It started as a simple attempt to raise money to build a unique garden on a community college campus in western North Carolina three decades ago, but it has evolved into a favorite event for music lovers all over the region.
Fans were bummed out last year when MerleFest, the annual Wilkes County music festival, was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But plans are well under way for this year’s 33rd festival, and festival director Ted Hagaman spoke with Bill Harris on Town Talk Tuesday about the history and the significance of the event, which runs from Sept. 16-Sept. 19.
This year, attendees will have to show proof of full COVID-19 vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of entering the venue, Hagaman said.
“This has been a challenge for sure,” he said, of establishing safety protocols for such a large event. “We’ve had some wonderful people to work with,” he said, praising state and local health authorities for their help in making sure everyone is safe.
Despite all the safety measures, he conceded they’re not foolproof. There are full details of the safety protocols on the merlefest.org website.
“We want to make sure we’re doing everything in a safe manner,” Hagaman said. Having a safe and family-friendly event has always been an important part of MerleFest. “We will go to the n-th degree to keep people safe.”
Hageman said it’s not too late to register to volunteer for the concert – signing up for just a four-hour shift gets you in to the whole concert. Hageman said the concert relies on volunteers for ushering, serving food or parking cars.
Visit merlefest.org to find out about ticket packages, logistics, lineups and more.
This year’s lineup includes LeAnn Rimes, Mavis Staples, Sam Bush, Melissa Etheridge, Sturgill Simpson, to name just a few. The variety of music styles reflects Watson’s vision of the festival being a “traditional plus” festival – the traditional music of the Appalachian region, “plus” any other music that Watson wanted to play or hear.
The seed for MerleFest was sown back in 1988 when a horticulture teacher at Wilkes Community College wanted to install a garden for the senses on campus. It was suggested to him that he call on legendary musician Doc Watson, who lived in nearby Deep Gap, for help. Watson agreed to help, with two conditions, Hagaman said.
The first condition was that the concert would be named in memory of his son and the second condition was that Watson would “bring some of his friends” to help him pull off the one-night, two-hour concert.
“The only problem was, Doc had so many friends that accepted the invitation, there wasn’t enough time to get them all on stage,” Hagaman said. So Watson’s wife, Rosa Lee, suggested a multi-day format. From its humble beginnings of having an audience of a couple of thousand, tens of thousands of music fans today flock to Wilkesboro to hear dozens of acts on 13 stages during four days of non-stop music.
“I was fortunate enough to work closely with Doc Watson before he passed away,” Hagaman said. He has been the festival director for 16 years and has overseen all aspects of the organization.
In addition to the live music, MerleFest sponsors the Chris Alston Song Writing Contest. This year marks the 29th year of the contest, which Hagaman said routinely receives close to 1,000 submissions. Judges create four categories of songs and then select a winner from each category.
The Little Pickers stage for children will be held again this year, but other activities for children are not scheduled, in keeping with COVID-19 safety protocols.
(This is not a paid ad. WIZS Radio does air MerleFest radio commercials as an affiliate of NCN News as the ads are part of their audio. For this, WIZS indirectly benefits as an affiliate.)
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