Folk Heritage Committee Presents the Mountain Dance & Folk Festival
By Teryn Worsham
From Thursday to Saturday, August 4–6, The Folk Heritage Committee will present the 89th annual Mountain Dance & Folk Festival, our nation’s oldest continuously running folk festival, at Diana Wortham Theatre in downtown Asheville. The high-spirited festival begins with introductions at 6:50 p.m., and shows at 7 p.m.
Enjoy performances by musicians and dancers, including bluegrass and mountain string bands, ballad singers, big circle mountain dancers, and cloggers. There’s a different show each night with nightly performances by the festival’s house band, The Stoney Creek Boys.
“I first performed in the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival more than 35 years ago,” says performer and the event’s emcee Carol Rifkin. “As a young musician, singer, and dancer, performing on stage was a chance to walk in the footsteps of a great tradition and be part of it. All these years later, I still look forward to participating in the festival every year with the same excitement and reverence.”
Nicknamed Minstrel of the Appalachians, Bascom Lamar Lunsford founded the festival in 1928 to share Southern Appalachian music and dance traditions. Today, the Folk Heritage Committee preserves and perpetuates the southern Appalachian heritage of music and dance for entertainment and education. Since its inception, the Mountain Dance & Folk Festival has served a crucial role in raising awareness and understanding of the vitality and importance of the region’s culture.
Diana Wortham Theatre is located at 2 South Pack Square in downtown Asheville. Tickets for adults are $22, $12 for children (12 and under), and $17 for groups of ten or more. Weekend packages for all three nights are available for adults ($55.50) and children ($24). To purchase tickets, call the theatre at 828.257.4530 or visit dwtheatre.com. For more information on the festival and to view a full line-up, visit folkheritage.org.
