By Saturday morning the fields around Brasstown will be lined with parked cars, and the smell of woodsmoke from the blacksmith shop will drift over the craft tents. The John C. Campbell Folk School Fall Festival runs Saturday and Sunday, October 3–4, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days, on the Folk School's 270-acre campus in Brasstown — a short drive east of downtown Murphy, NC. I'm Bonnie DuPree, a REALTOR® with RE/MAX Town & Country in Murphy, and my team, The DuPree Real Estate Group, works these back roads year-round. This guide covers the festival basics, then the part most guides skip: what it means to live a few miles from the Folk School the other 363 days of the year.
Key Takeaways
- The 2026 Fall Festival is October 3–4, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., at One Folk School Road, Brasstown, NC 28902, rain or shine.
- Adult admission is listed at $12 online in advance or $15 at the gate, with free parking in the fields around campus.
- The Folk School expects 13,000–15,000 visitors, 230+ craft vendors, 50+ demonstrating makers, and 30+ bands across the weekend.
- Brasstown is unincorporated and straddles the Clay County–Cherokee County line, so which county a home sits in changes its tax bill and county services.
- From Murphy, the route is roughly four miles east on US-64, then about a mile and a half on Old 64 to Clay's Corner.
When is the John C. Campbell Folk School Fall Festival in 2026?
The Folk School Fall Festival near Murphy, NC is this weekend: Saturday, October 3 and Sunday, October 4, 2026, open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, per the Folk School's festival page. The John C. Campbell Folk School itself is a craft institution for adult learners, founded in 1925, and the festival is the one weekend a year when its studios, barns, and fields open up to thousands of visitors at once. Here is what the Folk School and its ticket listing on SimpleTix say you will find:
- Crafts and demonstrations: 230+ craft vendors, plus 50+ makers demonstrating pottery, enameling, broom making, woodturning, woodcarving, fiber arts, and blacksmithing at five campus locations, including the Blacksmithing Shop and Davidson Hall.
- Music and dance: 30+ bands on multiple stages, with indoor options for the music stage if weather turns.
- Food: 25+ food vendors.
- Tickets: adult admission $12 online in advance or $15 at the gate, with reduced pricing for several categories listed on the ticket page; cash is accepted at the gate, and online tickets carry processing fees.
- Getting around: free field parking, an on-campus shuttle, accessibility carts, accessible parking near the entry gates, and extra Saturday parking off campus with a shuttle.
Confirm before you go: hours, prices, and parking details come from the Folk School's 2026 festival page and can change, so check folkschool.org the morning you head out. My standing advice for anyone who has been circling this area is to treat festival weekend as reconnaissance, not just an outing — the drive in, the back roads, and the ridgelines around Brasstown tell you more about daily life here than any listing photo. For the longer version, my guide to living near the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown and Murphy goes deeper.
Where is Brasstown relative to Murphy, and which county is it in?
Brasstown sits between Murphy and Hayesville in the far southwestern corner of North Carolina. It is an unincorporated community that lies mostly in Clay County, with roughly a third of it in Cherokee County; Brasstown Creek and the Hiwassee River form the dividing line. Hayesville, the Clay County seat, is about ten miles east.
From Murphy, published directions to the area run roughly four miles east on US-64 toward Hayesville, then right onto Old 64 at the Folk School sign for about a mile and a half to Clay's Corner, where Brasstown Road leads into campus. Confirm timing for your starting point, especially on festival Saturday. The county line is where this stops being trivia. Because Brasstown is unincorporated, homes pay county taxes rather than town taxes, and whether a parcel falls on the Clay or Cherokee side determines which county assesses it, which county's services it uses, and where you pull a building permit. Two homes a mile apart can land in different counties. Before you fall for a porch, I'd pull the parcel record and confirm the county — our Murphy and Cherokee County area guides are a good starting point for the Cherokee side.
What is festival weekend like if you live nearby?
With the Folk School expecting 13,000 to 15,000 visitors over two days, the roads funneling into Brasstown — US-64, Old 64, and Brasstown Road — carry far more traffic than a normal October weekend. For people who live along those roads, that means planning around the festival the way lakefront owners plan around a holiday weekend. I encourage buyers who tour near Brasstown on festival Saturday to come back on an ordinary weekday too, so they judge the roads by the whole year rather than its busiest weekend.
| Festival weekend | Visiting | Living nearby |
|---|---|---|
| Getting in | Free field parking; Saturday overflow parking with a shuttle | Run errands in Murphy or Hayesville early, or use roads that avoid Old 64 |
| Timing | 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday | Expect heavier traffic around opening and closing hours |
| Tickets | $12 adult online, $15 at the gate | Same ticket — but you can come back for a single stage or one demonstration |
| Weather | Rain or shine; muddy fields after rain | You can wait out a wet morning and go after lunch |
| After the festival | Drive home, often hours away | Classes, concerts, and dances keep running the rest of the year |
The festival opens the busiest stretch of the fall calendar, with leaf traffic building and Murphy's downtown events filling the following Saturday; see my October 2026 fall events calendar for Murphy, NC.
