Chattanooga Americana/alt-rock/country band Uncle Lightnin' is set to perform at NormalPalooza on Saturday.Festivals this weekend• Fall Bazaar: Mowbray Presbyterian Church, 1413 Mowbray Pike, Soddy-Daisy, 10 a.m. -2 p.m. Saturday, free to shop homemade crafts; turkey-and-dressing dinner $6 adults, $3 children. 423-322-1424.• Foothills Crafts Fair: Manchester-Coffee County Conference Center, 147 Hospitality Blvd., Exit 114 off Interstate 24, Manchester, Tenn., 9 a.m.-5 p.m. CST Friday-Saturday, free admission, lunch $5-$8 served between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. 931-728-9236.• Gingerbread Shoppe: Christ United Methodist Church, corner of East Brainerd and Morris Hill roads, 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, free. 423-499-0618.• Christmas Village Festival: Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center, 2100 Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd., Birmingham, Ala., 10 a.m.-8 p.m. CST Friday-Saturday, noon-5 p.m. CST Sunday, $12 adults, $5 ages 6-12. christmasvillagefestival.com.• Holiday Shop Around: E.G. Fisher Library, 1289 Ingleside Ave., Athens, Tenn., 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, free, original work by local artists. 423-745-7782.• Hometown Craft Show: Sequatchie County Fairgrounds, Dunlap, Tenn., 8 a.m.-2 p.m. CST Saturday. fairsandfestivals.net.• Fall Festival: Belvoir Christian Academy, 800 Belvoir Ave., 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, free admission, $10 armband for activities. Sixty-year school carnival includes games, crafts, petting zoo, train rides, inflatables, door prizes. Proceeds help Parent-Teacher League purchase items on teacher wish lists and school technology. 423-622-3755.• NormalPalooza: Normal Park Museum Magnet School, 1219 W. Mississippi Ave., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, free admission, $5 admission to Tot Lot for children ages 6 and younger, tickets sold per activity for older children. 423-255-6358.• WTCI Family Day: WTCI studio, 7540 Bonnyshire Drive, 1-4 p.m. Sunday, free. 423-702-7819.
Although the festival circuit is winding down, there are still some notable events happening this weekend, Nov. 7-9.
If you want to jump-start your Christmas shopping, drive down Interstate 59 to Birmingham, Ala., where Christmas Village Festival fills the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center. This huge gift mart boasts more than 700 booths. It's so big that many visitors take two days to see it all, spending the night at the adjacent Birmingham Sheraton, which connects to the convention center by an enclosed skywalk.
If you are looking for something closer to home, there are three arts and crafts festivals worth noting.
• Normal Park Museum Magnet School's popular fundraiser, NormalPalooza, takes place Saturday at the school on the corner of Mississippi and North Market streets. Co-chairwoman Andrea Tarter says this year all festival activities will take place on the school's front lawn or on Mississippi Avenue.
NormalPalooza draws not just school families but the general public because of its selection of local artists' fine crafts and for its musicians. Tarter says 45 vendors will show arts and crafts, and 90 percent of them are artists. Nine of the 15 food vendors are local restaurants and food trucks; the remaining six sell traditional festival foods.
"New this year is live art, people demonstrating their work," says Tarter. These include a potter, graffiti artist, Uptown Art and the Chattanooga Hoopers, a hula hoop troupe who will teach children the skill from 11:30 a.m to 5 p.m.
Chairwoman Heather Cockerham says there will be a rock-climbing wall, petting zoo and the "Meltdown Wipeout Zone," an inflatables obstacle course modeled after the "Wipeout" television show. Magician Scott Fillers will entertain guests at 2:20 p.m.
Music and dancing will be presented from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Talent includes Center for Creative Arts dancers, Normal Park talent show winners, Alex Boltz, the Funkabuckets percussion band and Slim Pickins' before Uncle Lightning closes out the festival.
• The 26th Gingerbread Shoppe opens its doors inside Christ United Methodist Church on Friday for a two-day run. This show was started by three suburban housewives who needed an outlet for their homemade craft projects. After they outgrew their neighborhood's community clubhouse, they moved the show to the church.
This year, 32 craftspeople will sell Christmas decorations, jewelry, floral arrangements, homemade soaps, lotions, clothing and note cards. Red Duecker, show chairman, says a monogrammer will be on-site and a chalkboard painter' will have home accent pieces.
• The Foothills Crafts Fair in Manchester, Tenn., draws about 3,000 visitors each year to shop its 75 vendors. Friday and Saturday's shows are sponsored by the nonprofit Foothills Craft Guild, and proceeds benefit guild projects.
Spokeswoman Phyllis Dix says the fair's exhibitors come from Nashville to as far south as Huntsville, Ala., with several from Chattanooga in the mix.
Dix says new this year is a photographer who makes jewelry from her photos and a craftsman who turns "draped figures" into carolers.
Contact Susan Pierce at spierce@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6284.