Mountain Dance and Folk Festival
The Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, held annually in Asheville, North Carolina, is the oldest continuously running folk festival in the United States.[1][2][3][4][5]
History[]
Started initially by Bascom Lamar Lunsford as an offshoot of the larger Asheville Rhododendron Festival in 1928, the festival started on its own in 1930.[1][6] In 1967, the festival was taken over by Asheville's Folk Heritage Committee. The festival starts on the first Thursday in August and continues through the following Friday and Saturday.[6] Other modern festivals, such as the National Folk Festival, were inspired by the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival.[7][5]
In its early years, the festival hosted artists such as Samantha Bumgarner. Pete Seeger was inspired to play banjo after hearing founder Bascom Lamar Lunsford play the five-string banjo at the festival in 1936.[8][9]