79th Annual Mountain Dance and Folk Festival

The nation’s longest running folk festival showcases the best of the region’s bluegrass and old-time musicians, mountain dance groups, cloggers, ballad singers and storytellers.

The Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, the country’s longest running folk festival, now in its 79th year of highlighting mountain culture, announces the performance schedule for this summer’s festival. The Festival runs for three full evenings, Thursday, August 3 to Saturday, August 5 at the Diana Wortham Theatre at Pack Place in downtown Asheville.

Held nightly at 7:00 p.m. the Festival formally showcases the best of the region’s mountain musicians and dancers -- old-timers as well as the newest generation of bluegrass and mountain string bands, ballad singers, storytellers, big circle mountain dancers and cloggers. Founded by Bascom Lamar Lunsford in 1928, the Festival celebrates the early musical traditions handed down by generations and recounted at the homes of the early settlers in the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. The Festival begins Thursday, August 3 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 best musicians, ballad singers and dancers; 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 of the 2006 Festival.

2006 Mountain Dance and Folk Festival Performance Schedule:
(Note: schedule is subject to change)

• Thursday, August 3: Hosts Maggie Lauterer and Zack Allen with an introduction by the Lunsford Family and by Grey Eagle and Buck Dancers. Performers include: Little Darlins, Bobby and Blue Ridge Tradition, Donna Ray Norton, George and Brooke Buckner, Dixie Darlins, Slight Departure, Don Pedi, Greasy Beans, Maggie Lauterer and Zack Allen, Rodney Sutton, The Dowden Sisters and Troy Harrison, UNCA Smooth Dancers, Phil and Gaye Johnson, Danielle Bishop, The Cataloochee Boys, Carol Mallet Rifkin and Buddy Davis, Southern Appalachian Cloggers.

• Friday, August 4: Hosts Laura Boosinger and Flora McDonald Gammon, with an intro by the Lunsford/Herron Family and by Grey Eagle and Buck Dancers. Performers include: Mountain Valley Kids, The Yodeling Ramblers, Danny Johnson Band, Lawrence and Larry Wiseman, Mountain Valley Cloggers, Roberta Voyles and Furman Lunsford, David Brose, Bobcat Stompers, Ed Netherton, Clearwater Connection, Joe Penland, Appalachian Mountaineers, Seth Taylor, David Holt, Appalachian Attitude

Buncombe Turnpike

Some feature performers representative of the high caliber of entertainers during the three nights of the Festival include:

The UNC Asheville Smooth Dancers, performing Thursday evening, under the direction of Bruce and Carol Peterson, is a group of retirees dedicated to preserving Smooth Big Circle Dancing. Three years ago the Peterson’s, former competitive dancers themselves, began offering classes for senior citizens who were new to the Asheville area. Since then, the UNCA Smooth Dancers have performed together throughout western North Carolina at various festivals and events at local schools and at nursing homes.

Buncombe Turnpike, performing Friday evening hot on the heels of their latest release, Picker’s Paradise, featuring Micah Hanks, vocals and guitar; Tom Godleski, lead vocals and bass; Tim Adams, playing banjo; Kirk Randleman, vocals and the mandolin; and Tony Reese, playing resonator guitar. “Buncombe Turnpike has an exciting sound that is already turning heads,” writes Bluegrass Now, and Bluegrass Unlimited says the group has found that “pencil-thin piece of ground between traditional and contemporary bluegrass and made it their home.”

Singer and storyteller Joe Penland who was born and raised in rural Madison County, North Carolina, performs Saturday night. A twelfth generation descendent of Scottish immigrants to America, Penland is a proud steward of the musical heritage bequeathed by his ancestors. His performances, while steeped in tradition, are as vibrant to contemporary audiences as they were to the lives of his forebears five centuries ago.

Singer and storyteller Joe Penland

Parking: During the weekend of the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival the entrance to Pack Place is accessible by pedestrian traffic, and the Pack Place bus-unloading zone will be open, providing a drop-off point and wheelchair access to the Festival. Festival patrons can park off-street, at the parking garage on Biltmore Avenue, which also provides wheelchair access to the Festival, or at the various parking garages located throughout downtown Asheville.

The Mountain Dance and Folk Festival is presented by Asheville’s Folk Heritage Committee which also produces its sister event, Shindig on the Green, a free gathering, held this year at Martin Luther King Jr. Park on Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, with a stage show and informal jam sessions on Saturday evenings – July 1, 8, 15, 22; August 12, 19, 26; and September 2. Both events rely on the generosity and shared talent of the region’s finest old-time musicians and mountain dancers.

The Folk Heritage Committee’s mission is to produce Shindig on the Green and the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival in order to support the preservation and continuation of the traditional music, dance and storytelling heritage of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. The Folk Heritage Committee produces Shindig on the Green 2006 and the 79th annual Mountain Dance and Folk Festival with support from the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, Asheville Parks and Recreation, Buncombe County, Graybeard Graphics, Greenlife Grocery, Romantic Asheville.com Travel Guide, Susanne Marcus Collins Foundation, and Town Hardware and General Store, as well as many individuals. Media Sponsors WNCW 88.7FM, 99.9 Kiss Country, Mountain Music Time, AM1400 The Peak and 880AM The Revolution provide additional support.