On Saturday, May 10, 2025, the Knox Makers parking lot will be available as free parking for Vestival between 11am and 5pm. We will also host an open house with tours and demos of the Knox Makers capabilities. Come for Vestival, and pop in to check out Knox Makers and other South Knox spaces while you’re at it.

Demos Knox Makers be hosting include a “make and take” welding activity, a dogwood flower cross-stitch activity, a blacksmithing demo, and potentially more.

This is a Vestival event, and their press release for the event follows.

South Knoxville’s annual Vestival festival will take place Saturday, May 10, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Mother’s Day weekend tradition is expanding from its longtime home on the Candoro Marble grounds to several locations along the Martin Mill Pike and Ogle Avenue corridor of South Knoxville.

Knox Makers, 116 Childress St. (lower level at rear), will host an open house and offer demonstrations of their industrial-grade machinery and tools. Popular gift shop Tea & Treasures, 4104 Martin Mill Pike, will feature craft booths and musical entertainment on its lawn.

Vestival attendees can stroll by the Vestal Gateway Park at the corner of Martin Mill Pike and Ogle Avenue and enjoy the wildflower garden and the newly installed Milani marble bench (Italian-born Albert Milani, 1892-1977, was a sculptor who worked for Candoro Marble Co.). Kickstand Community Bike Shop will hold a bicycle giveaway at Vestal United Methodist Church, 115 Ogle Ave., until 3 p.m. The Sustainable Future Center, 201 Ogle Ave., will be home to the main stage, where performances will include light jazz during the free Mother’s Day Brunch at 11 a.m. Other scheduled performers include Sandsation Shimmy Dancers, Tennessee Brando and South Knoxville’s favorite, the Knox County Jug Stompers.

Tri-Star Arts in the Candoro building, 4450 Candora Ave., will open its gallery, displaying Meg White’s “From Dark to Blue” and “Injury: Thirteen Studies by Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi.” The South Knoxville Community Center, 522 Martin Mill Pike, will be open for the Fabric Workshop, which provides crafting space and an opportunity to trade materials.

Vestival launched in 2001 as a means to celebrate South Knoxville’s industrial arts and to recognize the Vestal community’s national contribution to the historic marble and lumber industries. Another goal was to raise money to rescue the iconic Candoro Marble building, which was built in 1923 as an office and showroom for the Candoro Marble Co. and was in grave disrepair, though it had been listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. That effort culminated with the purchase and restoration of the building by the Aslan Foundation in 2021.