The Mountain Moonshine Festival is held annually in Dawsonville, Georgia.
By Brandon Reed
Posted in Feature Stories 10/30/09
Saturday marked the opening of the 42nd annual Mountain Moonshine Festival in downtown Dawsonville, Georgia.
The festival, which now coincides with the induction ceremony for the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame, has long brought out racers and fans alike that enjoy meeting, reminiscing and sharing a fun time in the North Georgia Mountains.
The event annually draws thousands, and is listed as one of the top annual festivals in the southeast.
Along with people, the festival draws out a huge number of vintage automobiles, including dozens of 1940s era Fords and vintage race cars for all to see.
This year, the focus was on moonshine and the classic film “Thunder Road.” Jim Mitchum, son of the late actor Robert Mitchum, was the grand marshal for the event, which celebrated the great moonshining film with a moonshine run for vintage cars on Friday, and viewings of the film all weekend.
Legendary Georgia racers were also on hand, such as Charlie Mincey and 1960 Sprint Cup Champ Rex White.
If you didn’t get a chance to make it up to Dawsonville, here’s a look at the 2009 Mountain Moonshine Festival.
A look at the huge crowd that came out to this year’s festival.
Former NASCAR driver Russ Truelove is always one of our favorites to see at the Moonshine Festival. He brought his Mercury out this year – which looks just like the one he tumbled down Daytona Beach in back in 1956 (before the wreck, of course).
This beautiful replica of Fireball Roberts’ Daytona 500 winning Pontiac was on display over the weekend.