| Travelers
from around the country flock to an annual event to celebrate the heritage
and traditions of the Blue Ridge: the Blue
Ridge Folklife Festival. This year it continues to bring some of
the most authentic tastes, smells, sounds, and sights of Blue Ridge
folkways. The Festival will take place on Saturday, October 23, 2004,
from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., on the Ferrum College campus in Ferrum, VA.
New to this year’s festival,
in addition to three stages music from blues to bluegrass, there will
be a Storytelling Workshop presented in conjunction with the Blue Ridge
Institute exhibit Car Crazy: Racing and Rodding in Southwest Virginia.
The workshop will feature recollections and stories by regional racers,
mechanics and more, exploring Virginia’s hundred-year-old fascination
with auto racing.
For the first time in several
years old-time farm demonstrations of thrashing and bailing and mule
pulling will appear at the always-growing festival honoring Southwest
Virginia’s tradition and heritage.
A selection of this year’s activities and highlights include: |
• Over 20 old-time Blue Ridge foods, from fried apple pies to black
pot chicken.
• Nearly 50 craftspeople, demonstrating traditional hand skills such
as sock doll making and blacksmithing. Many of the festival artisans
have crafts to sell not found on the regular craft circuit.
• Nearly 20 groups scheduled to perform on the three music stages
at the festival, offering authentic string band music, gospel, blues,
balladry, and early bluegrass throughout the day.
• The Mountain Comforts Quilt Show, in its fourteenth year, presenting
100 of the region’s finest quilts, with special entry categories for
quilts made by children and teenagers.
• Water and treeing races for coon dogs and weight pulling contests
for horses and mules.
• Dozens of displays, including vintage cars, street rods, racecars,
and antique tractors—all showing the mechanical innovations that changed
traditions of the Blue Ridge.
• A petting zoo and old-time games for children.
|
“Folkways are a fascinating part of our heritage, and like no
other event, we showcase a variety of the old-time traditions that
are still a part of Virginia’s rural lifestyle,” said Roddy Moore,
Director of Ferrum College’s Blue Ridge Institute & Museum, the
official State Center for Blue Ridge Folklore.
Admission is $8 for adults and
$7 for children and senior citizens. For additional information, contact
the Blue Ridge Institute and Museum at (540) 365-4416.
For a high-resolution images of last
year’s festival, follow the following links: http://www.ferrum.edu/media/ff1.jpg,
http://www.ferrum.edu/media/ff2.jpg
and http://www.ferrum.edu/media/ff3.jpg.
The Blue
Ridge Institute and Museum is located on Route 40, 10 miles west
of Rocky Mount, Va. Dedicated to preserving the heritage of and educating
people about Blue Ridge culture and traditions, it is also The State
Center for Blue Ridge Folklore.
Ferrum College is a four-year, private,
co-educational, liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist
Church. Ferrum offers a choice of nationally recognized bachelor’s
degree programs at a cost well below the national average for private
colleges. For more information on Ferrum, visit www.ferrum.edu.
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