Things to Do in Knoxville, Tennessee

Knox Vegas, K-Town, Marble City, Scruffy City, Big Orange Country — Knoxville’s nicknames reflect the diversity of its personality. This big little city has a thriving arts and music scene, and a culture of entrepreneurship embodied in its bustling boutiques, chef-driven restaurants and unique bars. Perfectly positioned in the rolling hills of East Tennessee, there are mountains to do outside, whether your preference is hiking, biking or flower-gazing. Knoxville’s population is close to half a million people when you include the county, and we do include the county because it has so much to offer. HGTV is headquartered here, but we swear we’re not biased. Stick around and we’ll prove it!

The World’s Fair Park was the site of the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville. Now, this central greenspace is an enormous public park with water features, courtyard areas and an amphitheater, making it suitable for everything from solitary sky-gazing to rocking out at a festival with friends. It also serves as a befitting introduction to the uniqueness of the city. An unexpected and very cool bronze statue of Sergei Rachmaninoff commemorating the composer’s final recital in 1943 presides over a small pocket park. An enormous 10-foot-tall Rubik’s Cube from the Fair premiere is on display in the Knoxville Convention Center. And the jewel of the park is the iconic, 26-story Sunsphere, constructed for the Fair with 24 karat gold-infused glass lending its regal color.

Purchase an elevator ticket online to use the Sunsphere’s panoramas for an overview of the area. This 360-degree perspective takes in downtown, the University of Tennessee (UT), the Tennessee River, the Great Smoky Mountains and other Knoxville neighborhoods you’re likely to visit.

When you come down to earth, you can start your Knoxville exploration on downtown’s historic Gay Street. Bustling shops and galleries join unique restaurants and bars that cater to residents and visitors around the clock. For a real taste of East Tennessee, drop into the Visitors Center at noon Monday through Thursday, when it hosts the Blue Plate Special, a live performance radio show put on by local station WDVX. Admire the works of local and regional artists at The Emporium on Gay Street, with multiple galleries in one enormous building. Do a little shopping for handmade crafts or curated clothing before dinner and a show. Get your ice cream fix after — either a Phoenix Pharmacy milkshake or a soft-serve Cruze Farm cone.

Two premier venues on Gay Street showcase a variety of live theater, music and performance art. The Moorish Revival Tennessee Theatre is opulence from top to bottom, literally — with a handpainted ceiling and a red Mighty Wurlitzer organ that dramatically rises out of the floor during special performances. The Tennessee retains its movie theater origins, showing classic films as part of its Summer Movie Magic series, and has added to its repertoire touring bands, Broadway productions and performances by the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and Knoxville Opera. Across the street, the beloved Bijou Theatre has been offering up a diverse sampling of music and arts for more than a century. The calendar includes national acts plus performances by Knoxville Jazz Orchestra, UT Opera and other homegrown talent. In addition, Clarence Brown Theatre on UT campus is the university’s worthy contribution to the performing arts scene. Nonprofit community theater Theatre Knoxville Downtown presents original comedies and imaginative dramas in an intimate setting a couple of blocks away.

Around the corner from Gay Street, Market Square is punctuated by boutiques with bohemian or international flair, but prepare to stash those shopping bags under a table because full enjoyment of this downtown plaza is about the fare. From a single slice of divine pizza at Tomato Head to a multicourse dinner at the Oliver Royale, Market Square has you covered — or uncovered, as every eatery has outdoor tables for enjoying Knoxville’s mild climate. Then day drink on the rooftop of Preservation Pub or head back inside to round out the evening at Knoxville’s only speakeasy, the Peter Kern Library — look for the red light.

Speaking of, back in the day, Knoxville’s red-light district was on the other side of Gay Street. The Old City has all the personality you’d expect of an area that boasts double-digit bars, nightclubs and restaurants all within a five-minute walk. The Old City is the place to head for intimate live music — whether it’s the edgy offerings of the Pilot Light, giving local punk bands their first gigs, or a whisky-infused Celtic jam at the folky Boyd’s Jig & Reel.

Perched on the side of the World’s Fair Park, the Knoxville Museum of Art (KMA) showcases East Tennessee talent and works by renowned global artists. Two notable category straddlers are well-represented at KMA: artist Beauford Delaney and glass sculptor Richard Jolley. The museum has focused on acquiring more Delaney pieces and now has dozens of the celebrated modern artist’s and those of his brother, Joseph. Jolley’s monumental sculpture Cycle of Life: Within the Power of Dreams and the Wonder of Infinity enwraps the lower level of the museum and is on permanent view. Also on the lower level, don’t miss the Thorne Miniature Rooms — an exhibit of nine tiny period rooms designed by Narcissa Niblack Thorne in the 1930s to teach about interior design and culture using her vast collection of doll house furniture and miniatures.

