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CANCELLED: 2024 Lunsford Festival (Oct. 4+5)
We were extremely fortunate here in Mars Hill during the recent storm: Our students are safe and well-fed, we have power, water, and Internet, and our town infrastructure is all in place. However, our wider region and community are facing an array of huge challenges right now. For that reason, we feel that it is necessary to cancel this year’s Lunsford Festival. Now is the time for us to check on our neighbors, help our communities, keep the roadways clear, and repair. Sending good thoughts out to everyone.
About the Festival
The Lunsford Festival is an all-day festival celebrating regional music and dance traditions. The event is the second longest-running folk festival in Western North Carolina and was named in honor of Bascom Lamar Lunsford, who was a musician and folklorist who dedicated his life to collecting and promoting the music of the Southern Appalachians.
The festival brings out the region’s finest musicians, ballad singers, and dancers and it happens on the same day as the Madison Heritage Arts Festival, so Mars Hill is abuzz.
Join us in honoring the rich cultural traditions of the Southern Appalachians!
This year, we’ll be kicking off the festival on campus in Moore Auditorium on Friday evening with the annual Ballad Swap. Then, on Saturday, due to construction on campus, we’ll hold our outdoor festival on the soccer fields between the elementary school and the Dr W Otis Duck Greenway. Please note that there is no parking at the all-day festival. Scroll to the bottom of this page for transportation information. For more information, please contact Leila Weinstein at (828) 689-1115 or lweinstein@mhu.edu.
The Ramsey Center is a proud site on the Blue Ridge Music Trails of North Carolina.
Thank you to our generous 2024 Festival Sponsors and Partners
While you’re waiting for 2024 to roll around, please enjoy the 2020 virtual festival:
Trying out a potter’s wheel
MHU’s Bailey Mountain Cloggers
Madison County Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM) students playing “backstage”
Angel Ridge Farm demonstrates a spinning wheel
Making apple butter
Twirling at the festival
Parking
There is NO PARKING at the venue this year. You may either park on campus and walk the Greenway to the soccer fields OR use the festival shuttle, servicing both the Lunsford Festival and the Madison Heritage Arts Festival. The shuttle will run from 8 am until 5.30 pm between the Ingles on Hwy 213 (where you can park your car) and the festival location.