The Midnight Plowboys

Celebrating Roots Music of the Southern Appalachians... and Beyond!

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Mountain Dance and Folk Festival

  • Mission Health/A-B Tech Conference Center 340 Victoria Road Asheville, NC, 28801 United States (map)

The 91st annual Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, a ticketed event at Mission Health/A-B Tech Conference Center, Victoria Road in Asheville, takes place nightly Thursday through Saturday, August 2, 3 & 4.  The Midnight Plowboys will be performing on Friday the 3rd.

Bascom Lamar Lunsford founded the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival as a means for people to share and understand the beauty and dignity of the Southern Appalachian music and dance traditions that have been handed down through generations in western North Carolina.  He saw the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival grow to be the oldest gathering of its kind in the nation and it continues in this way, a platform for the talented of the high country lying between the Great Smoky and the Blue Ridge Mountains. 

Since 1928, the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival has served a crucial role in raising awareness and understanding of the vitality and importance of Southern Appalachian culture throughout the region, nation and world. Bascom Lunsford’s mission was to present the finest of the Appalachian ballad singers, string bands and square dance teams for education and entertainment. The songs and dances shared at this event echo centuries of Scottish, English, Irish, Cherokee and African heritage found in the valleys and coves between the Great Smokies and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Lunsford’s was the first dubbed a folk festival, and he later consulted with many communities across the country interested in organizing similar festivals.

 

Earlier Event: July 16
Mountain Square Dance
Later Event: October 6
Bascom Lamar Lunsford Festival