Appalachian_String_Band_Music_Festival

Appalachian String Band Music Festival

Appalachian String Band Music Festival

Add article description

The Appalachian String Band Music Festival (often referred to simply as "Clifftop") is a weeklong gathering of thousands of string band musicians and their friends from across the country and around the world, who each year since 1990 have assembled near the New River Gorge in West Virginia in late July/early August to celebrate the evolving tradition of old-time music and the community of people who keep it thriving by preserving and contributing to that tradition.[1][2]

Quick Facts Genre, Dates ...

History

Though the Festival offers contests (traditional band, neo-traditional band, fiddle, old-time banjo, and flatfoot dancing), square dancing, several concerts and workshops, and other organized activities such as yoga, basket making, and hymn singing, the heart and soul of the Festival is found in the campsites, where old time music provides a foundation for all kinds of straight-off-the-strings acoustic music (including Americana, cajun, Celtic, swing, bluegrass, Dawg, and even reggae), which in turn often spontaneously generate impromptu dancing and other festivities by the people gathered within earshot.

Though the Festival officially starts the Wednesday before the first full weekend in August, the grounds start filling up the weekend before with well-adorned campsites, many of which have music being played through the night. One of the Festival's unique features is the Neo-Traditional Band Contest on Friday, in which highest scores are given to bands that creatively extend the old time music tradition into other musical voices, instrumentation, and styles.

Over the years, the Festival has been frequented by accomplished Nashville musicians like John Hartford and Tim O'Brien and Leftover Salmon jam band leader Vince Hermann, legendary old time Appalachian musicians like Melvin Wine and Lester McCumbers, leading "second generation" old time musicians like Mike Seeger, Bruce Molsky, Rafe Stefanini, Brad Leftwich, and Ira Bernstein, and the youngest generation of old time musicians like Jake Krack.

The Festival takes place each summer at Camp Washington-Carver, in Clifftop, Fayette County, West Virginia, United States and is sponsored by the West Virginia Division of Culture and History.

Past winners

More information Open Fiddle, Senior Fiddle ...

See also

References

  1. [1]
    "Official site". Wvbulture.org. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
  2. [2]
    "Sounds from the Appalachian String Band Festival : NPR". NPR. Archived from the original on 2016-04-24. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
  3. [3]
    "Winners from Appalachian String Band Festival 2019 at Clifftop, West Virginia" (PDF). Wvculture.org. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  4. [4]
    "Appalachian String Band Music Festival Announces 2016 Contest Winners". West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture & History. 2016-08-10. Retrieved 2022-08-07.
  5. [5]
    "Winners from Appalachian String Band Festival 2015 at Clifftop, West Virginia" (PDF). Wvculture.org. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  6. [6]
    "Winners from Appalachian String Band Festival 2014 at Clifftop, West Virginia" (PDF). Wvculture.org. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  7. [7]
    "Winners from Appalachian String Band Festival 2007 at Clifftop, West Virginia" (PDF). Wvculture.org. Retrieved May 31, 2023.

38°0′36″N 80°58′14″W
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Appalachian_String_Band_Music_Festival, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.