The Ferrum College campus is gearing up once again for the arrival of musicians, artisans and craftspeople from all around the region for the 34th Blue Ridge Folklife Festival, October 27, 2007.  The Festival, an annual venue on the Crooked Road Music Trail, is “Virginia’s largest celebration of authentic regional traditions,” bringing together musicians and “moonshiners,” crafters and cooks, hot rodders and horse handlers – all who have kept family, community, and regional traditions as a way of life.

The New York Times has called the Blue Ridge Folklife Festival “thoroughly authentic.”
 Nearly 50 artisans will demonstrate traditional hand skills from tatting to blacksmithing and will also sell their wares.  Other exhibits include the 19th annual Mountain Comforts Quilt Show (over 100 quilts were entered for judging in last year’s contest).  Horse pulls, coon dog contests, sheep herding, oxen driving and the Virginia State Championship Mule Jumping Contest are just a few of the varied and colorful events that will be going on throughout the day. “This is the premiere showcase of 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. 

Among the highlights of the festival this year will be the “Music of the Coal Miners” Workshop, showcasing songs about mining life from the coalfields of western Virginia.  The featured musicians will play and sing in a range of styles for which the Blue Ridge Mountains are known, from Bo Hanks and his old-time Piedmont blues to the Allen Boys with their “sacred steel” style of praise.  String bands, bluegrass bands, ballad singers, even a rockabilly piano player will all be performing on the three music stages.

Take a listen to some of the traditional artists who will be performing this year:

“Key to the Highway” by Boo Hanks
“Bill Bailey” by Bobby Pendleton
“Cherokee Shuffle” by Anderson & Stickland
“Back Up & Push” by Jeff Little
“Step It Up and Go” by Jeffrey Scott
“Be Careful How You Treat Me” by Larnell Starkey & the Spiritual Seven
 “Redneck War” by Ron Short
“Don’t Drink Nothin’ But Corn” by Wolfe Brothers

For those who enjoy a good tale, the festival storytelling stage will showcase “retired” bootleggers and revenuers swapping memories of their cat-and-mouse games, stock car racers telling of the old days on Virginia’s oval tracks, and Jerry Harmon spinning the Jack Tales from his part of the Blue Ridge. When hunger strikes, visitors can delight in sampling nearly two dozen old-time Blue Ridge foods available for sale.

For more information, visit http://www.blueridgeinstitute.org