The Mountain Dance and Folk Festival is the country’s longest running folk festival.
Now in its 88th year of highlighting mountain culture, the festival returns this summer for three full evenings, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, August 6, 7 and 8, 2015, at the Diana Wortham Theatre in downtown Asheville.
With introductions beginning at 6:50 p.m. and the show beginning at 7 p.m. nightly, the festival formally showcases an amazing repertoire of mountain performers – old-timers as well as the newest generation of bluegrass and mountain string bands, ballad singers, big circle mountain dancers and cloggers – who share music and dance that echo centuries of Scottish, English, Irish, Cherokee and African heritage.
The festival begins Thursday, August 6 with Hometown Appreciation Night. In keeping with the grassroots flavor of the festival, local families and individuals are encouraged to attend to help kick off the first night of the festival.
Audiences at each of the three performances will see an extensive line-up of the cream-of-the-crop musicians, ballad singers and dancers from the region; each evening features at least four dance teams from the very young to the young at heart.
The popular and long-standing house band, the Stoney Creek Boys, returns to perform each evening. And each night of the festival features both well-known musicians and new talent alike, representative of the Southern Appalachian Mountains and its continuing traditions.
The Mountain Dance and Folk Festival is presented by Asheville’s Folk Heritage Committee which also produces its sister event, the 49th Annual Shindig on the Green, a free gathering held each year at Pack Square Park on the Bascom Lamar Lunsford stage, with a stage show and informal jam sessions on Saturday evenings throughout the summer.
Ticket sales for the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival are a key element in supporting the free Shindig on the Green events each summer.
If You Go: The Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, Diana Wortham Theatre August 6, 7 and 8, 2015. Tickets: Adults $22 or $54 for 3-night package; Children 12 and under $12 or $24 for 3-night package; Groups of 10 or more $17 per person. Tickets available through Diana Wortham Theatre at (828) 257-4530 or www.dwtheatre.com/mountain-dance-and-folk-festival-2015.
