First Georgia Mountain Trail Fest scheduled for 2022
A festival designed to celebrate and promote Gilmer County’s plentiful outdoor recreation options may finally be able to launch next year.
The first 7 Trails Fest was originally scheduled for 2020, then later tentatively rescheduled for this summer. While it’s since been decided that a 2021 date is not in the cards, organizers are looking ahead with hopes that next year will provide better conditions for the event, now formerly known as 7 Trails Fest, to debut.
Plans quickly extinguished
Ahead of the initial event date of April 25-26, 2020, 7 Trails organizers were reaching the final steps when the COVID-19 shutdown quickly extinguished plans for the event.
“I was going to get my permit that Friday when the world shut down,” said Robert Ferguson, CEO of Georgia Mountain Trails Partnership, the outdoor recreation nonprofit behind the festival.
“We were (less than) two months away from having it. We’ve got sponsors and vendors. We’ve got excitement happening, then everything closed down with COVID.”
The festival’s planning committee hoped they’d be able to revive 7 Trails this August, but, with pandemic conditions and very few large-scale events still being held, the decision was made to cancel those plans, as well.
Ferguson said an attendance of 5,000-10,000 was anticipated for the original 2020 event.
“(Nobody knew) how long this thing was going to last. We tried for August, but then it just went dormant. There was no (future planning) except sending out an email saying ‘to be determined,’” he added.
‘The ball is rolling again’
Recent decisions by the festival’s planning committee have resulted in a new name, date and location for the event, now being promoted as Georgia Mountain Trail Fest.
It will take place Earth Day weekend, April 23-24, 2022, at the Talona Ridge RV Resort currently under construction off Eller Road in East Ellijay.
“Until about three weeks ago, we really hadn’t made a decision. Now, with then (COVID) vaccinations and festivals maybe rebooting in the fall, we can see what those festivals do and (what they do) with their numbers,” Ferguson said.
“We haven’t had anybody mad or anything. We did have a couple of vendors want their money back simply because they weren’t available in August. I’m hoping now that they will be available 14 months from now in April,” he added.
The RV resort is still under construction, but they are shooting to be open by this September, Ferguson noted. The 7 Trails Fest had previously been scheduled at the Ellijay Landing property on River Street, but that setup would’ve involved using a shuttle bus to take eventgoers to and from the event.
“We were going to shuttle people from the open area parking next to Lowe’s over to River Street. That was going to work, and we had all of it in place,” Ferguson said. “(When) we sat down with Talona Ridge and saw what they were doing, it made more sense for us to move it there and not have to shuttle people back and forth. We can keep everybody in that area, but also promote downtown because that’s a big thing we want to do — send people downtown to the stores and restaurants.”
Ferguson said he was initially a helper with the planning of 7 Trails, but he’s since become director of the Georgia Mountain Trail Fest. He described the trail partnership nonprofit behind the event as a group of people from all types of trails in north Georgia, from equestrian to hiking, biking and river.
“Because we’re an Appalachian Trail designated community, one of the suggestions (for places that) have that designation is to do a festival that celebrates the AT. Since Gilmer has so much to offer, we decided to do a full festival that celebrates all the trails we have and not just focus on one. That’s where the name 7 Trails Fest came from,” Ferguson said. “Rudy Halbart was our lead festival organizer up until COVID started. He was incredible at forming this thing. He came up with the name 7 Trails Fest, which we approved as a group, and he really got things rolling. When he stepped down, (it was) handed over to me.”
The purpose of the festival will remain the same -— to highlight and inform festivalgoers about the county’s outdoor recreation options, including hiking, mountain biking and water recreation. It will be a combination outdoor/indoor event, Ferguson noted.
“We want it to be a celebration of everything Gilmer County has to offer to do outside and really promote our trails, our community and our downtown,” he added. “We will also have some organized events like a trail run (and) a bike ride. We’ll let people know if they’re coming here, they can also register for those things. They can come to the festival and have a great time, then hit the trails.”
Now that a new date and location have been decided, Ferguson said event vendors and sponsors are being contacted. The festival’s website and social media accounts will be updated to reflect the changes.
“We had all kinds of people helping, from Mulberry Gap to the (Cartecay) bike shop to downtown vendors. We (had) the Boy Scouts to help with parking so they could earn money and we (were going) to partner with Keep Gilmer Beautiful for (event) recycling. Now the ball is rolling again,” Ferguson said.
“A lot of things are still up in the air and there are a lot of decisions we’ll have to make along the way, but, for now, we’re breathing life back into this thing. We’re going to move ahead as best as we can and hopefully make it a great event for our community.”