Knoxville Adds Walking Tour To World’s Fair Site

Fresh off a 40th anniversary celebration for the 1982 World’s Fair, there is now a visually-aided walking tour of the downtown World’s Fair Site.

The City of Knoxville and the Knoxville History Project has installed eight markers throughout the park to provide locals and visitors information about the historic event. The markers showcase a few of the many stories of places and events that took place throughout the footprint of the Fair from the Foundry to Second Creek Greenway. The markers are not in numerical order but do tell an encompassing story of the Fair. Art and images on the markers are original from 1982.

Marker placement references those places and events, including: the Sunsphere, the Court of Flags, the Foundry, the International Pavilions (by the Knoxville Museum of Art), the Candy Factory Building, the Tennessee Amphitheater, the China Pavilion (on Second Creek Greenway), and the US Pavilion (on the pedestrian bridge between the Knoxville Convention Center and the Second Creek Greenway).

@pubclub.com World’s Fair 40th anniversary in 2022. #worldsfair #worldsfairpark #knoxville #tennessee @VisitKnoxville #pubclub #travel ♬ Stylish Elegance – Headline Music

“These markers are such an incredible gift to the city,” said City of Knoxville Mayor Kincannon. “We look forward to our community enjoying their memories of the 1982 World’s Fair and welcoming all to experience the beauty and history of World’s Fair Park for years to come.”

“These markers have been in the works for several months and getting them installed as we close out the wonderful 40^th Anniversary Celebration in October is very fitting,” said Kim Bumpas, President of Visit Knoxville. “We appreciate our local partners at Printedge, the Public Building Authority, and the Knoxville History Project for bringing this vision to life.”

“It was a pleasure to work with Visit Knoxville on interpreting World’s Fair Park in a way that will help both local folks and visitors understand what happened there in 1982,” said Jack Neely, Executive Director of the Knoxville History Project. “It was a fun opportunity to remember the Fair, and it was also personally enlightening to do fresh research into this major event. I learned much more about how the World’s Fair reflected and maybe even affected the world at large.”

The self-guided tour of the markers has been added to the Tours page on visitknoxville.com, and information about the 1982 World’s Fair can be found at worldsfairknoxville.com.