21st annual Bluff Mountain Festival scheduled for June 11

PRESS RELEASE FROM MADISON COUNTY ARTS COUNCIL:

Foot-tapping bluegrass and old-time music, a silent auction of beautiful regional items, an artists’ market, good food, a beautiful setting, and much more make the Madison County Arts Council’s Bluff Mountain Festival a special community event.  This year’s annual festival will be held June 11, 2016 from 10 a.m. through 6 p.m. on the grounds of the Hot Springs Resort and Spa in Hot Springs, N.C. Bring your blankets and lawn chairs for seating in front of the stage and in the shade of elegant magnolias.

This year will bring the 21st edition of the Bluff Mountain Festival! Started to unify the community in support of the efforts to preserve Bluff Mountain, this year’s festival celebrates that milestone effort and as well as a renewed vision of community involvement and public resolve. The festival is a fundraiser for the Madison County Arts Council featuring regional and national performers who donate their time. The festival seeks to showcase local talent as well as performers visiting the area. This year’s lineup is complete with artists who have helped the festival flourish over the past two decades. Performers include NEA Heritage Award winner Sheila Kay Adams along with folklorist/musician Paul Brown, ballad singer Betty Smith, master fiddler Roger Howell, The Green Grass Cloggers, ballad singer and songwriter Joe Penland, The Stoney Creek Boys, the Midnight Plowboys, and the popular Madison County Ballad Singers, who showcase the living history of our place and our songs. This year’s festival will recognize and celebrate the 100th anniversary of Cecil Sharp’s songcatching in the Southern Appalachian Mountains by showcasing the ballad singing tradition in Madison County. Sharp found “singing as natural as talking” amongst the people in the laurel country and we’ve got the singers to prove it!

The festival is delighted this year to feature Sheila Kay Adams along with Paul Brown. “We are always delighted to have Sheila Kay at the Bluff Festival,” remarked Laura Boosinger, Executive Director of the Madison County Arts Council. “This year’s performance will be extra special. Paul Brown, host of Across the Blue Ridge, a radio program focusing on traditional music in our region and heard on-line at http://www.wfdd.org/show/across-blue-ridge, will interview Sheila Kay about her ballad singing and her family’s influence on her development as a singer and a performer. Paul and Sheila “grew up together” in the music community in the 1970’s. They would often meet at the home of old-timer fiddler, Tommy Jarrell, to learn tunes and eat biscuits and gravy! Tommy was known for taking in the young folks, introducing them to the old-time music, and sharing his stories of growing up in Surry County. We are fortunate to have this performance recorded and shared on the Centennial of Cecil Sharp coming to our region. We excited to be able to broadcast the session locally on our radio station wART, 95.5 FM.”

Artist vendor booths are a newer addition to the Bluff Mountain Festival. Each year our artist market features a wide variety of art and craft and provides a one-of-a-kind shopping opportunity.  In keeping with the fundraising theme, most artists will be donating a piece of their work and a portion of their sales to the popular silent auction. Food vendors from local non-profits will sell a selection of home cooked delights, as part of the longtime mission of the festival, to be a both catalyst and meeting point for community togetherness, friendship, and support.

“This is a great event,” remarked Boosinger.  “For 21 years now folks have looked forward to a family-friendly day of good music and fellowship. We are honored to serve the residents and non-profits of Madison County with the production of this well-loved event.”  Last year over 70 volunteers, nearly 50 performers, and more than 100 artists, craftspeople, and local businesses made the festival possible.  Behind the scenes volunteers are already hard at work to make the 21st Annual Bluff Mountain Festival a great celebration.