MECC Hosts 48th Annual Home Craft Days Festival
Big Stone Gap, VA – Mountain Empire Community College will once again welcome thousands of visitors to the campus this fall for the 48th Annual Home Craft Days Festival held Oct. 18-20.
Celebrating the rich music, culture, and artistry of Southwest Virginia, the Home Craft Days Festival features two full days of concerts, craft vendors, and demonstrations of weaving, pottery making, grist milling, wood crafting, basket weaving, broom making, quilting, tatting and more.
Heading this year’s free Friday night concert are the Tommy Bledsoe, Rich Kirby, Tyler Hughes, and Todd Meade; Alice Gerrard and Kay Justice; and John McCutcheon. The concert will begin at 6 p.m. in MECC’s Phillips-Taylor Hall Goodloe Center.
According to festival coordinator Mike Gilley, “This annual festival is a homecoming, a chance for family and friends to gather and share our cultural heritage. We are excited to showcase the best of the region’s music, crafts, and food!”
Craft and food vendors will be open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Saturday’s music schedule includes featured performers: Scott County Jam, Wise County Jam, Rich Kirby and Nate Polly, Danny Whited and Friends, Todd Meade and Family, Jack Wright, Jim Lloyd, Angie DeBord, Town Branch Bluegrass, Brandon Maggard, Empty Bottle String Band with the Center Stage Cloggers, Right Fork Ramblers, Kelsey Rae, The Childress Family, The Sheets Family, Joy Blair, Stone Mountain Serenaders with the Center Stage Cloggers, Popular Hill Reunion, Travis Kern, Richard Phillips and Friends, Crooked Road Ramblers, Thistle Dew, and Sigean.
Sunday’s performers include: Tyler Hughes and Todd Meade, Ms. Elli’s String Band, Doug Dorschug and Pam Randolph, MECC String Band, Glenn Roberts, The High Tops, Jack Beck, High Test Grass, John Haywood, Tommy Bledsoe, Bill McCall and Southern Country, Oscar Harris and Heather Pace, Willie Dodson and Saro Lynch, The String Dippers, My New Favorites, Smith Family Singers, Rita Quillen, Scott County Boys.
Admission is FREE to all the festival events. MECC is located on US Route 23 just south of Big Stone Gap, Virginia. Parking and shuttles for the festival will be offered at five locations in Big Stone Gap. Shuttle rides are $1 per person at boarding. Locations include:
· Union High School (formerly Powell Valley High School) – Front Parking Lot
· Curbside, Wood Ave, in Front of Food City
· Curbside, Municipal Parking Lot behind Post Office/Federal Building
· Country Inn
· Comfort Inn
For more information on the event, including a detailed schedule of vendors and musicians, visit the Home Craft Days website at www.homecraftdays.org.
