From press release:
Mars Hill – On Saturday, October 4, 2014, the town of Mars Hill, NC, will be transformed into a celebration of traditional music, dance, locally made arts and crafts, and of course delicious food. Two of the finest festivals in the Southern Appalachian region – the twenty-year-old Mars Hill Heritage Festival and the forty-seven year old Bascom Lamar Lunsford Festival – join to showcase and preserve our rich traditions. You won’t walk away without a smile and a renewed appreciation for all that this community shares. Both festivals are free.
The Heritage Festival welcomes more than 100 artisans and crafters whose booths will line College and Main Streets, offering a wide variety of handmade crafts. You may not even notice as you stroll from one festival into the other. The aroma of apple butter cooking in an iron kettle will draw you toward the adjacent quad where the Lunsford Festival’s craft demonstrations, traditional old-time and mountain music, ballad singing, and dancing compliments Main Street’s offerings with a little punch of October color under the maple trees. Local farmers will be offering jams, jellies, cheese, freshly baked cakes, and breads. Free workshops will be available for music lovers.
There will be a Festival Shuttle Bus from the parking lot at the I-26 exchange (Exit 11) to take you right to the festival. Look for the “shuttle bus” signs when you exit the highway.
For more information on the Heritage Festival visit www.marshillheritagefestival.org. For more information on the Lunsford Festival visit www.lunsfordfestival.com.
These combined festivals are probably the biggest, most attended, and most important festivals of the year in Madison County. A wonderful day of traditional music and other entertainment, food, craft vendors, and community get-together of friends and visitors alike. Not mentioned in the article is that the Lunsford Festival also continues into the evening with performances in Moore Auditorium at Mars Hill University beginning at 7:00 pm, though that’s a ticketed event – $10 per person, I believe, as that’s been the cost in past years – with performances from the most talented and well-known traditional and old-time string band musicians, bands, and dancers of this region.