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Frigid temps

Business -- part of it, anyway -- was slow for the Thedfords of Spring City, Tenn.

The festival vendors have been a part of every Foothills Fall Festival except for one, and Saturday's gradually dropping temperatures were the coldest they could remember — which deterred sales of the ice cream they advertised on their marquee.

"Not very well," Brenda Thedford said, when asked about the sales of chocolate-dipped ice cream bars. "We haven't sold very many at all."

Sales of funnel cakes and coffee, however, were brisk. Along the food court, patrons snapped up food and drink to warm them up. Combined with blankets, coats and extra layers of clothes, many hoped to endure until country superstar Alan Jackson takes the stage tonight.

"It's cold, but it's dry," said Andy Whisler of Seymour. "It's good concert weather."

Whisler, however, had already acclimated to the cold — he rose early on Saturday morning to go hunting. His girlfriend, Melissa Franklin, wore three pairs of pants and brought two jackets, in addition to a blanket, in hopes of staving off the temperatures.

"This is my fourth year, and it's the coldest I can remember," she said.

Parkas, jackets, blankets, gloves and handwarmers — concert-goers brought them in abundance on Saturday as temperatures refused to climb above the low 40s. Gray skies and the occasional drop of rain didn't help matters, but the crowds continued to fill Theater in the Park in downtown Maryville in anticipation of Saturday night's concert by country superstar Alan Jackson.

The crowd included Jamie Parton, a Maryville resident who's lived locally for nine years but attended the festival for the first time this year, and her friend, Melinda Sparks. The two spent Friday night along the sidewalk in order to be one of the first through the gates at noon.

“It was cold, and the wind chill was bad,” Sparks said. “We're exhausted — we've had no sleep — but adrenaline is keeping us going.”

Despite the toll the cold took on them Friday night, they planned to spend Saturday night in line as well. Jackson, however, kept to himself — although his uncanny look-alike, Blount County resident and WIVK-FM deejay Ted “Gunner” Ousley, strolled back and forth across the backstage area with the station's mascot, WIVK the Frog.

“I see Gunner all the time — in the grocery store, all over the place,” Sparks said.

Incidentally, Ousley's resemblance to Jackson has been noted by the man himself — he extended a personal invitation to Ousley to appear in the music video for “That'd Be Alright,” and from his early days in the music industry, people have been pointing out the similarities in appearance between the two, Ousley said.

“I was working in radio when he first got started, and I remember the program director came up and said, ‘Gunner, there's this guy who just put an album out, and he looks just like you!'” Ousley said.

According to WIVK-FM Operations Manager Mike Hammond, Gunner is the subject of some good-natured ribbing around the station because of the resemblance.

“We have pictures of the two of them together, and it's uncanny,” Hammond said. “It's also a lot of fun.”

WIVK deejay Jack Ryan said booking a star of Jackson's caliber for the Foothills Fall Festival was important for this year's event, given that it's tied to the 10th anniversary of the festival itself.

“I thought it was a perfect fit for Maryville and a perfect fit for East Tennessee,” he said.

Concert-goers, apparently, agreed — Scott Payne and Jessica Sparks of Maryville have attended the Foothills Fall Festival in years past, but this year's performance by Jackson was a reason to buy tickets early, they said.

"It's always a good lineup, and we love the music, but we're pretty excited about this one," Payne said.

By the time Jackson performed a crowd-pleasing version of "Rocky Top" as his encore on Saturday night, it was estimated that almost 10,000 fans had turned out for the day's events.

Among them were Maryville natives Angel Gregory, who attends Maryville College, and Michael Friant, who bought tickets shortly after they went on sale. They hovered near the barricade between backstage and the food court, hoping like so many others to catch a glimpse of the star from afar. They hoped to meet him, or perhaps get an autograph, but just being in attendance at his Foothills Fall Festival appearance was reward enough, they said.

“He's just different that other artists you hear on the radio,” Gregory said. “He's not typical. He's unique — true country. As soon I we heard he was coming, we wanted to be here.”

They and so many others.

For continuing coverage of the 2009 Foothills Fall Festival, log onto http://www.thedailytimes.com/ starting at 3 p.m. on Sunday, and follow Weekend Editor Steve Wildsmith on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TNRockWriter!