FIDDLE & FORK FESTIVAL

Celebrating 250 Years of Blue Ridge Music and Foodways

June 12-14, 2026

The Blue Ridge Music Center and The Bluffs Restaurant are excited to announce our participation in “Of the People: The Smithsonian Festival of Festivals”, a series of programs and exchanges marking the 250th anniversary of the United States and showcasing the nation’s remarkable cultural landscape.

Fiddle & Fork Festival, presented June 12-14, 2026, will be a weekend-long celebration of 250 years of Blue Ridge music and foodways. This inaugural year of the festival will include:

• An immersive dinner at The Bluffs featuring locally-sourced ingredients and recipes, with programming centered at the intersection of food and music
• Musical performances and foodways presentations at the Blue Ridge Music Center, culminating in a concert featuring the Steep Canyon Rangers
• Demonstrations at The Bluffs showcasing traditional domestic crafts and methods of food preparation and preservation
• Performances and interviews with the Blue Ridge Music Center’s Midday Mountain Music groups, honoring 20 years of daily, free music presentations and the contributions of these significant local musicians

Friday, June 12, 2026

Kick-off Dinner at The Bluffs
6:00-9:00 p.m.

Ticketed event

Kick off the weekend of festival events with a dinner party featuring locally sourced ingredients and recipes prepared by guest chefs Jamie Swafford & Keia Mastrianni of Old North Farm. The program includes a conversation with festival grand marshals, chef Sheri Castle of the PBS program The Key Ingredient with Sheri Castle and musician and luthier Wayne Henderson, about the intersection of food, music, and cultural traditions of the Blue Ridge region.

Tickets: $100 (includes meal, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, tax, and gratuity)

Saturday, June 13, 2026

Music & Foodways Day at the Blue Ridge Music Center
12:00-5:00 p.m.

Free and open to the public

An afternoon of live music and foodways presentations including Appalachian Storytelling with Millie Hiatt (Mount Airy Spoken Word Society), Song-Keeping & Seed-Saving with William Ritter (Song to Seed), Beekeeping & Urban Farming with Samantha Foxx (Mother’s Finest Urban Farms), Baking & Heritage Seed Preservation with Jamie Swafford & Keia Mastrianni of Old North Farm, Songs & Stories with Fiddlin’ Poet Ken Waldman, and cultural demonstrations including chair caning, shingle splitting, heritage seed preservation, instrument-making with regional luthiers, and a ballad swap.

At 3:30 p.m., Colin Cutler & Hot Pepper Jam perform their musical blend of Appalachian old-time, blues, gospel, country, and rock’n’roll in the indoor theater. The Bluffs Restaurant will be onsite with homestyle food available for purchase.

An Evening with Steep Canyon Rangers
7:00-9:00 p.m.

Ticketed Event

Don’t miss the Steep Canyon Rangers live in concert in the Blue Ridge Music Center’s outdoor amphitheater. Part of the Music Center’s Summer Outdoor Concert Series, this event is open to season passholders and individual ticketholders.

Sunday, June 14, 2026

Midday Mountain Music Celebration at the Blue Ridge Music Center
12:00-4:00 p.m.

Free and open to the public

Join us for an afternoon of performances and interviews with the Blue Ridge Music Center’s Midday Mountain Music groups, honoring 20 years of daily, free music presentations on the Parkway and the contributions of these significant local musicians.

The Music Center will be open from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Foodways Fair at The Bluffs
12:00-4:00 p.m.

Free and open to the public

Visit The Bluffs Restaurant for an afternoon of foodways presentations emceed by Sheri Castle and Director of the Center for Food & Culture, Dr. Lucy Long. Presentations include Appalachian Storytelling with Millie Hiatt (Mount Airy Spoken Word Society), Beekeeping & Urban Farming with Samantha Foxx (Mother’s Finest Urban Farms), Baking & Heritage Seed Preservation with Jamie Swafford & Keia Mastrianni (Old North Farm), and cultural demonstrations such as chair caning with Michael Dees, spinning with Matthews Historic Farm, and a pop-up from Independence Farmers Market.

The restaurant will be open for diners on a first-come, first-serve basis.

This project received funding from the Smithsonian’s “Our Shared Future: 250,” a Smithsonian-wide initiative supported by private philanthropy and created to commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary and advance the Smithsonian vision for the next 250 years.