For an elevated experience of an entirely different nature, get a birds-eye backdrop for your refreshments from the popular rooftop patios at Market Square’s Scruffy City offerings — Scruffy City Hall, Preservation Pub and Bernadette’s Crystal Gardens. Or get swanky Smokies selfies while you lounge with libations several stories up at Radius Rooftop Lounge at the top of Embassy Suites and Five Thirty Lounge at Hyatt Place.

Knoxville is bursting with creativity, with generations of fine artists, craftspeople, musicians and makers working in myriad traditions and styles. One of the best ways to take it all in is on the First Friday of every month when First Friday ArtWalk weaves an admiring public through downtown’s galleries and studios, restaurants, clubs, bars and businesses. Or check out one of the city’s annual arts and crafts fairs. The Mill & Mine — a favorite medium-sized venue for touring bands — hosts art markets including the Retropolitan Craft Fair and the Punk Rock Flea Market.

You don’t have to wait for an event to appreciate the creativity of the city. You can catch live music every night of the week. Grab a coffee or a beer at Maker Exchange on the World’s Fair Park and admire the functional design side of Knoxville artists at the shoppable display of the Curio. And on Gay Street, the Art Market Gallery is a juried cooperative of more than 50 local creatives featuring handmade crafts and fine art.

The festival spirit is alive and well in Knoxville. Eclectic music fans from across the globe (and from one town over) descend on downtown every March for the nonprofit music-and-arts festival Big Ears, showcasing the savant, the genre-spanning and the difficult-to-define. In May, Southern Skies Music & Whiskey Festival offers — you guessed it — homegrown music and booze in the form of a one-day hoedown at the World’s Fair Park. Eat your heart out at the International Food Fest at the same location in August. Cultural festivals include Knoxville Opera’s annual international street fair, the Rossini Festival, in April; Hola Festival and Knoxville Asian Festival in September; and Greek Fest in October. Knoxville neighborhoods also get in on the action to show their hyperlocal pride: Happy Holler’s Holleroo and Vestal’s Vestival.

From April to November, farmers markets supply the Knoxville community with fresh fruits and vegetables grown just the other day somewhere in East Tennessee. The largest is in Market Square on Saturdays starting in May. Here you can purchase a variety of farm products — seasonal produce, honey, free-range eggs and meat — as well as locally roasted coffee, bread, pastries and more. Local food co-op, Three Rivers Market, has a handy list of the other farmers markets around town.

With emphasis on the handmade instead of hand-raised, visit the Old City Market on the second Sunday of each month, April through December, for a taste of Knoxville’s artists and makers. Additional Thursday evening markets happen once during spring and fall.

No rundown of Knoxville is complete without mentioning the home team(s): the University of Tennessee Volunteers, affectionately known as the Vols. If a UT game is the reason you’re in town, you clearly don’t need to be told; but the uninitiated will wonder why all the parking spaces are taken by vehicles festooned in orange-and-white. UT has a student body of more than 28,000, and they aren’t the only ones around town with school spirit. Neyland Stadium is where MVP and four-time Super Bowl champ Peyton Manning spent his formative years as UT’s quarterback. Thompson Boling Arena is where we watched legendary Lady Vols basketball coach, Pat Summitt, make history during her 38 years with UT. Head over to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame to learn more about Summitt’s legacy.

If you visit Knoxville in spring, you’ll be greeted with the white and pink blooms of the dogwood trees. During April, bike, drive or walk a segment of more than 90 miles of the pink-striped Dogwood Trails across the city to admire the blooms. The dogwoods grow in the city prolifically in no small part due to the efforts of the arts advocacy nonprofit Dogwood Arts and its seasonal events. The community art competition Chalk Walk features 300 artists of all ages live drawing on the Market Square pavement. The season wraps up at the end of April in the World’s Fair Park with the Dogwood Arts Festival — a family-friendly shindig with art, food and entertainment.

Knoxville has activities that all ages will enjoy. Spend a few wild hours at Zoo Knoxville. Its new Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Campus (ARC) is 2.5 acres of scaly awesomeness. The kids will drag you to Kid’s Cove for the petting zoo and play areas. On the way, don’t miss Georgie and Malay, the white-handed gibbons. Georgie especially loves sailing around their treehouse and sky tunnels, impressing admirers with his acrobatic feats.

Around the corner from the Zoo is the Muse. This indoor educational playground is the perfect place to spend a cold or rainy morning pretending you’re an astronaut piloting a spaceship or learning about the circulatory system by feeding wispy scarves into enormous vacuum tunnels.

