CLAYTON, Ga. — Get ready for a day of music, shopping, great food, cold drinks and live music as Ramshackle returns to downtown Clayton in the North Georgia mountains. The street festival is scheduled for Saturday, June 7.
Ramshackle returns to Clayton with live music, great eats, cold drinks and more
“Ramshackle truly is going to be the best day of the year,” Lizzie Vogle said. Vogle attended last year’s event and works at the Bridge Creek Inn in Clayton.
“It feels like summer all wrapped up in one big bow, just so much fun truly and that’s what Clayton is,” she said.
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Blue Ridge Overlook in Rabun County Ready for a getaway? (sponsored) (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland Where can you find live music... (sponsored) (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland great wine... (sponsored) (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland outdoor dining at trendy new restaurants... (sponsored) (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland a splash of history... (sponsored) (Nelson Hicks)
Bridge Creek Inn a new boutique hotel... (sponsored) (Bridge Creek Inn)
Of These Mountains and trendy shopping spots? (sponsored) (Of These Mountains)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland Head to downtown Clayton... (sponsored) (Nelson Hicks)
Bridge Creek Inn in the North Georgia mountains... (sponsored) (Bridge Creek Inn)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland to experience it all! (sponsored) (Nelson Hicks)
Reeves in Clayton “We have some of the best shopping, some of the best restaurants,” Clayton Mayor Kurt Cannon told WSB-TV’s Nelson Hicks. (Reeves in Clayton)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland “Years ago, I would drive to Atlanta or to Highlands (North Carolina) to go to a restaurant. Today, all of those folks are coming here to our restaurants.” (Nelson Hicks)
Highroads Tasting Room Clayton has long been known as a retirement haven, a place where Atlanta’s working crowd comes to enjoy their golden years. However, over the last decade, the town has undergone a transformation. Today, Clayton is a vibrant blend of the old and the new.
Bridge Creek Inn “The town has always been charming, the town has always been nice,” Tyler Caswell from the Bridge Creek Inn said. “Those beautiful lakes have always been there. Those beautiful mountains have always been there. The potential has always been there. About 10 years ago or so, I would say kind of a hip, modern vibe started popping up in all these different businesses. Different business owners started turning over. Now, you’ve got this really cool exciting, kind of progressive town with awesome food, art galleries, clothing boutiques, outfitting shops (and) guide shops.” (Bridge Creek Inn)
Bridge Creek Inn Caswell, a longtime visitor to Clayton, is now part of the town’s revitalization. He owns the Bridge Creek Inn, a boutique hotel on Main Street. While the building has stood for over 100 years, it was recently rebuilt to house a new hotel, event space, and restaurants. (Bridge Creek Inn)
Bridge Creek Inn “Availablity, affordability, accessibility is our thing,” Caswell noted. “We’re really only 90 minutes from Atlanta. You’re not going to break the bank with our room rates. And that doesn’t go (just) for (the Bridge Creek Inn). that goes for the whole town. It’s affordable and it’s easy to get to, and it’s surrounded by incredible natural resources.” (Bridge Creek Inn)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland Highroads Tasting Room, another new addition to downtown Clayton, opened earlier this year. (Nelson Hicks)
Highroads Tasting Room “I grew up here, been in and out, back and forth, the mountains always call me back,” Lynda Ann Price from the Highroads Tasting Room said. “Clayton has always been such a quaint, cozy place that is a real welcoming environment, welcoming community. This time when (my husband and I) came back, we just sensed such a fresh energy.”
Street festival in downtown Cleveland Highroads Tasting Room features locally produced wines by Jabe Hilson. (Nelson Hicks)
Highroads Tasting Room “Jabe Hilson’s wines measure up to wines around world,” Price noted. “We do carry his and feature his wines, and do tastings of his wines and meads, but they measure up to those mountain region wines in Southern France, Northern Spain and Chile. We carry wines from those areas, too. And we would love for (visitors) to take a flight and compare our local wines with those wines and you’ll see that Rabun County is doing a good job with winemaking.”
