Lunsford Festival: Lunsford Award - Mars Hill University

Lunsford Award

The Bascom Lamar Lunsford Mountain Music Festival is honored to announce that this year’s Lunsford Award will be given to Rodney Clay Sutton at the 59^th annual Lunsford Festival on Saturday October 3, 2026, on the campus of Mars Hill University in Mars Hill, North Carolina.

Bascom Lamar Lunsford was responsible for preserving a vast amount of music and dance in Southern Appalachia and the Lunsford award is given out each year to individuals who have made significant contributions to the music and/or dance traditions of the southern mountain region.

We are honored to present this award to Rodney since he has embodied the spirit of traditional music preservation, celebration, and perpetuation central to Lunsford’s work. From being an early member of the Green Grass Cloggers, to learning from elder tradition bearers like dancer Robert Dotson, to teaching hundreds if not thousands of people how to clog, to calling square dances, to preserving the ballads of singers like Bobby McMillon, Rodney has helped to preserve and perpetuate traditional arts in Southern Appalachia.

Past Winners

2024/5: Danielle Plimpton

2023: John Roten + Dr. David W. Robinson

2022: Bobby Hicks

2021: David Holt

2020: Festival was held virtually, due to the pandemic, so no award was given
2019 Loretta Freeman

2018 Brian Hunter

2017 Jeff Atkins

2016 Carol Rifkin

2015 Peter Gott

2014 Nick Hallman

2013 George Banks