Wine Over Water, Chattanooga Oktoberfest highlight area’s weekend fall festivals

Staff File Photo by Matt Hamilton / Allie Shoemake, left, Glen Kagan, back, and Courtney Espy, front, sell pretzels at the Federal Bake Shop of Hixson booth at Chattanooga Oktoberfest on Oct. 10, 2021. The two-day Chattanooga Market celebration returns to First Horizon Pavilion this weekend, offering German food, music and beer. Staff File Photo by Matt Hamilton / Allie Shoemake, left, Glen Kagan, back, and Courtney Espy, front, sell pretzels at the Federal Bake Shop of Hixson booth at Chattanooga Oktoberfest on Oct. 10, 2021. The two-day Chattanooga Market celebration returns to First Horizon Pavilion this weekend, offering German food, music and beer.

By Lisa Denton October 5, 2022 5 min read

Some of the Chattanooga area’s most anticipated fall events are happening this weekend, including Wine Over Water and the New Salem Mountain Festival, which are returning after two-year COVID-19 hiatuses.

Faye Nichols, co-chair for New Salem, said the festival will pick up where it left off in the fall of 2019.

“I had almost 50 (crafts) people who rolled over for two years,” she said in a phone interview. “They’d already paid their booth fee. When we canceled in 2020, they rolled over to 2021, and in 2021 they rolled over to this year.”

Todd Morgan, who has been executive director of Preserve Chattanooga (formerly Cornerstones) for less than a year, said Wine Over Water will return as the exuberant salute to wine that local oenophiles have come to expect. But it’s not just about the wine, he said in a phone interview.