If you go Bamboo Farm and Coastal Gardens Fall Festival 2 Canebrake Road and US 17 South (912) 921-5460 Oct. 20, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Admission: Free; dinner $8 each (reservation must be made and paid by Oct. 15), Okefenokee Joe Snake Show $2 each. Hay rides $1. A snack bar serving hot dogs, chips and drinks will be open from 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

The rustle of hay, the smell of pig roasting and the unnerving sound of a rattlesnake rattling.

It must be time for the annual Bamboo Farm and Coastal Gardens Fall Festival. The day full of fun will feature a plant sale, hay rides, photos, a petting zoo, gift shop, the sale of bunch greens and pumpkins and delicious roast pork dinner at the pavilion. There will be entertainment all day, as well as a lecture by Dave Linvill and Frank Linton on landscaping with bamboo. Cane grinding will be demonstrated and cane syrup and juice will be for sale.

Oh, and don't forget Okefenokee Joe and his snake shows at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Admission to the festival is free, but the snake shows require a $2 admission. Joe is a staple of the festival and a fixture among southeastern naturalists. His video field guide, "Know Your Snakes, Venomous Snakes of the Southeastern United States," is being used as a teaching tool in hundreds of schools from the elementary to the college level, throughout the world.

"Swampwise," Joe's Emmy-award winning program about the Okefenokee Swamp made in 1990, has aired hundreds of times.. "Okefenokee Joe and Friends" and "The Joy of Snakes," with footage of snakes sleeping, hunting, swimming and fleeing, are requested almost as frequently.

Okefenokee Joe's fame has grown steadily since he first took his message of conservation and environmentalism on the road in the late 1970s. Now he seems ready to spring into a spotlight of recognition few outside the pure entertainment field ever achieve. In addition to his latest CD, he has been featured on the cover of the Wall Street Journal, and was the subject of a segment of NBC's "Dateline". There is a songbook for children in the works, a live album is planned and work continues on the development of the Bear Grass Nature Center, a nature-based center designed to be used by school groups and others.

Joe, who will be 69 in November, just released a new CD, "Masters of the Sky," a 13-tune project that echoes his deep love of nature and respect for wildlife. "I'm a self-proclaimed wildlife evangelist," Joe says. He maintains a show schedule that would thwart even the best circuit rider, doing 400-500 shows a year in addition to this recording projects and ongoing development of his nature center.

When that is completed early next year, Joe hopes to host school groups in an authentic Native American roundhouse that members of the Creek tribe helped him build. Already, he performs at more than 250 schools a year.