Blue Ridge Folklife Festival
OCTOBER 25, 2008

A Major Venue on the Crooked Road Music Trail

The festival will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. rain or shine. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for children and senior citizens. Parking is free..

“Thoroughly authentic.”
—The New York Times

The ballads and banjo tunes of the mountains and piedmont will be ringing across the Ferrum College campus at the 35th Blue Ridge Folklife Festival, Saturday, October 25, 2008. The festival brings together musicians and moonshiners, craftspeople and cooks, hot rodders and horse handlers—in short, a host of folk artists and artisans in a celebration of Blue Ridge heritage. A major venue on the Crooked Road Music Trail, the Blue Ridge Folklife Festival is a family event like none other.

Music 
From gospel to blues, with a world of string band and old-style bluegrass picking in between, the Blue Ridge Folklife Festival highlights the authentic regional musicians who have brought Southwest Virginia’s music to national prominence. The festival features three music stages running continuously throughout the day. Bring your flatfooting shoes.

Mountain Comforts Quilt Show 
If you love quilts, this is the show to attend. A part of the Blue Ridge Folklife Festival, the Mountain Comforts Quilt Show has long been one of the premier quilt shows in the Virginia. Entries come from across Virginia and nearby states, and the judges are certified by the National Quilting Association. Lucy Ricardo of Callaway, Virginia, coordinates the show with support from over 20 quilt shops, businesses, and quilting guilds. Mountain Comforts presents awards in over two dozen categories, including youth categories. All children entering a quilt receive gift prizes.

Crafts
The Blue Ridge Folklife Festival offers an unmatched market of mountain folk crafts. Nearly 50 artisans will be demonstrating old-time hand skills from tatting and basket making to blacksmithing and dough tray carving. The festival is known for presenting the hard-to-find artisans who make and sell crafts not found on the regular craft show circuit.

Antique Iron
Festival-goers who like the pulse of pistons will enjoy the rock crusher and wheat thresher in the antique tractor area and the hot rodders firing up their engines in the car culture area. Past Blue Ridge Folklife Festivals have attracted up to 200 restored antique cars.

Working Animal Competitions
In the animal ring draft horses will compete in pulling contests, jumping mules will test their leaping skills, and herding dogs will match agility with sheep. Coon dogs will race after a scent across the campus pond and compete in treeing competitions.

Blue Ridge Foods
When hunger strikes, visitors to the Blue Ridge Folklife Festival can choose from nearly two dozen old-time Blue Ridge foods. This is the place for country foods—no hamburgers and hot dogs here.

Children’s Games
Children can spend hours playing many of the games that entertained their parents, grandparents, and earlier generations—tug-of-war, sack races, wheel-barrow races, three-legged races, ring toss, needle-in-a-haystack, and many more.

For more information:  540-365-4416 or bri@ferrum.edu