Bluff Mountain Festival

The Bluff Mountain Festival (Bluff) is one of the flagship programs offered by the Madison County Arts Council (MCAC). This annual, one-day event carries an almost three-decade legacy and is part of Madison County’ identity where audiences can see the unique culture of this place on display.

This festival carries on a legacy of cultural preservation and community connection that allows MCAC to extend our outreach into other sections of the county. Bluff started in 1996 as a way to raise awareness for a US Forest Service plan to allow logging and road building in the wilderness areas of Bluff Mountain, outside Hot Springs, NC. This wilderness space held special meaning for many members of the community and the threat of losing it connected a broad spectrum of community members ranging from bear hunters to back-to-the-landers to musicians. This unlikely coalition started the first Bluff Mountain Festival which prominently featured one of Madison County’s richest cultural resources, its music and dance traditions.

Today, the festival is a program of the MCAC, and 2025 will bring the 28th Bluff Mountain Festival (the festival was not held in 2020 or 2021). “Bluff” as the community lovingly refers to it, has featured award-winning performers such as David Holt, Alice Gerrard, Josh Goforth, Laura Boosinger, The Stoney Creek Boys, Bryan McDowell, and many more.

Each year, the festival showcases Western North Carolina musicians performing bluegrass, old time, gospel, ballads, and traditional mountain dance. Madison County’s noted ballad tradition remains a constant at the festival. Each year, the Madison County Ballad set is planned and managed by the Madison County Ballad singers themselves. Festival performers usually range in age from preteens to octogenarians, and the audience includes families and fans of all ages. MCAC’s Junior Appalachian Musicians program performs as do older bands that have grown out of that program.

Few festivals or events maintain such a deliberate focus on WNC’s stringband music, ballad singing, and traditional dance, all at the same time. Whereas this festival is an annual homecoming for many in Madison County, it hasn’t reached great renown outside of the county. Talent from Bluff has performed across the globe and on some of the biggest stages in the United States. Researchers come in an unceasing flow to learn from and about musicians in this place. Bluff offers a chance to see multiple generations and long lineages of performers in one place.