Come and Get Happy at the Happy Valley Old Time Fiddlers’ Convention
07/20/2010
Contact Info :  Bridgette A. Lacy
Email :  bridgette.lacy@ncdcr.gov
Phone :  (919) 807-6520

Come experience a perfect Labor Day weekend on the banks of the Yadkin River surrounded by mountain music, dance, food and beautiful scenery during the Happy Valley Old Time Fiddlers' Convention. The festival starts on the evening of Friday, Sept. 3 with dancing and music followed by full day of music competition, dance, children's activities and demonstrations on instrument making.

About 2,000 people generally attend the Historic Happy Valley Old-time Fiddlers' Convention on the Tony Jones Farm, northeast of Lenoir on N.C. Byway 268.

The weekend ends Sunday, Sept. 5 with a free concert featuring an all-star line up of folk, blues, gospel, old-time and bluegrass musicians including the Harris Brothers, Moon Mullins, Bobby Hicks and the Kruger Brothers.

Friday evening's community dance and the Sunday concert are free. Advanced tickets for Saturday are $5 and admission at gate is $10. Come for a day or camp for the weekend. Camping is $10 per night.

This is the last chance of the season to sit on the banks of a mountain stream with music echoing throughout the hills around you. Check out the details at www.happyvalleyfiddlers.com.

The annual fiddlers' convention is one of several programs created in recent years by local residents and supported by the N.C. Arts Council as a part of the Historic Happy Valley Project. Scenic Byway 268, a 28-mile stretch of rural road in North Carolina's Caldwell and Wilkes counties, runs through Happy Valley. Communities along 268 retain many older arts and agricultural traditions including music-making, storytelling and training horses and other draft animals. Learn about historic Happy Valley at http://ncartstrails.org/happyvalley/


About the North Carolina Arts Council

The North Carolina Arts Council works to make North Carolina The Creative State where a robust arts industry produces a creative economy, vibrant communities, children prepared for the 21st century and lives filled with discovery and learning. The Arts Council accomplishes this in partnership with artists and arts organizations, other organizations that use the arts to make their communities stronger and North Carolinians—young and old—who enjoy and participate in the arts. For more information visit www.ncarts.org.

The N.C. Arts Council is a division of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, the state agency with the mission to enrich lives and communities and the vision to harness the state's cultural resources to build North Carolina's social, cultural and economic future. Information on Cultural Resources is available at www.ncculture.com