About This Festival
Previous Location
Mars Hill University|100 Athletic St, Mars Hill, NC | Map
Everfest's Take
From the Organizer
The Bascom Lamar Lunsford “Minstrel of Appalachia” Festival is the second oldest folk festival in the region. It was started in 1967 as a collaboration of Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Lamar Lunsford, and Ed Howard. They hoped to distinguish the Lunsford Festival from other festivals by not only celebrating the region’s finest music, dance, and crafts, but also by creating a space for preservation and authenticity. They created an environment that supported the sharing of knowledge and passion from the older generations to the younger ones, building a space for continuity in the traditions that have been unique to the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Today the festival continues with a Friday night concert featuring numerous musicians, dancers, and special programming to celebrate and commemorate the festival's fiftieth anniversary. Saturday will be a day long festival of music, dance, and culture.
