Mason, Tennessee was once known for the Lower End, a collection of juke joints on Front Street, colloquially known as “cafés,” but these days most of the cafés are now vacant lots, and the blues musicians and jukeboxes are a distant memory. However, each fall, people return to the Lower End for the annual Mason Fall Festival, a day of vendors, children’s activities, food, a car show and live music.
The 2024 festival featured a talk by Mason historian John Marshall, and performances by the band CJ Soul and gospel quartet The Holy Nightingales. The weather was perfect for the several hundred people who turned out, and there were no incidents of any kind to mar the day.