On Monday this week, Visit Kingsport confirmed that Racks by the Tracks, the barbecue and beer festival that had anchored the city's festival calendar for 18 years, is gone for good. The statement thanked the vendors and competitors who showed up year after year and gave no reason for the cancellation. The very next day, Hull Property Group told the Kingsport Development Board that Tiebreakers, the arcade-style entertainment concept that already runs a location in Johnson City, is opening a second one inside Fort Henry Mall. It's expected to create about 100 jobs and follows the mall's IMAX theater, the only one in the region, which opened earlier this summer.
Nobody at either announcement connected the two events. Together, they mark separate changes in Kingsport's fall calendar: the end of a long-running street festival and plans for a new entertainment venue at Fort Henry Mall.
The Festival That Isn't Coming Back
Racks by the Tracks started at the actual railroad tracks on Main Street and became, over 18 years, one of those events that didn't need much explanation if you'd lived here more than a summer. Barbecue teams competed, breweries poured, bands played, and according to organizers the festival raised more than $150,000 for local nonprofits and drew tens of thousands of people over its run.
The strange part is the timing. Just six months before the cancellation, Visit Kingsport announced the festival was moving back to its original Main Street location after several years at the Kingsport Farmers Market, and shifting from its old summer slot to a new October date. As WJHL reported, Emily Thompson with Visit Kingsport said she wanted to "freshen it up" and return the event "back to our roots." That version of Racks by the Tracks was scheduled for October 10, 2026. It was canceled before that date. This week, organizers confirmed the whole thing was ending, not just pausing, with no future date planned and no public explanation for why a festival that had just been reworked for a comeback was instead being shut down entirely.
Racks by the Tracks was a free outdoor event on Main Street that drew a large cross section of Kingsport. Other fall events listed below have different formats and locations.
Fort Henry Mall's Entertainment Plans
Fort Henry Mall, like many American malls, has had more retail space than retailers willing to fill it in recent years. John Mulherin, senior vice president of government relations for Hull Property Group, described a national mismatch between mall space and interested tenants; he said his company's response is to shift toward entertainment rather than retail.
That strategy started with the region's only IMAX theater this summer and now continues with Tiebreakers, which company officials say is still in the early stages of development. As WJHL reported, Tiebreakers founder and CEO Eric Hensley described the Kingsport location as building on "the momentum IMAX has already brought to Fort Henry Mall" and said it would be bigger than the company's existing Johnson City location. Mulherin has said the partnership with the City of Kingsport was central to making the redevelopment work, and that the mall is now in preliminary talks with other businesses about joining the lineup.
The plans bring two indoor options at Fort Henry Mall: the IMAX and, once it opens, Tiebreakers. These venues differ in setting from a free outdoor festival on Main Street. Together, they represent Fort Henry Mall's move toward entertainment alongside retail.
The Same Saturday, Two Different Festivals
The overlap shows up most clearly on September 26. That Saturday, at 10 a.m., Kingsport has two separate fall folk festivals happening at the same time in different parts of town. The Folkfest Fall Shindig is set for 140 Broad Street downtown, and the Exchange Place Fall Folk Arts Festival is happening the same morning at Exchange Place's 1850s farm site. Both draw on a similar audience, and their schedules overlap for people interested in both events.
The two festivals sit alongside other events on Kingsport's fall calendar, each with its own schedule and location.
What's Actually on the Calendar This Fall
Pulling from what's confirmed and dated right now, here's what fills in around that September 26 conflict:
- Sundays through the fall: A casual run and walk group meets downtown at 10 a.m., open to any pace or distance.
- Wednesdays: Creative Night at Inspire Wine Bar downtown, 4 to 9 p.m., for anyone bringing their own craft or work in progress.
- September 13: The Pink Bride Wedding and Women's Expo takes over MeadowView Conference Resort at noon.
- September 19: The Tri-Cities Card Show, also at MeadowView, starting at 9 a.m.
- September 25 and 26: The second annual Tennessee Lit Con brings roughly 100 authors and 20 vendors to MeadowView.
- November 5: Wing Fling returns, with $20 tickets in advance through KPTWingFling.com or the Kingsport Chamber, rising to $25 the day of. A panel of first responders from Kingsport Fire, Kingsport Police, Sullivan County EMS, and the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office judges the entries, including a new "ZachBites Favorite Flavor" award this year.
- December 19: The second annual Hearth & Holiday Christmas Market lands at the Kingsport Farmers Market.
There's also a quieter thread running under all of it. The Dobyns-Bennett High School Band is marking its 100th anniversary this year, a milestone the Times-News notes has been shaped by nine different directors over the century. It's the kind of centennial that says something about how long some Kingsport institutions have actually been building loyalty in this town, which makes the sudden end of an 18-year festival land differently by comparison. Downtown Kingsport Association also keeps a Shop & Hop Passport available, encouraging people to actually walk into the antique shops, restaurants, and small storefronts that make up the downtown core, rather than just driving past them.
How Kingsport's Fall Calendar Is Changing
Kingsport's fall calendar includes the end of Racks by the Tracks, plans for Tiebreakers at Fort Henry Mall, and a range of other events. The events differ in schedule, location, and format.
Whichever version of this fall you end up building, whether that's Wing Fling in November or a Saturday morning deciding between two folk festivals, it's worth paying attention to how these local shifts play out. They tend to say something honest about where a town is headed, long before it shows up in any official report.
If you're watching Kingsport for reasons beyond the fall calendar, whether that's a move you're considering or just curiosity about how the town is changing, The Lusk Team knows this market from the inside. Let's Connect.
