Carolina Music Festivals is a comprehensive calendar and guide to multi-act, daylong or multiple-day music shows in North Carolina.
| John and Natalie Maness carry on the tradition of his late father, John D. Maness, founder of the Bass Mountain Boys and proprietor for more than 30 years of the Bass Mountain Music Festival. They re-named family-oriented bluegrass show on Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends (see the September schedule) offers top names in bluegrass plus several vendors, and their full-service campground has a fishing pond and hot showers. Click on the photo for more information. |  |
Artists
Thursday: Bluegrass Brothers, Constant Change, Churchmen, Eddie Gill & The Grass Masters, Rich N Tradition.
Friday: Tony Rice Unit, Blue Highway, Josh Williams Band, Donna Hughes Band, Snyder Family.
Saturday: Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys, James King Band, Al Batten & The Bluegrass Reunion, Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers.
Festival site: Cane Creek Campground & RV Park
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Three-day pass: $50 in advance, $75 after. Includes primitive camping. Thursday $25, Friday $30, Saturday $30 Ages 11 and younger free. |
September 2 - 5 The Getdown Music Festival and Campout - Mebane/Efland
The second annual festival has relocated to a 50-acre site and promises more than two dozen regional jam, groove, funk and reggae artists on two stages with no overlapping sets. There's also food, arts and crafts, and a disc golf course in addition to late-night jams, drum circles and bonfires.
Artists
Thursday: Dopapod, Holy Ghost Tent Revival, The Mantras, Electric Soul Pandemic, Downhome Groove, Actual Proof, The Domino Effect.
Friday: Funkuponya, Larry Keel & Natural Bridge, Yesterday's Gravy, Sci-Fi, Purple Schoolbus, Vertigo Jazz Project, Doco, Cinder Cat, Big Daddy Love, Zegg.
Saturday: Josh Phillips Folk Festival, The Mantras, Telepath, Archnemesis, Solar Lounge Dance Tent, Incognito Mosquito, Jazzchronic, Big Something, Hot Politics, The GIANT Spoon!, Folk Soul Revival, Brushfire Stankgrass, Mixed Greenz.
Sunday: Pimps of Joytime, Roots Of Creation, The Native Sway, The Old Ceremony, Wax Planet, Hammer No More The Fingers.
Festival site: Harmony Church Road
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Thursday: $15. Three-day pass: (Friday, Saturday, Sunday): $60 in advance. Saturday and Sunday: $40. Sunday: $20. Car camping: $20; RVs $30. No RV hookups. |
September 3 - 4 Smoky Mountain Folk Festival - Lake Junaluska
The festival presents traditional Southern Appalachian music and dance by regional fiddlers, banjo players, string bands, ballad singers, buck dancers and square dance teams, as well as the sounds of dulcimer, harmonica, jew's harp, bagpipes, spoons, saws and folk ensembles of all sorts.
Artists
Friday: Stoney Creek Boys, Southern Mountain Smoke, New Southern Ramblers, Mike Pilgrim, Hill Country, Dixie Darlin’s, Spirit Fiddle (Robin Warren), Phil & Gaye Johnson, Bobby Hicks & Friends, The Cockman Family, The Trantham Family, Pauls Creek, Trevor & Travis Stuart, Hominy Valley Boys, Mike Lowe, and Roger Howell & Kathryn Parham.
Saturday: Whitewater Bluegrass Co., Mike Lowe, Mike Pilgrim, Southern Mountain Fire, Smooth, Buddy Davis & Friends, Honey Holler, Appalachian Mountaineers, Flora MacDonald Gammon, Hazel Creek, Karen Barns & David McGill, White Water Bluegrass, The Cockman Family, Phil & Anne Case, The Reel Band, Don Pedi, The Trantham Family, The Nick Pickers and Rob & Anne Lough.
Festival site: Stuart Auditorium, Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center
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6:30 p.m. to midnight.
Festival performers play loose jams in tents next to Stuart Auditorium between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. Single-day pass: $10 in advance, $12 at door. Lake Junaluska offers special lodging packages in the Terrace Hotel, which is adjacent to Stuart Auditorium. |
September 4 Daniel Boone Days Music & Culture Festival - Boone
The 2010 festival has been canceled. Organizers hope to revive it in 2011.
