Story Highlights shady valley cranberry festival logo 2010.jpg Join the annual Cranberry Festival in Shady Valley, Johnson County, TN this Friday and Saturday! The festival takes place every year on the second weekend in October. It's been called "the best little festival in Tennessee." They are giving free tours of The Nature Conservancy <http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/tenn essee/placesweprotect/orchard-bog-and-quarry-bog.xml> cranberry bog restoration sites that day. The Conservancy is also offering free horse-drawn carriage rides at the sites. The Nature Conservancy has been <http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/tenn essee/placesweprotect/shady-valley.xml> working in Shady Valley for more than 30 years to preserve and restore the last of the mountain bogs. The bog restorations have been identified as the single most important factor in the long-term protection of rare wetland species such as the bog turtle and the wild cranberry. The festival begins Friday evening at 5 o'clock with the Bean Supper and Auction at the Shady Valley Elementary School. Saturday morning you can emjoy the community pancake breakfast at the Shady Valley Volunteer Fire Hall beginning at 7 o'clock. A parade through Shady Valley with floats, tractors, horses and marching band follows at 10 a.m. The free cranberry bog tours and carriage rides run from noon till 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 11. . The Nature Conservancy will have an information table with trail maps and bog tour information at the Shady Valley Ruritan Club picnic shelter, located on the festival grounds. No one is certain just why, but last year was a year when the crowds were beyond imagination. There is always much anticipation and enthusiasm among those preparing for the event in the last few days and hours before it begins on Friday. The bog tours and naturalist activities at The Nature Conservancy's Orchard Bog had a banner year beyond anything expected last year. Several hundred festival goers came to visit the bog and parking was at a premium. Amazingly, they came in family groups averaging no less than three per vehicle. At times sponsors met cars out on Orchard Rd. and had to hunt them parking spaces. Some parked along the road and walked in. Some speculated the government shutdown or overcast weather that kept temperatures cool and the sun away made many want to have an enjoyable weekend. Still others suggested that the festival serving huge numbers of wild cranberry pancakes at breakfast and a lunch offering of wild cranberry chicken salad enticed many to want to see the berries. They were picked by the gallons after a banner year of wild cranberries lush from a season of heavy rains and much water in the bogs. All picked berries were done by those designated by the festival to include in the food services. Festival goers came from as far away as Nashville and Chattanooga. Others were from Florida, Kingsport, Johnson City, Elizabethton, Charlotte, NC and a couple from Columbia, SC and Alabama. Most said this was a destination event for the weekend and remembered how they had seen it in news media, online on The Nature Conservancy website or had been told by friends. They said more than once that people loved the small and personal touch of the festival and all the fun and not too serious activities such as the parade. But most cherished the mountain bands playing Southern Blue Ridge bluegrass music. Throughout the day, a sightseeing helicopter will fly constant trips around the valley hauling those who want to see all the festival activities from high above. And that includes the thousands who gather and cheer along the parade route and the throngs of children playing on the many scattered inflatable playground features. At times, you can look out over Orchard Bog and see as many as 30 delighted people getting close to the natural beauty of this mountain bog. TNC had a great series of display panels in the stone house at the bog.