MECC to Host Virtual Home Craft Days Festival This Weekend 

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Big Stone Gap — Mountain Empire Community College will host a virtual Home Craft Days special event this weekend, paying tribute to past craft and food vendors, music performances, and cultural demonstrations. 

A two-hour virtual program will be broadcast Friday, October 16 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday, October 17 at 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. The program will be available for view on www.mecc.edu/youtube/, www.facebook.com/mountainempirecollege, and Comcast Channel 6. Recordings will be available following the initial broadcast. 

The College is also pleased to share this year’s virtual festival to an even broader audience through Project Southwest, a streaming video production of Blue Ridge PBS.  Through this venue, the 49th annual HCD event will be available throughout the year, with additional footage of the traditional music and crafts you will find at the 50th anniversary of the festival in 2021. 

The 49th Home Craft Days Festival virtual program is hosted by Tyler Hughes and Todd Meade, long time Home Craft Days volunteers, and will feature new and old music performances dating back to the original Home Craft Days’ event in 1971. Current performers highlighted include the Childress Sisters, Rich Kirby, and Eric McMurray. 

Additional craft demonstrators featured in the program include Ganell Marshall, Mark Ramsey, Maurice Vanhook, and members of the Mountain Tradition Woodcarvers.  Youth re-enactors from the Daniel Boone Wilderness Road Association demonstrate 18th Century frontier games and Dr. Harriette Arrington shares a story with festival viewers. 

In addition, MECC will present the first in a series of history lectures developed by the college. The program will feature local historian Dr. Lawrence Fleenor and will focus on Chief Benge. That program will also be featured on Saturday, October 17 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. on the college’s youtube and facebook channel, listed above. 

MECC plans to host the 50th anniversary of the Home Craft Days Festival on campus in October 2021. The event is planned to be the biggest celebration yet. 

For more information, please contact Home Craft Days Festival Director Mike Gilley at 276-523-2400 ext. 304 or visit the festival website