Canceled – Bascom Lamar Lunsford Mountain Music Festival

The 2024 Lunsford Festival has been canceled due to the flooding and devastation in our region.

The Lunsford Festival is an all-day festival celebrating regional music and dance traditions. The event is the second longest-running folk festival in Western North Carolina (57th year!) and was named in honor of Bascom Lamar Lunsford, who was a musician and folklorist who dedicated his life to collecting and promoting the music of the Southern Appalachian Mountains.

The festival brings out the region’s finest musicians, ballad singers, and dancers, and happens on the same day as the Madison Heritage Arts Festival, so Mars Hill is abuzz. Join us in honoring the rich cultural traditions of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Be sure to join us on Friday night for the ballad swap that will kick off the festival.

This year, because of the construction on campus, both the Lunsford Festival and the Heritage Arts Festival will be held on the soccer fields between the elementary school and the Dr. W. Otis Duck Memorial Greenway—just a hop, skip, and a jump from the Mars Hill University campus. But…you don’t have to hop, skip, or jump to get there: we’ll have the shuttle running as usual from Ingles right to the festival grounds.

We look forward to seeing you here in October!