Carolina Music Festivals is a comprehensive calendar and guide to multi-act, daylong or multiple-day music festivals in North Carolina.
Dates and other details may be estimated based on last year's festival until confirmed by festival organizers.
February 6 - 8 North Carolina Jazz Festival - Wilmington
The N.C. Jazz Festival provides an intimate setting and the opportunity to meet and chat with local and regional jazz artists who play in various combinations together. Concerts by touring bands Thursday night are followed by multiple sets with six- or seven-musician combos on Friday and Saturday nights, and a Saturday brunch with a concert and an open jam. The festival is in its 45th year in 2025.
Artists
Thursday: Gregg Gelb, Carlos Garcia Trio.
Friday and Saturday: Seven sets of six or seven players with different leaders, including: Bill Easley, Bruce Harris, Chuck Redd, Chris Gelb, Emily Asher, Herman Burney, Jen Hodge, Gregg Gelb, Jonathan Russell, Kevin Bales, Lucy Yeghiazaryan, Nate Najar, Rossano Sportiello, Charlie Halloran. A composition by artist Jay DeChesere is to be featured.
Festival site: Hotel Ballast
7:30 p.m. to midnight each evening.
Three-night pass (reserved seats, musical brunch with all-star musicians, name in program): $217.35.
Friday and Saturday (reserved seats, musical brunch with all-star musicians, name in program): $174.53.
Daily: $55, Students $12, active duty military $21.
The Hotel Ballast offers a special nightly rate for the festival.
February 7 - 8 Appalachian State Old-Time Fiddlers Convention - Boone
The event features competitions, a luthiers gathering, workshops and presentations. Competitions are typically for adults and youths in guitar, mandolin, banjo, fiddle, string band, dance. The festival, which previously inlcuded a concert and square dance, is student operated and funded. It is in its 17th year in 2025.
Artists
Competitors TBA.
Festival site: ASU Campus
10 a.m. to 5:15 p.m.
Free admission (registration fee for competitors).
February 14 - 16 Bluegrass First Class - Asheville
The hotel-based festival typically features a main stage, a showcase stage in the hotel lobby, a free gospel show on Sunday morning, rooms set aside for picking and jamming, and a kids' bluegrass workshop and performance for ages 6 and up. Main stage acts generally play afternoon and evening sets. A "quiet wing" of rooms on one floor of the host hotel is set aside for those who need some time in a no-jamming zone. Bluegrass First Class is in its 30th year in 2025.
Artists
Friday: Rhonda Vincent and the Rage, Southern Legacy, Russell Moore and IIIrd Tyme Out, Lonesome River Band, Cotton Pickin Kids.
Saturday: Authentic Unlimited, The Malpass Brothers, Darin and Brooke Aldridge, The Grascals, Olivia Jo.
Sunday: One Achord.
Festival site: Crowne Plaza Resort
Noon to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Sunday.
Two-day pass: $208 reserved seats, $128 general admission.
Friday and Saturday (each): $64 general admission.
Sunday: Free.
February 20 - March 9 North Carolina HIP Music Festival - Triangle
Mallarmé Music, a Triangle chamber music group, presents a series of "historically informed performances" over the course of 16 shows featuring artists performing music from 1500 to the present on period instruments at venues throughout the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area.
Artists
Angels in the Architecture, Asheville Baroque, Baroque and Beyond, Duo Cantabile, Forgotten Clefs, Gut Instinct Chamber Music Project, Mallarmé Music, North Carolina Baroque Orchestra, North Carolina Master Chorale and Youth Choir, Raleigh Camerata, Sasa (formerly El Fuego), UNC Baroque Ensemble.
Festival site: Multiple venues in Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Hillsborough
Times vary, afternoon and evening shows
HIPster all-show pass: $130. Individual shows from $10 to $30, some free.
February 27 - March 1 Carolina Jazz Festival - Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill festival includes public performances by touring bands, artists in residence, faculty and students in addition to workshops and master classes for students. The festival also hosts the North Carolina Regional Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Festival in conjunction with Jazz at Lincoln Center (click through above for details for high school musicians, band directors, etc.). The festival is in its 48th year in 2025.
Artists
Thursday: UNC Faculty Jazz with guest pianist Keith Brown.
Friday: The Dominican Jazz Project, UNC Jazz Combos with guest pianist Keith Brown.
Saturday: UNC Jazz Band, with Keith Brown, Sandy Gabriel, Ramon Vazquez, Guy Frometa, David Almengod; Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Festival with Keith Brown.
Festival site: UNC-Chapel Hill (map); Thursday at Sharp 9 Gallery in Durham
Thursday: 7 p.m.
Friday: UNC Jazz Combos 4 p.m., Dominican Jazz Project 7 p.m.
Saturday: Essentially Ellington 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; UNC Jazz Band 4:15 p.m.
Free and open to the public
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