It was a sunny day in Greene County.

There were the smells of food and the sounds of music coming from the town of Carmichaels. Around the area, the annual event signals the start of the fall season.

The 47th annual Carmichaels Covered Bridge Festival was held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 17 and 18. The festival was one of 10 covered bridge festivals that occurred in the Greene and Washington County areas over the weekend.

The other festival locations included the White Bridge, McClug Bridge, Pine Bark Bridge, Henry Bridge, Brownlee Bridge, Whit Sprowls Bridge, Ebenzer Bridge and the Krepps Bridge.

This event was presented by EQT, a petroleum and natural gas company.

The covered bridge in Carmichaels is located in the Old Town Section. The festival was hosted by the Greene Academy of Art, which has been hosting the event for a number of years and isn’t far away from the Carmichaels Bridge.

According to Ann Bargerstack, president of the Academy, all of the covered bridge events are different, but she feels that the Carmichaels festival is best on the art side of things.

“One thing that I love about this festival is all of the young people coming out and getting involved, and that everything that is here is homemade and is made from people that live around the area, so they are from the community,” said Bargerstack.

Bargerstack added that having so many young people getting involved this year has played a huge part in bringing more people to the event and making it successful.

“Getting the young people involved has brought the amount of people to almost double, and I am so happy to see that,” said Bargerstack. “And I am so thankful for the people around the area to use their land to hold these event for the festival.”

Bargerstack also said that hosting the Covered Bridge Festival helps the Greene Academy of Art, because of how much of an impact they have on the community and how much the covered bridge means to the area.

Booths at the festival included activities such as a petting zoo, homemade art, room scents and live entertainment, which featured three bands.

The event provides entertainment and activity to the community while also promoting art, which is everything that the Academy does.

“The last few years the festival has been a success but this year is being over the top,” said Bargerstack. “Most of all, thank you to the young people that have gotten involved with everything. We couldn’t have don’t all of this without every one that was here to help out.”

The Carmichaels Covered Bridge festival, as well as the other bridge festivals in Washington and Greene Counties, is held the third week of September

each year.