Bath County’s First Annual Mountain Strings And Arts Festival Coming Up On April 1st And 2nd.

Warm Springs, VA – Get ready for lots of music and lots of fun at the Mountain Strings and Arts Festival on April first and second. The festival is a collaborative effort between community radio station WCHG and Bath County’s Director of Tourism Maggie Anderson.

“Well since we’re two weeks out from the event, I’m pretty excited” says Anderson “I think we have an opportunity here to create an event that will grow. I think this is an important part of the message we want to share with the world that we’re a beautiful community and we have a rich cultural and arts community that that we want to share. I think we’ll gross low, but I think we’ll have an event that we can be very proud of this year that will grow into an event we can be very proud of in the future.”

The Mountain Strings and Arts Festival kicks off on Friday night April first at the Old Dairy in Warm Springs.

“We’re gonna have a old fashioned bard dance” says Anderson. “We’re featuring the band Stairwell’ and we’re billing the event Stairwell to Heaven” and that’s what we hope it will be. An experience where young and old can come; we’ll enjoy good old country music, DJ Willie is going to call square dance calls and we’ll do some county line dancing and just a little bit of everything.”

And there are events scheduled all day at the Old Dairy on Saturday April 2.

“Beginning at 9 o’clock in the morning, we’re going to have a Bath County Idol” she says. “This is a non-competition event but it’s an open mike for folks who like to sing and perform to come and show us their stuff. It’s not going to be judged, but from 9 to 11am we’re going to have the stage open, the mike ready and if you want to come and sing or dance, maybe be a comedian, we like to hear what you’ve got to offer.”

If you’re interested in performing in Bath County Idol applications are available from Anderson or from Stephanie Hiner at Bath County High School. Applications are not required in order to perform, but submitting an application in advance assures you a spot and helps with scheduling.

Also on Saturday at the Old Dairy there will be an arts and crafts fair with some artisan demonstrations. And there will be music throughout the day provided by the young performers from the Allegheny Mountain String Project, DJ Willie with Southern Rail Express, Eric Woodzell with Allison Kincaid and Daryn Burkholder. Bath’s Community Theatre group, The Mountain Valley Players will also be doing some skits. Then beginning at 3:30 there will be a beans, greens and barbeque meal at the Bath County High School Cafeteria.

“You know an event like this takes work and help from lots of people and there are some folks I’d like to thank” says Anderson. “First of all we want to thank the Virginia Hot Springs Preservation Trust, they’ve been just wonderful, they’ve made the facility available to us and they’ve given us lots of support. We want to make sure we thank the Bath County High School. We have just legions of volunteers that are providing their time and support at the artisan fair or at the high school.”

“And we most especially want to thank DJ Willie who as a volunteer dj at the station [WCHG] is responsible for the Bluegrass Jamboree itself and it’s a lot of work.”

The Bath Bluegrass Jamboree wraps up the festival that Saturday evening beginning at 6. The Jamboree will be held in the Bath County High School auditorium and will feature High Ground, The Church Sisters and Joe Mullins and the Radio Ramblers.

The Mountain Strings and Arts Festival is Friday and Saturday April 1 and 2. For more information visit alleghenymountainradio.org or call Maggie Anderson at 540-839-7202.