Culture
Tarik’s North African Hosts ‘The JFG Exhibit’ Honoring Iconic South Knoxville Sign
The spirit of South Knoxville’s venerable and beloved JFG Sign is alive and well at Tarik’s North African. While the sign itself remains in storage, the restaurant is hosting a small but intriguing exhibit featuring artistic...
Artsclamation! Continues Today at The Standard
A long-running East Tennessee art tradition is getting a fresh dose of downtown energy this year. Artsclamation!, the annual fine-art sale benefiting Peninsula, moved to The Standard on Jackson Avenue for its 2025 event. The sale...
Knoxville’s Favorite Holiday Ghost Story, ‘A Christmas Carol,’ Returns to Clarence Brown Theatre
Every November like clockwork, A Christmas Carol returns to Clarence Brown Theatre before Thanksgiving leftovers even hit the fridge. Watching Scrooge get haunted into a higher state of self-actualization is a beloved local holiday tradition that...
Big Ears Announces Daily Schedule + New Venue(s)
I quite enjoy lurking on the r/BigEarsFestival subreddit, a cesspool of music nerds one-upping one another with speculation and the occasional conspiracy theory. Who will we see on the lineup, based on a composite sketch of...
Business
Knox Vegas Style Brings Trolley Charm Back to Downtown Knoxville
If you were along Gay Street for this year’s Knoxville Christmas Parade, you might have felt a little tug of nostalgia when a cream-colored vintage trolley rolled past, wrapped in lights and packed with smiling riders....
Aaron Thompson & Jessica King Announce New Hospitality Concept for Former RALA Space
Last week we lamented the news that RALA, the long-running local art and gift shop at 112 West Jackson Ave., will move its business online at the end of the year. This week, we get to...
Three Downtown Businesses Closing Brick & Mortar to Focus Elsewhere
I’ll admit upfront that these are a bit personal for me. I’ve long had relationships with two of the owners and the third business is extremely important for downtown, though I’m just not sure we are...
Mother Shop to Close, Making Way for Mother Bar’s Growth & Debut of Daughter Bar
When Jade Adams and Dylan Pacifico opened Mother Shop in the upstairs space at 15 Emory Place in March, their goal was simple: build a small, playful gift boutique that would help introduce the larger vision...
Development
Gay Street Bridge Reopens to Pedestrians & Cyclists—On Time, Under Budget
After 18 months of uncertainty, detours and collective bridge-education the city never asked for, the Gay Street Bridge is once again open—this time to pedestrians and bicyclists only. City leaders cut the ribbon this morning on...
MHM’s 60th Anniversary Marks a New Era for a 100-Year-Old Industrial Icon
It’s no secret that the Sanitary Laundry Building has long been one of those “what if” projects, the kind that sparked imagination but never quite found the right champion. Anyone with half an imagination could see...
Downtown Updates: Vintage Cal, Tennessee Theatre’s 612 Building, Riverview Tower, U.S. Bank Building & Old City Streetscapes
Development can be a slow-moving train but lately I feel like I’ve been running just to keep up. Between Monday evening and Tuesday morning, I attended an open house for the South Waterfront Down River Master...
A First Look at the South Waterfront ‘Down River’ Master Plan
Community members piled into the Kerbela Temple (which is still on the market, for anyone keeping score) on Monday evening for an open house hosted by the South Knoxville Neighborhood & Business Coalition. There, the South...
Events
Alliance Brewing’s 9th Annual Festivus + IOK’s Inaugural Airing of Grievances
Actual footage of Adam and Matt pulling the Festivus pole out of storage today. Festivus, the Seinfeld-sanctioned holiday “for the rest of us,” returns to Alliance Brewing Company this Saturday, Dec. 20, bringing with it a...
Tour de Lights 2025 Was Bigger & Brighter Than Ever
Now in its 19th inception, Tour de Lights is a downtown Knoxville holiday staple. This year’s edition, co-presented by Visit Knoxville and Bike Walk Knoxville, took place on Saturday with festivities throughout the afternoon and into...
10-Day Downtown(ish) Planner: Dec. 14 – 23
Welcome to the 10-Day Planner! If you want your event included, please create a Facebook event, invite editor Leslie Wylie Bateman via the “invite” button on the event page (you’ll need to friend her), and it...
Knoxville Christmas Parade Brings Pageantry to the 2025 Holiday Season
Christmas 2025 arrived in grand style this past Friday with the 52nd Annual WIVK Downtown Knoxville Christmas Parade. With 120 entrants in this year’s edition, the Christmas spirit came marching, dancing, driving, skipping and surfing down...
Life
2025 Old North Knoxville Victorian Home Tour, Part II
I kicked off our 2025 Old North Knoxville Victorian Home Tour recap yesterday and promptly got waylaid by the jaw-dropping transformations of the Bertha Clark House (523 E. Oklahoma Ave.) and the Hattar House (217 E....
2025 Old North Knoxville Victorian Holiday Home Tour, Part I
It’s a time-burnished Inside of Knoxville tradition to recap the Old North Knoxville Victorian Holiday Home Tour; we’ve covered it most years since 2012. (See the bottom of this post for links to previous coverage, including...
Shop Local! A Guide to Downtown-ish Holiday Markets
Winter in Knoxville doesn’t have a grand expected arrival. It sneaks up on you. One morning you wake up, and it’s cold, and you realize it’s somehow already that holly-jolly time of year again. And look,...
Ghost Walking the Christmas Streets of Knoxville: The Inaugural Knoxville Santa Claus Parade
“Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus, right down Santa Claus Lane, Vixen and Blitzen and all his reindeers pulling on the reins, Bells are ringing, children singing, all is merry and bright, So hang...