There are no fewer than 10 splash pads around the city for spontaneous aquatic enjoyment in warm weather. Lakeshore Park on the edge of Bearden has a fabulous playground, accessible to all ages and abilities. The best central playgrounds include Fort Kid across from the KMA and Tyson Park at the bottom of campus. If you brought your helmet (required) and skateboard or skates, head across the street from Tyson Park and tear it up at the unsupervised Knoxville Skatepark. Or skate the greenways from Tyson to the World’s Fair Park or to Volunteer Landing on the river.

Knoxville Moms is a great local resource with more ideas for the littles.

Knoxville’s gorgeous East Tennessee terrain has been preserved and cultivated in a many parks and gardens around town. Visit the sprawling Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum, with 44 acres of natural beauty to enjoy over a few hours. UT Gardens on the edge of campus promises a relaxing meander through native plantings, punctuated by local sculpture. Dogwood Arts presents open garden events throughout the year, where private homeowners in the area welcome the public to admire their landscapes.

UT Arboretum on the way to Oak Ridge welcomes you to enjoy a woodland stroll or hike — you pick the challenge — on its 7 miles of trails. The South Knoxville special, IC King Park, is a Great Blue Heron favorite because its 8 miles of woodland trails for walking or biking encircle miles of Tennessee River shoreline. Lakeshore Park on the edge of Bearden is an undulating 185 acres of riverside field and forest. The park’s challenging paved trail along the periphery rewards your uphill efforts with sensational views of the Smokies across the Tennessee River. Legacy Parks Foundation has a searchable map of local natural amenities.

A do-not-miss Knoxville site is Ijams Nature Center, across more than 300 acres of South Knoxville forest bordering the Tennessee River. This amazing natural amenity is beloved by locals for its miles of paved and unpaved walking and biking trails that lead you over hills, along the river and around Mead’s Quarry. Beginners and experienced rock climbers will find a hold at Ijams Crag. There’s a natural playscape for the littles. For a fee, visitors can explore Navitat Knoxville, an all-ages tree-based adventure park with sky-high trails to tackle while tethered to a zipline. Paddleboards and kayaks are available to rent at Mead’s Quarry.

Check the center’s calendar when planning your visit — Ijams hosts special events throughout the year, like the Pickin’ On Nature bluegrass concert series and Movies Under the Stars. Tennessee Stage Company creates some serious drama (and comedy) in front of the visitor center with its outdoor Knoxville Shakespeare performances. And on that note, the visitor center is where to start your exploration: Say hello to Ijams’ non-releasable animal ambassadors and pick up your park map.

Mountain bikers can stay dirty for days on the miles of Knoxville trails. Start your adventure behind the Ijams parking lot at Mead’s Quarry to explore the 60 miles of connected trails in Knoxville’s Urban Wilderness. Or Baker Creek Bike Park offers an any-wheel-goes welcome to the Baker Creek Preserve portion on the other side. When finished, IC King Park, Sharps Ridge Park and Concord Park await. The Appalachian Mountain Bike Club maintains these trails and is an up-to-date resource for trail condition info and maps. No ride? No worries! Rent a mountain bike and take a tour with Knoxville Outdoor Tours.

For those who prefer the paved experience, Knoxville has been adding to its 100 miles of greenway at every opportunity, with the ultimate goal of connecting the well-developed trails to the neighboring towns of Maryville and Oak Ridge. As it stands, much of the Knox County greenway is concentrated along the river, and you can bike around downtown, North Central, South Knoxville and Bearden neighborhoods comfortably. I BIKE KNX has a useful map of the existing infrastructure, as well as suggested routes to popular destinations.

With the local taste for outdoor adventure, it should come as no surprise that Knoxville has a heady craft beer scene, including a couple dozen breweries stretching all over town. The Biergarten at Schulz Brau Brewing Company is a lovely alfresco spot to enjoy a German lager. Xul Beer Co.’s ever-changing IPAs and sours are always inventive — hello, PB&J Mixtape — and served up in a 1960s car showroom for extra ambiance. South Knoxville’s Alliance Brewing Company and Crafty Bastard Brewery pull pints for the outdoorsy. Take a little detour off the Third Creek Bike Trail from downtown to Bearden to sample the regionally inspired recipes at Albright Grove Brewing Co. Keep heading west to Abridged Beer Co. to chase a tasty Toppy Rock IPA with its ever-popular burger.

Enjoy a sampling of local libations by following the Knoxville Ale Trail, or let Knox Brew Tours drive you around for a backstage pass to the action. Beer markets round out the scene, pairing local frothy faves with those from further afield. These include Trailhead Beer Market (south) and Merchants of Beer (north).

