CityView Magazine

travel Plan your Catching Fire day tour or weekend experience T By Kelly Twedell hanksgiving means food, family and movies. Each year over the holiday weekend Photos courtesy of Hunger Games Unofficial Fan Tours a blockbuster movie is released. This year will be no different. On November 22, 2013 the science fiction adventure film featuring the second installment of The Hunger Games trilogy will be released. Catching Fire is the sequel to The Hunger Games, an epic novel series by Suzanne Collins that has captured the attention of young adults and parents alike. The wild success of the initial movie had fans flocking to Western North Carolina to visit the location where The Hunger Games was filmed. Appalachia in all her glory is set in the sprawling landscape of the DuPont State Forest, where Katniss rock-hopped along the Little River under the awning of trees. 2011 was a grand year for the North Carolina Film Office where a record $220 million was spent by film production across the state, $60 million of that chunk was spent by cast and crew alone in our great state, according to the director of the North Carolina Film Office, Aaron Syrett. Forest supervisors were on the set during filming to observe scenes with falling trees and a mock forest fire. Respecting the areas natural habitat, the crew helped to rebuild trails and left the forest better than they found it. Both tourism and an interest in archery increased in North Carolina in 2012. Hunger Games fan tours became a bustling business where fans could plan an adventure weekend or day trip to Hildebrand, located between Asheville and Hickory where one could pick up some of the skills needed to survive in District 12. Looking to channel your inner Katniss or Peeta? Book an experience weekend that includes everything from meals inspired by the film to fire-starting, slingshot and archery to the culminating point which is the participants own version of "the Games." For points of course, not blood! For more information on day tours that run on the weekends through October 20, for $59, see hungergamesfantours.com. Private tours can also be booked for groups of six or more. Tammy Hopkins, one of the fan tours creators, also acts as a tour guide and teaches archery. She said that last year the tour was completely sold out, and this year they ran the tour in groups of 20. CityViewNC.com | 31

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