The Earl Scruggs Music Festival
IBMA’s 2025 Event of the Year Winners
Written By Dale and Darcy Cahill
Being lifelong lovers of bluegrass and thirty-year veterans of attending bluegrass festivals in New England: Grey Fox, Thomas Point, Podunk, and many others, we have never attended a festival in the southern states. When we saw the Earl Scruggs Music Festival lineup last year, we immediately bought tickets, excited to hear the music and to camp in North Carolina. Although we have visited family in North Carolina, we had never attended a festival there or, in fact, anywhere in the South. What follows are observations from two northern bluegrass fans experiencing their first bluegrass festival in the south, specifically in North Carolina, the home of Earl Scruggs.
Before we begin, we want to just get this out of the way: we are not saying that one is better than another. These are just observations from two exclusively northern bluegrass fans who love the same bands as just about every bluegrass lover does, whether they are from the Midwest, the Rockies, California, or the South.
The first, most apparent difference was the weather. The weather in New England can turn on a dime, going from scorching sun to cold rain. In fact, that very unpredictability can be the ruin of a festival here and sadly has been. At Earl Fest, it was sunny and hot during the day and warm at night. We didn’t have to pack our camper with clothes for every possible weather condition. That was awfully nice! Although we know that southern bluegrass promoters do have their fair share of unfriendly weather, the chance of weather being a make-or-break factor in the success of the festival is much lower than up north.
Another difference reminded us of the John Sebastian song Nashville Cats. It seemed that everywhere we turned, talented kids of all ages were picking tunes and jamming. Northern festivals have their share of young players and well-attended bluegrass kids’ academies. Our own children played in the four-day Grey Fox Kid’s Academy, where bluegrass stars made guest appearances and the teachers included some of the best players in the business. However, only a few of the young players made the attentive adults pause and think, “Here is a kid who is heading to Nashville someday.” Northern parents encourage their children to play bluegrass up north, but the kids rarely, if ever, hear the music outside of their own families, and their unique summer exposure to the music doesn’t permeate their normal daily lives. It is quite simply not a part of their northern culture.
The dramatic difference in the number of young bluegrass musicians made good sense given that bluegrass festivals in the south are more common and that bluegrass itself is an important part of the south’s culture and heritage. An example of bluegrass’s living heritage is located just a half hour away from Earl Fest in the town of Shelby, North Carolina. This is where Scruggs was born and where the Earl Scruggs Center is located. The center combines telling the story of Scruggs’ life with, as their website says, “The unique and engaging story of the history and cultural traditions of the region where Scruggs was born and raised.” It was in the nearby Flint Hill community where Scruggs began his trademark three-finger style of picking. The center celebrates how Scruggs crossed musical boundaries and defined the voice of the banjo. Our good friend Chris Clark, a talented banjo player who came along with us, visited the center and is glad that he did. He says, “In 1966, at nine years old, I saw Earl Scruggs for the first time. It changed my life. This past Labor Day weekend at the Earl Scruggs Music Festival, I felt that same magic in the air.”
It is impossible not to mention southern hospitality when talking about Earl Fest. Cliches abound about the way that northerners and southerners care for their guests, and we are not going to repeat them here, but we did feel a unique warmth from both the festival crew and from audience members. It was easy to find delicious and classic Southern food from vendors and in all the festival restaurants, of which there were many. Delicious bourbon mixed drinks like the Bluegrass Bellini were also easily in reach, which meant that we very much had to pace ourselves!
While we saw and felt all these subtle cultural differences between the north and south, the most significant thing we realized is that folks in the north and south share a passionate love of bluegrass and a respect and appreciation for the musicians on and off the stages.
As I mentioned before, it is Earl Fest’s incredible lineup that inspired us to attend the festival. Friday night’s main stage performers included Authentic Unlimited, Sister Sadie, The War and Treaty, and The Wood Brothers. That was just a warmup for Saturday night’s “blow you away” lineup starting with Town Mountain, followed by Sierra Hull, Sam Bush, Alison Krauss and Union Station. As if that wasn’t enough, on Sunday, we saw The Earls of Leicester, The Del McCoury Band, Watchhouse, and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
Just as impressive were the musicians who played on the Foggy Mountain Stage, situated in the middle of the vendors and restaurants. The crowds could get closer to this stage, where everyone had a great view of the bands. It was an unexpected treat to listen to several of the bands and musicians we have recently heard on Bluegrass Junction but had not yet seen perform. Standouts included Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, Darren Nicholson Band, Reedy River String Band, and one that is now in our top ten bluegrass bands, the Fireside Collective.
If that wasn’t enough, both the Legends Stage and the Silver Spoon Saloon offered a mix of unique conversations with and about musicians like the well-attended conversation between Craig Havighurst with Emily Frantz and Andrew Marlin of Watchhouse, which highlighted their North Carolina origins and their innovations as collaborators for more than fifteen years. My personal favorite was a conversation with Katie Harford Hogue, Rachel Baiman, Sam Bush, and Tony Trischka about the bond between Hartford and Scruggs. These more intimate events also included an Appalachian Circle Dance workshop and an educational multimedia experience focusing on the local and regional music history of Western North Carolina. The organizers of this festival clearly and mindfully wove the heritage and history of bluegrass music into just about all aspects of the weekend. We didn’t have a moment to spare as we took advantage of as many opportunities as possible over the three-day weekend!
It comes as no surprise to us that the IBMA awarded The Earl Scruggs Musical Festival with the 2025 Event of the Year! While this may be a once-in-a-lifetime festival for us, it has opened our bluegrass world and inspired us to explore bluegrass festivals beyond New England. We encourage others to do the same. There is nothing quite like driving through a landscape which echoes the places and beauty we hear in the lyrics of so many bluegrass tunes. In the end, we’d like to give Stuart Duncan the final word on this festival. He told us, “It’s so good to see The Scruggs legacy live on to include such diverse yet related musicians. Earl was, after all, far from being a traditionalist. He was a trailblazer that changed the world. Anytime I revisit a recording of his that I thought I had fully absorbed years ago, I hear something else that I had missed. He is still teaching us.” We couldn’t agree more!