The salute to Daniel Boone and the pioneering spirit was founded in 2008, and presents local and national touring bands, a fiddlers' competition, living history encampments on Saturday of Labor Day Weekend, as part of a larger festival that includes Fess Parker wine dinners, Daniel Boone lookalike contests, an educational symposium, a World Record attempt, children's activities and other fun and games.
Artists
TBA (2009 lineup was Donna the Buffalo, Larry Keel & Natural Bridge, Upright & Breathin', The Forget Me Nots).
Festival site: Horn in the West
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1 to 11 p.m. Saturday.
$16 in advance, $20 at gate. |
September 4 - 6 Historic Happy Valley Old-Time Fiddlers' Convention - Lenoir
At the resting place of Tom Dooley's lamented victim, Laura Foster, musicians and music lovers gather to pay homage to the legends and stories of the Yadkin River Valley with a community dance, a daylong competition for old time and bluegrass bands, and a gospel concert.
Artists
Sunday: Bobby Hicks and the Kruger Brothers; Harris Brothers; Strictly Clean & Decent; Simple Faith; Robin Warren/Spirit Fiddle; Moon Mullins, Cecil Palmer,
and Roger Hicks; Laura Boosinger.
Festival site: Jones Farm
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The festival's Web site provides directions and a map to the private farm hosting the festival.
Friday: Free community dance with square dancing, contra dancing, and old-time mountain flatfoot dancing at 7 p.m. Camping: $10 per night, no hookups. |
September 5 New River Blues Festival - Jefferson
A Sunday afternoon in the mountains with acclaimed artists performing in a picturesque setting on the banks of the New River.
Artists
Drink Small, Sammy Blue, Ike & Val Woods, The King Bees Revue, Shrimp City Slim & Juke Joint Johnny, more.
Festival site: Jefferson Landing
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1 to 6 p.m.
$10 in advance, $12 at gate; younger than 13 free. Food, beer and wine will be on sale. |
September 6 Labor Day Gospel Singing Jubilee - Salemburg
An array of musicians and singers bring the priase in the tradition of Sunday morning TV's "Gospel Jubilee" and the "Gaither Homecoming."
Artists
TBA. (2009 show featured Juniper Five, Decree, The Bluegrass Sweethearts and more.)
Festival site: Laurel Lakes Family Campground & Music Park
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$15, younger than 13 free. |
September 9 - 11 Hopscotch - Raleigh
Hopscotch, put on by The Independent Weekly of Durham, in its inaugural outing presents local, national and international bands from rock, hip-hop, alt-country, heavy metal, dance, punk, classical, noise, drone, folk and more in several venues downtown.
Artists
Public Enemy, Panda Bear, Broken Social Scene, 9th Wonder & Friends, Active Child, Actual Proof, Akron/Family, All Tiny Creatures, American Aquarium, Americans in France, Balmorhea, Bear in Heaven, Best Coast, Big Remo, Birds of Avalon, Black Congo NC, Burning Star Core, Cannabis Corpse, Caitlin Cary's Small Ponds with Tres Chicas, Cults, Greg Davis, Dex Romweber Duo, Double Dagger, Double Negative, The Dynamite Brothers, EAR PWR, ExMonkeys, First Rate People, Followed by Static, Ben Frost, Future Islands, Golden Boys, The Golden Filter, Goner, Gray Young, Ryan Gustafson, Hammer No More the Fingers, Harvey Milk, Horseback, John Howie Jr. & The Rosewood Bluff, I Was Totally Destroying It, Javelin, Jeb Bishop Trio, Kill the Noise, The Kingsbury Manx, Kooley High, Kylesa, The Light Pines, Lonnie Walker, The Love Language, Lucero, Luego, Max Indian, Erin McKeown, Megafaun, Midtown Dickens, The Moaners, The Monologue Bombs, Motor Skills, Mountains, Jon Mueller, Marissa Nadler, No Age, NOMO, Ocean, Old Bricks, Plague, The Remix Project, The Rosebuds, Skyzoo, Spclgst, Spider Bags, Thee Tom Hardy, Thien, Sharon Van Etten, Veelee, Vincent Black Shadow, War on Drugs, Washed Out, Weedeater, Whatever Brains, Tyler Woods, Yip-Yip, and more. Here's the schedule.
Festival site: City Plaza and several clubs downtown.
