The Folk Heritage Committee announces its summer 2019 dates for two celebrated mountain traditions in Asheville: the 53rd season of Shindig on the Green and the 92nd Annual Mountain Dance and Folk Festival.
Each event features the newest generation of traditional and mountain string bands, ballad singers, and big circle mountain dancers and cloggers, resulting in fun-filled and authentic evenings enjoyed by kith and kin of all ages.
The 53rd Season of Shindig on the Green, a free event in the heart of downtown Asheville with a stage show and informal jam sessions, takes place on Saturday evenings. Kicking off on July 6th this year, Shindig on the Green will be held on July 6, 13, 20, 27; August 10, 17, 24, 31, 2019. Shindig returns again to the heart of downtown Asheville at Pack Square Park’s Roger McGuire Green.
The stage show takes place on the Bascom Lamar Lunsford stage, named for the founder of the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival. Locals and visitors alike gather “along about sundown,” or at seven o’clock for those who wear a watch, for Shindig on the Green. Since the outdoor event’s inception in 1967, hundreds of thousands of individuals from across the region and throughout the world have shared and enjoyed the rich traditional music and dance heritage of the Southern Appalachian Mountains in this outdoor setting. Shindig on the Green® remains a free event due in part to net pro- ceeds from ticket sales to the nation’s longest continually running festival, the granddaddy of all festivals, the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival®.
The 92nd Annual Mountain Dance and Folk and Festival, a ticketed event at Lipinsky Hall on the campus of UNC Asheville with a different show each night, takes place at 6:30 pm nightly, Thursday through Saturday, August 1, 2 & 3, 2019. The sister event to Shindig on the Green, the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival was founded by Bascom Lamar Lunsford in 1928. The nation’s longest continually running folk festival, the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival show- cases the best of the region’s mountain musicians and dancers during its three evenings of indoor performances. Net proceeds from this event are dedicated to partial support for the eight Shindig on the Green® evenings presented through the summer.
The non-profit, all-volunteer Folk Heritage Committee’s mission is to preserve and present the musical heritage of the Southern Appalachian Mountains to audiences from throughout the region and world, for entertainment and education, by producing the annual Shindig on the Green ® and the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival ® events.
For more info about the 53rd Season of Shindig on the Green or the 92nd Annual Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, visit www.folkheritage.org or call Brian Carter at 828-335-1263.