This weekend in Boone, NC

At Daniel Boone Park, the Watauga County Farmers’ Market brings together local growers, food producers, and artisans in a lively community setting. Around fifty vendors share the season’s abundance, including fresh produce, pasture-raised meats, eggs, dairy, breads, pastries, ready-to-eat foods, honey, mushrooms, fermented specialties, pantry items, and handmade art and herbal goods. The experience features live music in the Music Tent, cooking demonstrations, activities for children in the Kid’s Corner, and options for hot coffee, breakfast, and lunch. Food access is a priority, with SNAP/EBT, WIC, and Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program vouchers accepted. Thanks to partner support, SNAP/EBT benefits can be matched at the Market Info Booth for eligible food purchases. This is a producer only market, so every item is grown, raised, or crafted by the vendors themselves, which helps sustain local farms, makers, and the High Country economy.

Discover Grandfather Mountain after dark through a special evening program that features guided nighttime tours, storytelling by the fire, and a chance to encounter the park’s nocturnal wildlife. This rare opportunity lets visitors explore the mountain once the sun has set. Tickets are offered online, and advance registration is required.

James McMurtry takes the stage with his band at Appalachian Theatre. The night begins with an opening set from BettySoo, joined by the @Antlers & Acorns Band.

Mountain Muse Boutique brings a permanent jewelry experience where pieces are custom fitted in just minutes for a continuous, clasp free finish, plus a complementary selection of traditional jewelry. Mill Camp Wines & Ciders hosts a family friendly Market Day with plenty of chances to shop local. Residents and visitors can sip, browse and shop while enjoying the High Country setting.

Explore who you were before shame and performance took over in an immersive retreat with Dr. Brad Reedy and Emma Reedy June. Through attachment-informed teaching and mythic storytelling, participants examine how survival identities like seeking approval, control, and perfection once offered protection yet now contribute to suffering. The experience invites a shift from confusion to clarity and from self-criticism to compassion, nurturing a grounded sense of self-acceptance. The focus is meeting yourself differently rather than collecting techniques. In a caring environment, you will trace how early bonding shaped defenses, relationships, and recurring dilemmas, while your nervous system learns to orient around belonging and safety. What previously seemed like pathology becomes understandable, and what looked like failure becomes raw material for integration. You depart more connected to yourself, with a clearer sense of how to show up in love, parenting, partnership, and purpose. Guided experiences include psychoeducation on attachment, experiential psychodrama to work with core emotional themes, and a deep dive into the Hero’s Journey to find meaning and direction in your story. Mindful reflection through meditation and guided journaling builds awareness. Small group conversations and partner exercises foster safety and vulnerability. Creative practices such as drawing, art, and storytelling open insight beyond analysis. Throughout the retreat, you will practice recognizing patterns that grew from childhood, embracing shadowed parts with compassion, noticing projection and unconscious dynamics in close relationships, choosing responsibility over blame, and discovering how connection helps rewire the nervous system. The perspective is heroic, framing struggle as a path toward purpose and freedom.