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Three-day pass to nine clubs: $45; limited number of passes to all clubs and City Plaza $85; "very limited number" VIP wristbands $120. |
September 10 - 11 Bull Durham Blues Festival - Durham
Nationally known and local blues and R&B acts gather at the home of the Piedmont/Carolina blues style in a long-running festival presented by the St. Joseph's Historic Foundation, Inc. The main festival is Saturday - and in some years Sunday also - but the weekend opens with a Friday evening auditorium show. The festival also presents a variety of arts and craft vendors, and food and beer sales. This year, the festival has moved from a local baseball park to an indoor auditorium.
Artists
Friday: Ruthie Foster, Mel Melton & The Wicked Mojos, M.S.G. - The Acoustic Blues Trio, The Bull City Youth Blues Band.
Saturday: Buddy Guy, Bettye Lavette, The Wild Magnolias, and a local band TBA.
Festival site: Durham Performing Arts Center
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Friday's show is at 7:30 p.m. at the Hayti Heritage Center. Saturday's show at the DPAC starts at 6 p.m.
Friday: $35 in advance, $45 at door. |
September 10 - 11 Mountain Song Festival - Brevard
The Brevard Music Center adds a short Friday evening program to the festival in its fifth year to make it a two-day event. Proceeds benefit the Boys & Girls Club of Transylvania County.
Artists
Friday: Doc Watson w/ David Holt, Steep Canyon Rangers and Red Wine (from Italy).
Saturday: Jerry Douglas Band, Steep Canyon Rangers, Kruger Brothers and Darrell Scott.
Festival site: Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium, Brevard Music Center
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Starts 5 p.m. Friday, 1:15 p.m. Saturday.
Two-day pass: $70; Friday $35, Saturday $40. |
September 10 - 11 Coot Williams Road Bluegrass Festival - Cherryville
Catawba Valley Music Revival Inc. works to preserve and promote live music in the Unifour and surrounding areas of North and South Carolina by making sure it can be heard, appreciated and celebrated in a family-friendly environment.
Artists
Darin & Brooke Aldridge, Goldwing Express, Wayne Taylor & Appaloosa, Bill Yates & the Country Gentleman Tribute Band, Unspoken Tradition, Cane Creek, Deeper Shade of Blue, Carolina Foxfire, Cross Ties, Catawba Valley Music Revival Youth Band and more TBA.
Festival site: Private Farm on Coot Williams Road
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Gates open noon Friday, show starts 5 p.m.; gates open 9 a.m. Saturday, show starts noon.
Two-day pass: $30 in advance; Friday $10 in advance, $12 at gate; Saturday $20 in advance, $25 at gate. Free camping with showers available. |
September 17 - 19 Hoppin' John Fiddler's Convention - Silk Hope
Competitions award cash prizes in these categories: Old Time Fiddle, Bluegrass Fiddle, Old Time Banjo, Bluegrass Banjo, Guitar, Mandolin, Folk Song, Bass, Youth Musicianship, Dance and Youth Dance. There are also square dances, musicians' workshops, a hoppin' john cookoff, and arts and crafts, musical instrument and food vendors.
Artists
Dance bands: The Minglewood Ramblers, The Roan Mountain Hilltoppers.
Late night Saturday: Hee Haw Nightmare.
Sunday morning gospel show: Maudlin Brothers.
Festival site: Shakori Hills
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7 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. Saturday.
Friday $8, Saturday $10; competitors $18, $10 refunded. Competitions and/or dances take place on the Grove Stage and in the Dance Tent. Camping: $10 per vehicle per night or $15 per night for RVs. No hookups. Outdoor hot showers available. Camping available starting Wednesday. |
September 18 Brewgrass Festival - Asheville
The festival hosted by the Great Smokies Craft Brewers Association presents beer from about 50 local brewers and several bluegrass bands as a benefit for Big Brothers & Big Sisters of Western North Carolina.
Artists
The Infamous String Dusters, G2, Buncombe Turnpike, The Virginia Dare Devils and The Whistle Pigs.
Festival site: Martin Luther King Jr. Park
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Noon to 7 p.m.
Sold Out $30 for admission, souvenir sample glass and beer sampling; $15 admission with no beer. "This is an event for adults," the Web site says. "But if you have to bring the kids, they are welcomed for the price of a designated driver ticket ($15). Kids under 7 get in free." Anyone younger than 18 must be with a parent. |
September 18 Rock the Block - Winston-Salem
The street fair has four separate stages that present rock, Latino rock, blues, R&B, country and beach music surrounded by food and merchandise vendors, a wine tasting area featuring Yadkin Valley wineries, arts and crafts, a stunt bike show, a children's area, etc.