What does the Folk School offer residents the rest of the year?
This is the real case for living within a few miles of Brasstown. The festival is one weekend; the Folk School's programming runs year-round. It offers weeklong and weekend classes — more than 800 a year across blacksmithing, woodworking, fiber arts, pottery, cooking, music, and other subjects. For a resident, that changes the math: a visitor has to book lodging and travel to take a week-long class; a resident can drive over each morning and sleep at home.
The public side matters too. The Folk School hosts a regular concert series and community dances; the Blue Ridge Music Trails calendar lists its Friday-night concerts at 7 p.m., supported by donations, featuring old-time, bluegrass, folk, and Celtic performers. Shape-Note Singing and the Maypole Parade and Dance round out the year. In 2022 the Folk School also opened Olive's Porch, a satellite in downtown Murphy, which brings some of that craft culture right to the county seat. Confirm current schedules on the Folk School calendar, but the pattern is what I want a homeowner to notice: a standing cultural calendar a few miles from home, not a once-a-year trip.
What kinds of homes are around Brasstown and the Murphy line?
The landscape between Murphy and Hayesville is a mix of creek-bottom pasture along Brasstown Creek and the Hiwassee River, rolling hills, and wooded ridges with Nantahala National Forest land never far off. The housing follows the terrain. As a Resort & Second-Home Property Specialist (RSPS), I see buyers here sort quickly into a few property types:
- Mountain cabins and chalets — often on sloped, wooded lots, frequently raised on posts or a walk-out lower level to catch a view, with covered front porches and decks.
- Farmhouses and homes on acreage — older and newer homes on open or partly wooded land in the valleys, some with outbuildings or pasture.
- Single-level homes — ranch plans with a primary suite on the main floor.
- Land and build sites — wooded parcels where slope, septic suitability, and driveway grade decide what is buildable.
Outside town limits, many homes run on private wells and septic systems, and some sit up shared private drives or gravel roads where winter access deserves a real look. In my experience, out-of-area buyers underestimate these most; my guide to well and septic on mountain homes near Murphy walks through what to inspect. For a second home, the Brasstown corridor's appeal is a lock-and-leave cabin minutes from both Murphy and Hayesville, with the Folk School and the Hiwassee River as year-round anchors.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is the John C. Campbell Folk School Fall Festival?
The 2026 Fall Festival is Saturday, October 3 and Sunday, October 4, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC. Confirm details on folkschool.org before you go.
How much are Fall Festival tickets in 2026?
The Folk School lists adult admission at $12 purchased online in advance or $15 at the gate, with reduced pricing for several categories. Cash is accepted at the gate, and online tickets include processing fees.
Where do you park for the Folk School Fall Festival?
Parking is free in the fields around the Folk School campus, with an on-campus shuttle bus and accessibility carts. On Saturday, additional off-campus parking is available with a shuttle to campus.
How far is Brasstown from Murphy, NC?
Brasstown is a short drive east of Murphy: roughly four miles on US-64 toward Hayesville, then about a mile and a half on Old 64 to Clay's Corner. Confirm timing for your starting point, especially on festival weekend.
Is Brasstown in Cherokee County or Clay County?
Both. Brasstown is an unincorporated community that lies mostly in Clay County, with roughly a third in Cherokee County, divided by Brasstown Creek and the Hiwassee River. Check the parcel record to confirm which county a specific home is in.
Your Local Expert
I'm Bonnie DuPree, REALTOR®, founder of The DuPree Real Estate Group at RE/MAX Town & Country. Based in Murphy, NC — the county seat of Cherokee County — I've guided buyers and sellers across Brasstown, Murphy, Andrews, Hayesville, and the North Georgia mountains since 2007. I hold the Resort & Second-Home Property Specialist (RSPS), Accredited Buyer's Representative (ABR), and Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist (CLHMS) designations, and our "One Thing" team assigns a dedicated specialist to each stage of your purchase or sale.
From festival visitor to Brasstown neighbor
If this weekend's drive to Brasstown has you wondering what it would be like to make that trip in minutes instead of hours, start by looking at current homes for sale around Brasstown and Murphy, from creekside farmhouses to ridge-top cabins.
When you are ready to walk a few properties with me — or just want to know which side of the county line a home sits on — reach out to me directly and our team at The DuPree Real Estate Group. Make Murphy the home you drive from, not to.
The DuPree Real Estate Group is pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity. Bonnie DuPree, REALTOR® · RE/MAX Town & Country · Each Office Independently Owned and Operated.
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