be played?

Local and regional bluegrass bands are booked for the festival, including the ever-entertaining Valley Grass, The Bluegrass Coalition Band, The Cumberland Band, and the Cumberland Gap Connection. This will be Bluegrass entertainment at its finest.

Jams go into the wee hours of the night, with all-weather pickin' under picnic pavilions, in the mule barn, under makeshift tarp overhangs at tent sites, and around a huge campfire. This is one of the best musician's festivals -- in terms of good jam sessions -- in the Tennessee and Sequatchie Valleys. Coke Ovens attracts lots of 'pickers' as well as listeners and music fans. This festival organizers book regional bands and really gives them a chance to unwind.

Good food is available from the Sequatchie Valley Historical Association who run the concessions as a fundraiser for the Historical Association.

Suitable for large groups.
Bus parking available.
Reasonable admission fee, usually $5 - 10 .

Directions: Dunlap Coke Ovens Park is located west of US-127 in downtown Dunlap. Turn on Cherry Street at the traffic signal and follow signs. Museum and park located at 545 Mountain View Circle . Dunlap is located 30 miles northwest of Chattanooga .