86th Annual Mountain Dance and Folk Festival
The 86th Mountain Dance and Folk Festival highlighting mountain culture returns to the Diana Wortham Theatre this summer. The Festival runs for three full evenings, Thursday, August 1 through Saturday, August 3 at the Diana Wortham Theatre in downtown Asheville. Tickets are now on sale.
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 1 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, return to perform each evening. And, each night the festival features both well-known musicians and new talent alike, representative of the Southern Appalachian Mountains and its continuing traditions.
Tickets (Regular $20; Children 12 and under $10; 3 night package $54), and are available from the Diana Wortham Theatre box office, (828) 257-4530, or online at www.dwtheatre.com.
For more information on the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, call the Folk Heritage Info Line at (828) 258-6101 x345, or visit www.folkheritage.org.
