Chatham County
Due South of Carrboro/Chapel Hill, down the US 15-501 corridor, is Chatham County, the nest for Pittsboro, Bynum, Moncure, Silk Hope and Siler City. About 65,000 folks populate this largely rural land which spans abut 700 square miles. The vast Jordan Lake is anchored on its East and the Haw River slinking cross county . Chatham County is a place where organic farmers and artists live in concert, beckoning the quirky and those dripping in Southern history. For generations the county has been steeped in the rich tradition of Southern music, and is swelling into a repository for music styles ranging from rock to bluegrass with its own Tommy Edwards. Encouraged by the Chatham Arts Council, the county has become an arts destination with its annual carnival-of-folk-art-fun ClydeFest in the colorful town of Bynum butting the Haw River. Many on the festival circuit flock to the biannual Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance which spans a bucolic field in Pittsboro. The county’s rural environment has wooed its blossoming culinary scene with Pittsboro’s Oak Leaf polished farm-to-table dining, Small B&B and Cafe folksy twist, and the Phoenix Bakery's cravings , as well as Moncure’s UnWINEd flights. Drive from Chapel Hill just past the county line, to visit Chatham County’s idyllic Fearrington Village with its fine seasonal cuisine and independent McIntyre’s Bookstore which regularly hosts national authors at its flagship barn.
As a collective footprint, Carrboro/Chapel Hill/Chatham Co. offer a plentitude of dive bars and hole-in-the-walls, a spectrum of amazing eats (internationally lauded chefs), food-coops (Weaver Street Market, Chatham Marketplace Coop), live music almost any day of the week, and art to satiate both the nascent and sophisticated palettes.