Artists
Spanish Rock Stage: Baco, Dorian Gris, Avion Sans Pilot.
Country Stage: The Jane Dear Girls, The Deluge, TBA.
Blues Stage: Big Ron Hunter Blues Band, Ladies Auxiliary, All Stars of Soul.
Rock Stage: Love Gun (KISS tribute), Knuckles Deep, Five Gallon Groove.
Beach Stage: The Catalinas, The Phase Band.
Community Stage: TBA with hip-hop, gospel, R&B, and comedy acts.
Festival site: Fourth Street, Downtown
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11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
This is a free event, except for the Beach Stage show in the Benton Convention Center, which is $10. but organizers ask for non-perishable food donations that will go to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina. Collection points are situated around the festival site. |
September 18 - 19 Southern Coastal Bluegrass Festival - Wilmington
In addition to bluegrass and bluegrass gospel acts, the festival promises storytelling, clogging, square dancing, arts and crafts and food vendors.
Artists
Saturday: Rhonda Vincent and the Rage, Hewlett’s Creek Boys, County Farm, Out on the Ocean (with contra dancers), Movin’ On Bluegrass.
Sunday: Live Bait, No Dollar Shoes, L Shape Lot, Ken Scoggins & Millers Creek, Molasses Creek.
Festival site: Battleship Park
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10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7:45 p.m. Sunday.
Two-day pass: $25 at gate. Most bands play early and late sets (not Rhonda Vincent). No food or drinks can be brought into festival. |
September 18 - 19 Fall Bluegrass Festival and Competition - Salemburg
The weekend includes a daily battle of the bands followed by evening concerts, plus a free pig pickin' the day before the festival for early campers.
Artists
TBA (2009 performers included Lonesome River Band, Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road, and Pine Mountain Railroad. Competing bands included Deeper Shade of Blue, Drifting River Bluegrass, Kudzu, Rye Holler Boys and seven others).
Festival site: Laurel Lakes Family Campground & Music Park
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Three-day pass: $50 in advance, $60 at gate. Thursday: $15 in advance, $20 at gate; Friday: $20 in advance, $25 at gate; Saturday $25. Younger than 17 free with paying adult. Camping: sites with hookups for fewer than three nights available on first come, first serve basis at the gate at $25 for 30-amp sites, $30 for 50-amps and $45 for full hookup (water and electricity); tents with no utilities $5 per night, RVs with no utilities $10 per night up to three nights, $5 per night for more than three nights. |
September 22 - 26 Signal Fest - Chapel Hill & Carrboro
The Southeast Electronic Music Festival aims to enhance the awareness, appreciation, and popularity of electronic music in general and to familiarize the public with regional electronic music scenes.
Artists
Wednesday: Pac Div, Kooley High, Actual Proof, King Mez, Dow Jones, DJ Ill Digitz.
Thursday: MMA DJ battle.
Friday: Lake Inferior, ArnHao, Casual Curious, The Holygrailers, The Biters, Roy Davis, Jr., Marshall Jones, DJ Feinberg.
Saturday: Le Castlevania, Tittsworth, Nick Catchdubs, Sonic Truth.
Festival site: Several downtown venues
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Show times and individual admission fees vary.
$40 gets your name on the "guest list" at all venues; some shows are free. Some venues require a minimum age of 18 or 21. |
September 23 - 25 FarmPark Bluegrass Festival - Denton
The home of Doyle Lawson's spring festival (see May schedule) presents a fall weekend of top-flite bluegrass.
Artists
None of the Above, Summertown Road, The Grascals, Bill Emerson & The Sweet Dixie Band, Carrie Hasler & Hard Rain, Constant Change, Hagar's Mountain Boys, The Jeanette Williams Band, Larry Cordle & Lonesome Standard Time, Big Country Bluegrass, Second Chance Bluegrass, Sweet Potato Pie, Buck & Company, Bobby Osborne & the Rocky Top Express, Ralph Stanley II.
Festival site: Denton Farm Park
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Noon to 11 p.m. daily with dinner break from 5 to 6 p.m.; 9 a.m. church service Sunday.
Three-day pass: $65 in advance, $75 at gate. Camping: $20 with hookups, $10 no hookup; primitive camping free with two-day tickets; before festival dates RVs $10 per night with hookups, $5 without. |
September 24 - 25 Charlotte Sunset Jazz Festival - Charlotte
The festival has featured smooth jazz acts from across the country while also showcasing local artists. The festival presents an indoor concert Friday night and a free outdoor show Saturday.
