The Chimneyville Crafts Festival, sponsored by the Craftsmen’s Guild of Mississippi is selected as Southeast Tourism Society’s Top 20 Event (Atlanta, Georgia). The Southeast Tourism Society has selected the The Chimneyville Crafts Festival as one of the top twenty events occurring in the region during December 2006.

This year’s Chimneyville Crafts Festival will take place Saturday and Sunday, December 2 and 3, 2006, from 10 a.m to 6 p.m., Saturday and Noon to 5pm, Sunday, at the Mississippi Trade Mart, located on the State Fairgrounds in Jackson.

This year is the thirtieth anniversary of the Chimneyville Festival and will include special demonstrations by Master Craftsmen. A Preview Party will be held on Friday night, December 1, from 7p.m. to 10 p.m. Admission to the Festival is $8 per day or $10 for two days, children under 12 years of age will be admitted free. For more details or Preview Party Tickets, call 601-981-0019 or visit www.mscraftsmensguild.org

“The Top 20 Events represents the best festivals the southeast has to offer. Events that win this honor benefit from the widespread exposure and prestige that being named a Top 20 Events affords,” says Laura Guptill, STS Coordinator of the Top 20 Events Program.

Since 1985, the Southeast Tourism Society has published the Top 20 Events for each month of the year. Each month, the Society selects 20 outstanding events and promotes them via more than 300 newspapers, magazines, and broadcast stations – as well as in 125 AAA publications. As a result, honored events benefit from free, widespread publicity they might not otherwise receive. STS Top 20 Events are also published on the Southeast Tourism Society web site at www.EscapetotheSoutheast.com.

To be nominated for a Top 20 Event, an event must be in at least its third year and must have a minimum attendance of 1,000 people.

Founded in 1983, and headquartered in Atlanta, the Southeast Tourism Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting tourism in 11 southeastern states from West Virginia to Louisiana. The membership includes state travel offices, attractions, hotels, motels, resorts, convention and visitors bureaus, airlines, bus companies, car rental agencies, newspapers, magazines and other travel related organizations.