If your preference for sports runs more recreational, grab a lane at Maple Hall, downtown Knoxville’s boutique bowling alley. Maple Hall’s provisions include a full bar, a local food menu and a second cocktail lounge upstairs where you can enjoy spirited board games. Have an axe to grind? Head across the railroad tracks to Craft Axe Throwing to test your tossing skills after a craft brew or two. Or, if you like your games with bells and whistles, head to Harrogate’s Lounge at Suttree’s High Gravity Tavern. With a dozen pinball machines, video games, foosball, skee-ball and more, your head will be happily ringing all evening.

Furry family members will discover a warm welcome in Knoxville, too. Water bowls, treat jars and head scritches are in ready supply. Nearly every restaurant, coffee shop and bar with an outdoor patio offers pups a place under the table. There’s even a beloved annual pet paw-rade — Mardi Growl — to support the local shelter, Young-Williams Animal Center.

Though the Smokies limit dogs to just two trails, Knoxville’s greenspaces and its surrounding state parks welcome pups on leashes. Same for many local gardens, including Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum and UT Gardens. There are dedicated dog parks peppered around the city, including a one-acre park in the Old City and a newly built, re-bark-able romp at the back of IC King in South Knoxville. The Bark — an indoor-outdoor dog park and beer garden in North Knoxville — also has a doggy daycare service, a great resource for visitors who want to do human-only activities for a few hours.

Knoxville’s food culture is delectable, diverse and nationally recognized — from the uber friendly and casual Yassin’s Falafel House to J.C. Holdway, requiring deeper pockets and maybe a clean shirt. We mentioned the culinary contributions of Gay Street and Market Square. Hometown seafood staple Chesapeake’s is hiding between Market Square and the World’s Fair Park. Head to the Old City for Japanese small plates at Kaizen or the Mediterranean features at Kefi.

And don’t limit your edible adventures to downtown. Bearden is your boozy Southern brunch destination on the weekends, thanks to Farmacy’s inspired creations and fresh takes on the classics. This one’s always good for a themed pop-up, too, so check those socials. Perfectly stationed between Baker’s Creek Preserve and Ijams Crag, SoKno Taco Cantina is the chosen South Knoxville refuel stop post-ride, climb or hike.

If your relationship with food is polyamorous, Knoxville has two food halls bookending downtown — Marble City Market to the north and Kern’s Food Hall across the river — where no one asks for a commitment.

You can spend a day downtown in high spirits, thanks to local distilleries and an enthusiastic cocktail culture. The small-batch offerings at Knox Whiskey Works celebrate East Tennessee with Marble City Pink Gin and Tennessee Valley Vodka, to name a couple. The unique creations at PostModern Spirits include signature twists on staples — Hi(Rye) Whiskey — and botanical offerings like Chamomile Liqueur. The tasting rooms at both establishments are open seven days a week, or for a one-hour tour (weekends only) that includes a tasting flight.

Knoxville has several sensational spots for the garnish-and-stemware crowd. Alongside its premium oyster bar, Stir crafts its elevated signature cocktails with rare spirits, house-made bitters and syrups and fancy hand-carved ice. If you’re a sucker for a theme, Fly by Night is the South Knoxville source for '70s-style cocktails under a disco ball. The same creators transplant the taste of the tropics into downtown with the Tern Club. The Old City’s Brother Wolf celebrates Italian aperitivo culture. For upscale cocktails down below, The Vault serves up a reservations-only, old-Hollywood experience.

Knoxville has innumerable ways to satisfy that sweet tooth. Small-batch donut crafter Status Dough combines scrumptious cake and raised donuts with imaginative fillings, icings and toppings. Be sure to add to any adventure a simple buttermilk Old Fashioned — a delectable, deep-fried cruller that provides gourmet gastronomy with all the nostalgic pleasure of a fair funnel cake. Market Square’s Coffee + Chocolate pairs your preferred caffeine vehicle with a pastry or chocolate, or both. The gourmet offerings here include the most beautifully airbrushed truffles, pralines and caramels — almost too beautiful to eat, but you’ll manage. The Melting Pot has been fondueing food in Knoxville for decades and its dessert menu is everything you’d expect of another dessert dipped in melted chocolate. Don’t feel guilty, there are fresh fruit dippers too. And who said sweets have to be a treat? Start your day with the strawberries & crème or Nutella crepe from The French Market Creperie on Gay Street.

One of Knoxville’s biggest assets is its location, with a slew of worthy spots nearby clamoring for a day trip or afternoon devotion. Nestled in the Tennessee Valley, Knoxville is surrounded by state parks, protected natural areas and the most-visited park in the US: the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Its foothills provide a ton of Appalachian arts-and-entertainment opportunities, whether it's shopping for wood crafts in Gatlinburg or riding the wooden rollercoaster at Dollywood. On the other side of Knoxville, historic Clinton is one of the largest antiquing destinations in the Southeast. Learn about the history of the atomic bomb with a visit to the American Museum of Science & Energy in the Secret City of Oak Ridge.