It’s almost time! Named the IBMA’s 2025 Event of the Year, Earl Scruggs Music Festival returns Labor Day Weekend to Tryon International in Mill Spring, North Carolina, nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains just outside Asheville. Join us for performances by The Avett Brothers, Greensky Bluegrass, The Del McCoury Band, Béla Fleck: My Bluegrass Heart, and more as we honor the enduring legacy of Earl Scruggs & celebrate Appalachian culture.
The streets of downtown Raleigh will come alive for the second Raleigh Wide Open Music Festival, presented by PNC, with more than 40 artists performing music on multiple stages along downtown’s Fayetteville Street.
There will be something for nearly every musical taste including bluegrass, folk, country, rock, norteño, gospel and many other genres blended in, “played by real humans who make music about real things,” according to the website. Best of all, it’s FREE! There are no tickets or wristbands needed. Just show up ready to enjoy a great time with friends and family.
I am particularly looking forward to hearing Caleb Caudle, Hank, Pattie and the Current, The Honeydew Drops, Tan and Sober Gentlemen, Jacob Sharpe and Joseph Terrell of Mipso, Shinyribs, Jim Lauderdale and Liam Purcell & Cane Mill Road. I am also looking forward to being introduced to new artists I haven’t had the chance to hear before.
In addition there will be arts vendors, food trucks, an N.C. Family Fun Zone, and more all celebrating roots music and community.
It all starts on Thursday evening, Oct. 1, with a Kickoff Celebration featuring music under the string lights at The Corner on N.C. State’s Centennial Campus. Then, on Friday, Oct. 2, and Saturday, Oct. 3, downtown Raleigh comes alive with multiple stages of music and a celebration of community that spans several city blocks.
The festival remains free this year thanks to generous sponsors and donors, whose support ensures the music is accessible to everyone.
To see the full artist lineup and schedule and learn more at raleighwideopen.com.
YARNIVAL VI IS BACK AT POP’S FARM, 675 Hobson Road, Axton, Virginia, in an effort to continue to grow and keep getting better. Last year was incredible – quite possibly Yarn’s greatest achievement in our nearly 20 years as a band!
At Yarnival every ticket is a VIP, we will be limiting the number of tickets we sell and continue the laidback vibe that has made our past Yarnival’s so welcoming, friendly and comfortable.
We will continue to feature whatever kind of music we feel like alongside our feature of alternative forms of entertainment, i.e. magic, carnival arts, circus performers, etc… You won’t be seeing any super “big names” at our festival but you will be seeing talent that is equal to or even greater than said “big names.” Most likely some will even go on to become “big names.” The difference between a band that draws a hundred people every night and 10,000 people every night is a tiny speck of dust. Albeit magic dust, but just a little dust nonetheless.
So please mark your calendars, SAVE THE DATE, and spread the word, Yarnival VI is coming back to Pop’s Farm this October 8th through 10th, and we’ll grow it until it feels just right.
Tickets are on sale now for the 22nd Fall Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance set for Oct. 1-4, 2026, in bucolic Chatham County, N.C., about a 30-minute drivewest of Raleigh and east of Greensboro.
This year’s lineup features your host, Donna the Buffalo, along with alt-country sensation Margo Price, Anders Osborne, The Steel Wheels and appropriately, Chatham County Line, among many, many more acts.
Band Together announces the 2026 Mighty Giveback concert on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026, at the Lincoln Theatre Outdoor Stage in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. This milestone event marks 25 years of impact and a continued commitment to creating Infinite Good across the region.
Headlined by Southern soul powerhouse JJ Grey & Mofro, with high-energy indie folk favorites The 502s, the 2026 concert carries forward Band Together’s legacy of pairing nationally recognized artists with meaningful local impact.
Proceeds from the Mighty Giveback concert support Band Together’s 2026 Impact Partners across two key areas, Music and Community. Our music impact partner is The Raleigh Music Collective, empowering youth with music education. Our community impact partners are Oak City Cares, who connect people experiencing homelessness to services and care, and PORCH Communities, who create sustainable neighborhood-based hunger relief programs.
