While Gatlinburg is often known for being a family-friendly destination, it’s also home to a surprising number of nighttime hotspots. There are plenty of stops where you can drink and jam out to live music while enjoying delicious food. You can hit up an even livelier scene with a DJ if you feel like dancing! Sip on beer while playing bar games like darts or shooting some pool with friends before heading back to your Gatlinburg cabin and turning in for the night. From award-winning breweries to lively music and delicious eats, you are in for a good time in downtown Gatlinburg at night!
Bars & Pubs
If you’re looking for a more grownup experience at night, spend the night bar hopping or stake out your favorite watering hole along the way!
With all-you-can-eat wings all day Mondays and drink specials throughout the week, Pucker’s is a casual bar open from 11 AM to 1 AM daily with live music starting at 9 PM! Here, you can practice your pool shots or have a friendly competition playing darts while you enjoy cold, crisp sips of beer from their extensive draft selection. Pucker’s has all your bar-food favorites but with the freshest quality ingredients: burgers with 100% Black Angus beef, wings with homemade sauces, and sandwiches with freshly made buns!
You might also want to check out Loco Burro, a “Fresh Mex Cantina” with a rooftop patio, firepits, and live music almost every weekend. Try your cowboy skills out on their Bucking Burro before rewarding yourself with a delicious cold margarita with salt and lime. Get a table by the firepit to enjoy savory fajitas for a late dinner or lounge on the oversized couches around the fire while sipping on your margarita on Loco Burro’s heavenly rooftop patio.
Breweries
For those who prefer a more laid-back experience to the bar scene, Gatlinburg is now home to several breweries and distilleries. Enjoy tours and free tastings (21 and over), and then take home a bottle of local whiskey, moonshine, or wine.
Smoky Mountain Brewery offers a lodge atmosphere and an extensive menu and local brews. It’s a laid-back sports bar with live music Monday through Saturday, including some open mic nights. Find your favorite brew with a 5 oz. Beer Sampler offered with 3 to all 10 of their current brew selections! Modest prices on pints and Supermugs along with award-winning brews make for a great night at Smoky Mountain Brewery! They even offer kegs, mini kegs, and growlers you can fill up and take back to the cabin.
At the Ole Smoky Moonshine Distillery, learn about the area’s history and culture while tasting unique flavors such as Apple Pie, Blackberry, Lemon Drop, Peach, Pineapple, and Strawberry. As America’s most visited distillery, you are sure to have a good time sampling moonshine and enjoying live music calendar events! The Ole Smoky Moonshine Holler is open 7 days a week from 10 AM to 11 PM, with $5 per person samples and guided tours available (reservation required for tours).
Pick up a bottle of merlot or cabernet sauvignon at Sugarland Cellars (open until 7 PM and 8 PM Fridays and Saturdays) after samples and a tour of the winery (noon to 5 PM). Be sure to pick up your Rocky Top Wine Trail passport and visit more local wineries with more tastings!
You can spend the night checking out local bars, taste and take home some local moonshine and whiskey, find live music somewhere almost any night of the week, or dance the night away. And along with the late-night bars and clubs, Gatlinburg nightlife offers even more nighttime entertainment. Maybe you aren’t ready to go back to the cabin yet, but you have the kids or teenagers with you. You are on vacation – let the kids live a little and stay up past bedtime!
Family-Friendly Nightlife
Although the bars and some restaurants are geared towards the 21-and-over crowd, there are also plenty of things for families and kids to do at night. In fact, one of Gatlinburg’s most exciting nighttime events, the Festival of Lights, is family friendly. During Winterfest, the city turns into a winter wonderland of glittering holiday lights. Guests can take the trolley for a tour of the lights or just enjoy it as they stroll the Parkway.
Winter Magic Tunes & Tales offers free live performances along the streets of Gatlinburg, and Smoky Mountain Tunes & Tales is the summertime equivalent. Travel back to simpler times of Gatlinburg as pioneers share their stories through theatrical song and dance.
If you want to have a fun night with the kids, check out one of the many dinner shows in the area! Hatfield & McCoy Dinner Feud, Dolly Parton’s Stampede, and Smoky Mountain Adventures offer great food, laughs, and family-friendly entertainment with Smoky Mountain flair.
The Sweet Fanny Adams Theatre will transport guests back to the entertainment style of the 1890s music halls. As one of the oldest theaters in the area, kids and adults who are young at heart will love the playful and friendly style of their original shows! Who knows, you may become part of the show onstage…
For a stunning view of the city lights at night, ride to the top of the Gatlinburg Space Needle or catch glimpses of a natural “light show” of the synchronous fireflies at Elkmont just 1-2 weeks each summer. At night, these fireflies light simultaneously, creating a truly magical experience in the woods of the Smokies. Just be sure to reserve your spot on the shuttle early – passes sell out fast!
Seasonal family-friendly events at night in Gatlinburg add something special to the holidays. Head to Gatlinburg for the Fourth of July Midnight Parade or watch a fantastic fireworks display and the ball drop on New Year’s Eve.
Of course, you don’t have to plan out a night on the town when you visit Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The Parkway is so packed with restaurants, bars, and cool places to hang out, you are sure to stumble into fun adventures just strolling along the downtown area. Throughout the year, the city calendar is so packed with events, you’ll never run out of things to do – day or night. The nightlife in Gatlinburg is always exciting!
After a night on the town, you’ll want a fun and comfortable place to go back to. We have hundreds of cabins to choose from, ranging from cozy and romantic to spacious and fun. Many of our cabins offer theater rooms, game tables, big screen TVs, and outdoor hot tubs, so your nighttime fun can continue when you call it a night! Call us at 1.800.684.7865 or use our handy online search tool, Options For YOU, and let one of our reservation specialists help you choose the perfect Gatlinburg cabin!