Real Estate and Cultural Relevancy: There is Literally Something for Everyone in Knoxville, Tennessee

Artisans and Interested Hobbyists
East Tennessee is an exceptional part of the world to explore the works of plentiful inspiring artisans and hobbyists. Community members take pride in encouraging one another to go after a spark of interest.  Alongside Knoxville, Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge have even older roots in the world of bluegrass, Americana, folk and country music (and newer roots being planted in the experimental music realm), pottery, photography, literature, carpentry, bird-watching, music and a variety of additional trades. The same goes for the local foods culture – there are small, but sustainable local food communities, including many restaurants, farms and Knoxville’s impressive Farmer’s Market.

Sports
Home of the UT Vols, an SEC-Top 10 school, the University of Tennessee’s football team is fire, and the people of East Tennessee really do bleed orange, as a result. Home games take place in the esteemed Neyland Stadium.  Additionally, baseball and ice hockey are also solidly on the horizon here in East Tennessee – check out our national ice hockey team, the Ice Bears, as well as our baseball team, the Smokies.

The Outdoors
The most stunning part of East Tennessee is, hands-down, the Great Smoky Mountains – and they are in your backyard when you live here! The colors, the seasons, the weather, the water, the wildlife – East Tennessee is truly a magical realm within nature, and if you live here, you become an inhabitant of this very special realm. You can live as close to or as far from the mountains as you would like – even if you lived in a downtown Knoxville loft (because maybe the city is more your pace), it would only take you 30 minutes to get to the Smokies. If you prefer to reside in the suburbs, you are still only looking at a 45-minute to an hour-long drive. Aside from the Smokies, the Obed Scenic River is a gorgeous wilderness option, along with Ijams nature center (located within Knoxville) and House Mountain, just to name a few numerous options. At any rate, if you are an outdoors’ enthusiast or an outdoors’ appreciator from afar, the options for exploration and housing in East Tennessee’s nature-scape are limitless and within reach, encompassing a wide range of residential property – everything from 1900’s to minimalist-modern architecture.

The Arts Culture
Knoxville hosts several music, arts and food festivals in the South. The International Biscuit Festival is hosted every spring in the downtown district of the city. Chefs from all over the world come together to critique all biscuit submissions (you can enter, too!). During the festival, Market Square is lined from corner to corner with numerous vendors and biscuits made from a variety of recipes, ranging from classic buttermilk to spinach and goat cheese! Along with a strong food culture, East Tennessee is also home to country/folk/honky tonk/Americana/roots festivals such as Rhythm N’ Blooms (which is part of the greater Dogwood Arts Festival), Bristol’s Rhythm N’ Roots, BLANKFest, Waynestock and Hungry Otter Fest, just to name a few.

Visit Knoxville is Knoxville’s famous, historic visitor’s center. It is also where WDVX, a nationally-acclaimed country/bluegrass/Americana radio station airs the “Blue Plate Special,” a Monday-Friday, open-to-the-public, in-studio performance of various local and national bands that perform daily at noon. There you can grab lunch from the deli inside, while taking advantage of an intimate seated environment and enjoy some good ol’ roots music. WDVX has also hosted indie-rockers, ambient noise-makers and other artists for the “Blue Plate Special” radio show.