Blue Grass Valley Music Festival This Weekend

The mountains will be alive with the sounds of music this weekend as the third annual Blue Grass Music Festival is held in Highland County. Organizers Melissa Moyers and Erica Whitelaw spoke about the event.

Ms. Whitelaw:

“The Blue Grass Valley Music Festival is named after the Blue Grass Valley, and incorporates a whole bunch of different varieties of music. This will be its third year, and was a dream of myself, and Melissa Moyers’ dream, initially, after attending several festivals around the area, to have an actual festival in Blue Grass.”

Ms. Moyers:

“Some of the bands that are going to be here, from Staunton, we have the Judy Chops; we have Rare Gold, which is right here in the Valley; we have some out of town bands coming this year, Driftwood is from up in Ohio, and we have Danger Muffin coming, they’re from Charleston, South Carolina. We also have the McDowell Mutton Busters, and we have Jeff Shumate from over in McDowell, he’s in that group, and also Delta Junction – Jon Warner from right in Blue Grass is in that band, and they’ll be playing on Saturday.”

Ms. Whitelaw talked about the schedule of activities and pricing.

“Festival gates open Friday morning for campers – this is a three day, three night event. We have several activities. The music on Friday starts at 4:00, and it ends around midnight. We have several music workshops, we have a kids area with lots of activities – lots of food vendors from all over the area.

“On Saturday, the music will start at 11:30, and we also have a cornhole tournament that’s going to happen around noon, and we’ll have the cloggers performing, and we’ll also have the Allegheny Mountain String Project coming, and then a kid’s parade after that, after they perform in the kids area, and then on Sunday, the music will start around 11:30 and end at 8:00 pm, and during that time, we’ll have square dancing with Ellen and Eugene Ratcliffe.

“You can purchase a weekend pass for the event at Dancon, in Monterey on Main Street, up until Thursday night, at $45 – that gives you the three day weekend pass. It’s an additional $10 for a car to camp, and additional $20 for an RV. At the gate on Friday, the weekend passes will be $60 – a day pass for Friday will be $30, on Saturday, the day pass will be $40. Sunday, it is a free will donation.”

The festival is held on Potomac Farm, owned by Ms. Moyer’s father, Dareld Puffenbarger.

“At first, it took a little bit to talk him into it, but he knows that Bubba and I went to music festivals, since we’ve been married, and really enjoyed going. Once I told him our ideas and stuff, he became a little more into it. I think he and mom come down and have a good time. Last year, he really liked some of the bands, so I think they come down and enjoy it, and I think he’s just proud to have it on his farm.”

Both ladies stressed the event was made possible by and given for the community.

“We’ve had a lot of support from the community, and our intentions is to hope to give back to the community. Each year, we want to do a donation to one of the local non-profit organizations around. Each year, we’ll probably just try to pick a different one that we’d like to give a donation to.”

“We have several sponsors from the area – we couldn’t do this without all the support from everybody that’s involved. There’s way too many to name in person, but if you come out to the event, we have their logos, and we’ll be reading their information on the stage.

“It’s really good to see the community involvement, because that’s the whole point of having the Blue Grass Valley Music Festival, is to give the enjoyment of the festival to the community, and everyone that attends.”

For more information on the event, visit the web page at www.bgvmusicfestival.com, or search for the Blue Grass Valley Music Festival on Facebook.