Gatlinburg Winter Festival & Chili Cookoff

The Night Downtown Belongs to Pedestrians

The Parkway closes to cars and the whole stretch between Mountain Mall and Gatlinburg SkyPark turns into a walking festival. Vendor tents line both sides, a main stage carries live music, and a DJ keeps things moving between acts. The moment everyone waits for comes at 6:00 PM, when the Winter Magic countdown ends and more than a million LED lights come on across downtown at once. That switch-on is the official start of Gatlinburg’s share of Smoky Mountain Winterfest, and the displays stay lit into February.

The Chili

Restaurants, attractions, civic groups and city departments set up along the route with their own recipes, from straight-ahead beef and bean to whatever a distillery talks itself into. Past entrants have included Ole Smoky, Anakeesta, Ripley’s Aquarium, and the Gatlinburg fire and police departments. Visitors taste and then vote in the People’s Choice awards, which in the current format cover both Best Chili and Best Dessert.

What Else Is Set Up

• Ice skating rink
• Christmas tree farm and photos with Santa
• Giant inflatable snow globe and the Snomazing inflatable maze
• Carnival games and holiday photo ops
• Carolers working the crowd along the Parkway
• Arts and crafts vendors, plus event sweatshirts and shirts

Getting In and Parking

Road closures start hours ahead. In recent years the southbound Parkway lanes closed around 9:00 AM and the northbound lanes around 10:00 AM, with traffic pushed onto River Road, Airport Road or Cherokee Orchard Road. The Parkway reopens around midnight. Park in a downtown garage or a city lot well before 4:00 PM and plan to walk in. If you are staying downtown, leave the car entirely. Bring a jacket, since standing still on a November evening in the mountains gets cold faster than people expect.