Artists
Friday: Esperanza Spalding, others TBA.
Saturday: TBA.
Festival site: Marshall Park
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Friday's show is at Knight Theater at 8:30 p.m.; tickets are $29.50 - $64.50; tickets at the $64.50 level include a reception beginning at 7 p.m. |
September 24 - 25 The Tater Family Reunion Music Festival - Forest City
Luke Edwards, late of Tater and now leading The Tater Family Travelling Circus, re-imagines Taterfest with the new band's inaugural festival.
Artists
WSNB, South 85, The Tater Family Travelling Circus, John Howie Jr. & The Sweethearts, Cattletruck, Down To Zero, The Soulfeathers, Menace To Sobriety, M4 Messenger, Bill Noonan & The Barbwires.
Festival site: Coppermine Farms Event Park
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Two-day pass: $25 through August 21; $35 at gate, includes tent camping. |
September 24 - 26 Carolina In The Fall Festival - North Wilkesboro
The 8th annual Carolina in the Fall Festival set for 2010 has been canceled because of problems with the Kruger Brothers' schedule. Organizers hope to be back in 2011.
With the Kruger Brothers playing host, the festival is meant to be more of a clebration than a stage show, resulting in a loose, jam-oriented musical gathering, with a gospel set Sunday morning. The weekend also presents the North Carolina Banjo Championship, musicians' workshops and children's activities.
Artists
TBA (2009 players included the Kruger Brothers, Maynard Holbrook, Lody van Vlodrop, Andy Owens, Si Kahn, Laura Boosinger, BackPorch Bluegrass, Spirit Fiddle, The Johnson Family and The Snyder Family).
Festival site: Shepherd Farm
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6 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday; banjo championship starts 10 a.m. Saturday.
Friday: $15 in advance, $20 at gate. |
September 24 - 26 Dream Acres Music Festival - Pleasant Hill
The festival presents an eclectic range of music along with a songwriters' contest, a pig cookoff, arts and crafts, and food vendors.
Artists
The Willie Peebles Band (hosts), Cora Rose Perry, Carolina Still, Shery Warner and The Homewreckers, Jon Eric, Discordian Society, The Darns, Koostic Thang, Tony Dickens.
Festival site: Big Johns Store Road (private farm)
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Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon.
Songwriters' contest is Saturday morning; Sunday is open mike, with some performers from Friday and Saturday joining in.
Three-day pass: $50 includes camping with no hookups. Younger than 18 must be accompanied by an adult. |
September 24 - 26 Flat Rock Music Festival - Hendersonville
A weekend of performances, a songwriters' contest and musicians' workshops on three stages is set amid summer camp activities, including boating and swimming on the lake, a dining facility, cabins to rent and nature trails for walking. The music festival also hosts a variety of children's activities
Artists
TBA (2009 lineup included Jim Lauderdale, Belleville Outfit, Lake Street Dive, Now You See Them, Pale Young Gentlemen, The Claire Lynch Band, Hobex, Carrie Rodriguez w/her band, Sam Quinn and Japan Ten, Danielle Howle, Dirty Rug Band, Thunderdrums, Drive South, Melanie MacNeil and Asheville Hoops, and several others).
Festival site: Camp Ton-A-Wandah
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4 p.m. to after midnight Friday, 10 a.m. to after 2 a.m. Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to after 5:30 p.m. Sunday.
Three-day pass (includes camping): $75, $37.50 ages 11 to 17 until June 1; $85, $42.50 ages 11 to 17 until September 1, $100, $50 ages 11 to 17 after.
Cabins: Lakeside $525, Main Street $475, Hillside/Hilltop $425, Crow's Nest $350. |
September 26 Carrboro Music Festival - Carrboro
The Carrboro festival presents more than 100 local and regional acts in all sorts of genres at about two dozen indoor and outdoor venues all day and into the night - for free. There are also artists' booths, a raffle, food vendors, and other street-fair like activities.
Artists
TBA, but there are simply too many to list.
Artists interested in playing the festival can find an application on the Web site May 1 to July 20.
Festival site: Downtown Carrboro
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Times vary at stage and venues but outdoor stages generally start at 1 or 3 p.m. and run to 7 p.m.; indoor venues, especially bars/nightclubs go into the evening.
A shuttle bus runs from remote parking to downtown between 1 and 6 p.m. |
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