Fair organizers have announced the lineup for the Mountain Music Festival to be held during the N.C. Mountain State Fair at the WNC Ag Center in Fletcher, Sept. 7-16.
“We’ve had a lot of great entertainment at the fair over the past 25 years, but the quality of entertainment at the Mountain Music Festival for the fair’s 25th anniversary will be unmatched,” fair manager Matt Buchanan said. “The festival will shift from clogging one second to fiddling the next.”
Local and regional acts will take Heritage Stage each evening at 6:00 pm to bring the sounds of Appalachia to fairgoers. Admission to the festival is included with gate admission to the fair.
The first-ever Mountain State Fair Music Jam will be held Sunday afternoons from 2:00 pm to 4:30 pm. The jam sessions feature renowned musicians hand selected by the event’s hosts. Don Lewis emcees on Sept. 9 and The Saylor Brothers will lead the group on Sept. 16. Following the jam sessions, nationally renowned groups will take the stage.
On Sunday, Sept. 9, Summer Brooke and the Mountain Faith Band headline a 6:00 pm performance. The Sylva-based band earned national recognition on the television show “America’s Got Talent.” The group got its start in 2000 and has since performed an average of 148 shows a year, released four albums and was nominated as Emerging Artist of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association. Lead vocalist Summer Brooke McMahan won the IBMA’s award for Momentum Vocalist of the Year in 2015.
On Sunday, September 15, The Little Roy and Lizzy Show will close out the fair with a 6:00 pm performance featuring its acclaimed bluegrass, fiddle and banjo music. Elizbeth “Lizzy” Long has been inducted into America’s Old Time Fiddler’s Country Hall of Fame and has won several awards for “Bluegrass Song of the Year.” Little Roy Lewis is an award-winning banjo player and is the youngest member of the legendary Lewis Family.
In between music acts, there will be dozens of clogging performances from the Green Valley Cloggers, the J Creek Cloggers, the Blue Ridge Heritage Cloggers and others.
The 25th N.C. Mountain State Fair runs Sept. 7-16 at the WNC Agricultural Center in Fletcher. The fair’s silver anniversary will celebrate the people, agriculture, art and traditions of Western North Carolina. Advance tickets are now available at participating Ingles stores, the WNC Ag Center and the WNC Farmers Market. More information is available at www.mountainfair.org.