The Cherokee Heritage Festival is an event that residents and area visitors look forward to each year. The popular annual festival takes place on the third Saturday every September on the grounds of the Cherokee Homestead Exhibit in Hayesville.

The festival includes a variety of Cherokee crafts and their makers who demonstrate traditional native crafts. Watch as members of the Eastern Band show off their skills in basket and finger weaving, pottery sculpting, bead working, woodcarving, flint knapping, blowgun crafting, and arrow making. Their work is on view and for sale with artists there to discuss their work. The afternoon is a celebration of dancing, storytelling, and music, as well as activities for children. Tribal members cook up authentic Cherokee cuisine, such as the ever-popular fry bread with all the fixings.