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Lunsford Festival Announces Performer Lineup for 2023

Mars Hill University Hosts Second-Longest-Running Folk Festival in WNC

Mars Hill, NC (08/29/2023) — The Bascom Lamar Lunsford Mountain Music Festival returns to the Mars Hill University campus on Saturday, September 23, 2023, from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. The Lunsford Festival is Western North Carolina's second-longest-running folk festival. It takes place at the same time the Madison Heritage Arts Festival is happening in adjacent downtown Mars Hill. Admission to both festivals is free. Limited parking is available on the university campus, so a shuttle service will run from 8 a.m.-5:30 p.m. from the Ingles supermarket parking lot on N.C. 213 (Cascade Street).

Musical performances will take place on the Lunsford Commons, traditionally known as the Upper Quad of the campus, adjacent to College Street. A highlight of the day is the 11:15 a.m. presentation of the 2023 Bascom Lamar Lunsford Awards, which will be given to radio personality and longtime Lunsford Festival emcee John Roten and posthumously to David W. Robinson, a Madison County educator who spent a lifetime playing and singing traditional music. Robinson's son, Alex Robinson, and son-in-law Sammy Adams will join surviving members of the band Southern Heritage to honor his memory. The Bascom Lamar Lunsford Award has been given out since 1980 to individuals who have made significant contributions to the folk, musical, and/or dance traditions of the Southern Appalachian mountain region.

This year's lineup of performers includes:

  • Bailey Mountain Cloggers
  • Sara Nell Chase
  • Bayla Davis and Cary Fridley
  • Josh Goforth
  • Roger Howell
  • Brandon Johnson
  • Emolyn Liden and Friends
  • Lonesome Mountain Ears
  • Old Time Ramblers
  • Nobody's Darling String Band
  • Don Pedi
  • Branson Raines
  • Carol Rifkin and John Mitchell
  • John Roten
  • Sourwood Ridge
  • Rodney Sutton
  • Southern Heritage
  • White Rock Revival
  • Nicholas Edward Williams

The Lunsford Festival features a ballad swap at which keepers of the ballad tradition share traditional ballads. Bascom Lamar Lunsford was an avid collector of ballads and many of his ballad transcriptions can be found in MHU's Southern Appalachian Archives. This year's ballad swap will take place in Owen Theatre from 1:30-3:30 p.m.

Bascom Lamar Lunsford dedicated his life to traveling the Appalachian Mountains to find, memorize, and record the songs and dances so intimately woven into mountain culture. He started the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival in Asheville in 1928, and from there was enlisted to help start the National Folk Festival. He became instrumental in the creation of multiple festivals throughout the United States, but it wasn't until Mars Hill pharmacist Ed Howard formulated a plan to name a festival in honor of Lunsford that he ever let one of his festivals carry his name. It was only with persistence and flexibility that Howard was able to convince Lunsford to allow the festival in Lunsford's hometown of Mars Hill to be named for him, and then only with the clear understanding the festival would be dedicated to mountain music and dance.

For updates and information, visit the festival website at http://www.LunsfordFestival.com or contact festival director Leila Weinstein at (828) 689-1115 or lweinstein@mhu.edu. For information about the Madison Heritage Arts Festival, visit https://marshillheritagefestival.wordpress.com.

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Mars Hill University's dance team, the Bailey Mountain Cloggers, performs during the 2022 Bascom Lamar Lunsford Mountain Music Festival.

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