Kingsport Attractions & Entertainment

• • Guests can participate in “whodunit?” fun at a Murder Mystery dinner at Allandale Mansion, Renaissance Center or the Red Room. Enjoy a catered dinner and a lot of laughing when you choose one of these plays as a surprise for your guests.
    • Murder in the Peacock Room – Set in a dinner lounge, the evening opens with a performance by the lounge singer. A murder takes place, and throughout dinner a detective questions all who may have been involved.
    • Murder Endowment – Join Colonel Pinkerbottom, his family and staff at his “mansion” for an unforgettable award dinner. Each table represents a “philanthropic” organization competing for a million dollar award. The wealthy donor’s staff and family members become suspects when a murder interrupts the proceedings.
    • Murder at the Hi-Skool Reunion – Join the class of ’76 for a homicidally hilarious mystery. Every case of puppy love was a case of do or die! Your group will be voting on “Most Likely to Get 20 Years to Life.”
    • Murder at the Speedway – After the “Deepends 500″, join the winner and his sponsor for a post victory press banquet. Sparks fly and tempers flare, and then a double murder takes place. Was it the girlfriend, the racetrack PR manager, a sponsor? Your head will be spinning trying to figure this one out. Who says you can’t get away with murder?
      • Murder at the House of Bingo – The owner of a “posh” establishment and his chef along with their “Call Girls” entertain Bingo fans. An interruption from Crusty ol’ Aunt Rowena and a surprise murder makes for an entertaining evening. Detective Telly Wice and the Bingo playing audience work to solve the “who-dun-it?”
      • The Will to Die For – Friends and relatives of the late Big Daddy Dockerfeller gather for dinner and the reading of BD’s will. The will disappears and a murder occurs. Detective Monday and Detective-to-be Friday questions the list of suspects including the tour group.

• • Your group will thoroughly entertained by a costumed group at Exchange Place, a historic farmstead from the mid-1800’s. The props are a 2 lb. bag of flour, a spiral curry comb, a ribbon tied to a stuffed toy bear, a basket and a mock shotgun. If these sound like a strange concoction of “things”, call and let us explain the hilarious shenanigans.

• • Exchange Place is also an interesting setting for a costumed guided tour and demonstrations on spinning, basketry, quilting, rope making or hoecakes.

• • A walking tour and perhaps a barge ride, highlighted with wolves howling (maybe? depending on their mood) awaits you at Bays Mountain Park & Planetarium. Your group can have a catered lunch at the Farmstead Museum or just tour this interesting place. Some of the guests will be taken back in time as they view the antique farm implements and tools.

• • Visit our Nation’s only registered historical site which was both a stage stop and a boatyard. Netherland Inn is a three-story building which hosted many famous persons including Presidents Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson and James K. Polk. With stage coaches, mail coaches, oxcarts and river traffic, the Netherland Inn was a popular place in the busy Boat Yard community which was originally “King’s Port”.

• If your visit is between May and September, “Bluegrass on Broad” in downtown Kingsport is available on Friday nights for those who like “free” entertainment in a relaxed setting.

Regional Attractions & Entertainment

• Get up close and personal with America’s favorite NASCAR track at Bristol Motor Speedway. The speedway’s new Fan Zone provides an intimate look at racing with interactive videos, a replica of the track’s 36 degree banking, drag-race simulators and real cross-sectioned stock cars. Get your taste of the driver’s perspective with a guided track tour, which even includes a ride around the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile.”

• • Stay over a Saturday night and experience traditional mountain music at the Carter’s Family Fold in Hiltons, Virginia. A “full house” is typical to listen to the melodic sounds of local and famous entertainers as they carry on the work of A. P., Sara and Mother Maybelle Carter.

• • Northeast Tennessee’s newest attraction is the Gray Fossil Site. A prolific Miocene-aged fossil site at Gray, Tennessee, is attracting scholars, volunteers, and visitors from across the country seeking to learn about the rich paleoecology of Southern Appalachia. A 33,000-square-foot visitor’s Interpretive Center will open in June 2007 as a fully functional museum, including a permanent display, classroom, preparation lab, collection storage area, and offices for research.

• • Enter another era when a tour guide escorts you through the main street of Jonesborough. A scheduled storyteller can bring the past alive and the group can get a little exercise as they stroll through some of the quaint shops or visit the International Storytelling Center.

• • Abingdon, Virginia’s Barter Theatre is one of the oldest professional theatres in the nation. Enjoy a matinee or evening performance.

• • Become the guests of the William Cobb family and let costumed interpreters help you experience life on the frontier at Rocky Mount Museum. Enjoy the Cobb family performing their daily tasks of cooking, weaving, and candle making in this living history museum.

• • Explore the museum and enjoy the interpretive program at Sycamore Shoals State Historic Area where you will find a reconstructed Fort Watauga. Hear the story about the “muster” of the Overmountain Men and their march to fight the “Battle of King’s Mountain”, proclaimed by history books as the turning point of the Revolutionary War. Visit in July and enjoy the outdoor drama “The Wataugans.”

• Farmhouse Gallery and Gardens is one of East Tennessee’s hidden treasures and the home of Wildlife Artist Johnny Lynch and his family. On their farm in the mountains of East Tennessee, the Lynch’s have created a showcase of this area’s natural beauty where birds, butterflies, wildlife and peacocks abound! Your group can relax with lunch or dinner, music and/or storytelling. This place is a genuine “walk with nature.”