Community Pop-up: Musical Petting Zoo at Tennessee Craft Fair

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is bringing its Musical Instrument Petting Zoo to Centennial Park on Saturday, October 10, as part of the 48th Annual Fall Tennessee Craft Fair. It's a community pop-up, which means it's a standalone setup you can walk right up to without needing a ticket for anything else. The whole thing is open to all ages, so it works as much for a kid's first time holding an instrument as it does for an adult who's always wondered what a banjo actually feels like.

The setup is exactly what the name suggests: a collection of instruments you can actually pick up and try. You'll find the fiddle, the banjo, and the ukulele—some familiar, some maybe new to you—and there are instructors on hand the whole time to help you get your bearings. If you've never held one of these before, they'll show you how to hold it and how to get a sound out of it, so you don't have to worry about knowing a thing before you show up.

Because it's part of the Tennessee Craft Fair, it's one thing you can do while you're already out at the park. The fair itself is the 48th annual fall edition, and the petting zoo is part of the Museum's Discover Series, which takes these kinds of hands-on experiences out of the building and into the community. The session runs for eight hours across the day, so you can drop in whenever it fits your schedule rather than having to time it perfectly.

It's free to the public and walk-up, and you don't need museum admission to take part. You'll find it at the Tennessee Craft Fair at Centennial Park, 2500 West End Ave, Nashville, TN 37203, on Saturday, October 10, from 10 AM to 6 PM.