Reeves in Clayton New restaurants, bars, shops, art galleries, and outdoor outfitters line the streets of downtown Clayton. Yet, not everything is new. Reeves, a staple on Main Street, anchors the downtown area. (Reeves in Clayton)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland “We are at Reeves on Main Street,” Sonya Shook said. “We have been here since 1928. We are one of the original businesees on Main Street, probably one of the last original businesses on Main Street.” (Nelson Hicks)
Reeves in Clayton “We have loved the growth here in downtown,” Shook said. “This is originally a hardware store that my great grandfather started in 1928, but with the growth of tourists here in downtown, we are no longer just a hardware store. We have everything you can imagine.” (Reeves in Clayton)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland “We do two block parties here every year in downtown, one in the spring and one in the fall,” Rumsey said. (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland If you have time, explore the natural beauty just outside downtown Clayton, too. (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland “This the best place that you can imagine doing anything that you can do outdoors,” Mayor Cannon said. “You can leave the town and go hiking, whitewater rafting, mountain biking, fishing, anything that you can imagine outdoors. We have the most beautiful lakes in the state, in the southeast, with Lake Rabun and Lake Burton, but then you can come into town at night and have the best dinner that you can find in the southeast.” (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Street festival in downtown Cleveland (Nelson Hicks)
Highroads Tasting Room Here are some more photos from the Highroads Tasting Room.
Highroads Tasting Room Here are some more photos from the Highroads Tasting Room.
Reeves in Clayton Here are some more photos from Reeves, a staple in Clayton for nearly 100 years. (Reeves in Clayton)
Reeves in Clayton Here are some more photos from Reeves, a staple in Clayton for nearly 100 years. (Reeves in Clayton)
Visitors will pack the streets of downtown Clayton from 10 am to 8 pm where they’ll find local vendors, activities for the kids and plenty of fun.
Town Mountain is the music headliner but get there early to hear more music from people like Ramshackle Rising Star artist Breeze Cable.
“I like to play a little bit of everything,” Cable said. “I love all genres. My (favorites are) Fleetwood Mac, Amy Winehouse and Adele. So I love anything soulful and just, I don’t know. I like all that stuff. I would say my genre and the way I write is kind of like indie folk.”
Ramshackle returns to Clayton in 2025 Ramshackle is scheduled for Saturday, June 7.
Come hungry and thirsty, too. Many of Main Street’s restaurants will offer something special for festival-goers.
“When Ramshakel was around last year, what we wanted to do was serve our food right outside the streets because they blocked the whole street,” Michael Persoon from Rabun Social said. “It’s amazing. Everybody from kind of this whole southeast region, northeast region, they all come down.”
“It’s a kitchen sushi cocktail bar right in downtown Clayton, Georgia,” Persoon said. “And that place is really cool because we feel like we kind of broke the mold with what was needed. We started to add a really nice nightlife. We turned the whole place into like this fun dance party once a month.”
Rabun Social
Rabun Social is part of Persoon’s company that combines great food with entertainment. He just opened the Hendrix, a venue that hosts live music, comedy shows, dueling pianos and more in Clayton.
And Persoon isn’t alone. Other companies have recently opened new restaurants in the area, spots like Stekoa Creek.
“We call it a mountain-inspired eatery, Chop house, but also (serve) pastas and chicken dishes and you know chops of all kinds and then that kind of thing with a nice bar program,” owner Rudy Theale said.
Stekoa Creek in Clayton, Ga.
Theale recently moved to the area. He’s in the restaurant business in North Carolina. He opened Stekoa Creek, operates the Clayton Cafe and has more plans for Clayton.
“We’re building another restaurant now across the street, that’s really more of a family entertainment center,” Theale said. “That’s going to have chef-driven food, pizza and burgers.”
The Vandiver is new, too. The tavern’s menu is packed with dishes featuring regional flavors.
“My favorite dishes are probably, I mean I love all of them, but I would say the fried green tomatoes,” Vogle said. “I mean it’s the essence of the south here and I just love green tomatoes. The Vandiver salad is incredible. It’s our take on a Cobb salad.”
You’ll find the Vandiver inside the recently opened Bridge Creek Inn. The hotel’s owners used Ramshackle last year to announce the opening of Henri’s. Henri’s is a popular bakery in the Atlanta area and now, visitors will find those sweet treats in the North Georgia mountains.
“We have everything from macaroons to breakfast items, chocolate croissants, and almond croissants,” manager Chelsea Cohee said. “We’ve got gourmet cupcakes, we’ve got cakes. Henri’s is known for their shortbread cookies. Those Petit Fours are amazing. We have a full selection of cookies. The Heath cookie is my favorite. It is the best.”
Enjoy some sweet treats during this year’s Ramshackle event or anytime on a visit to Clayton.
“(Clayton has) the lakes, it (has) the mountains, it (has) the golf, it has the friendly people,” Theale said. “Now it has a dining scene that’s really becoming something incredible. And so what I would say to everybody is ‘Come see us.’”
