The Dr. Ralph Stanley 

Hills of Home Bluegrass Festival The Dr. Ralph Stanley Hills of Home Memorial Day Weekend Bluegrass Festival held at the Hills of Home Park in McClure, Virginia is one of the longest running bluegrass festivals in the United States.  With the exception of the 2020 and 2021 events being cancelled due to the pandemic, the festival has been held every year since 1970.  Originally titled the “Carter Stanley Memorial Festival,” Ralph Stanley’s son, Ralph II, explains that Carter and Ralph had plans to produce this festival even before Carter passed in 1966.  Ralph II said, “Larry Sparks told me that Ralph and Carter had planned to do a festival.  Larry was staying at my grandma’s house and Carter took him to look over the site and told him that he and Ralph had plans to start a festival there.”  After two or three years, the festival name was changed to “Hills of Home.” Carter and his brother Ralph were born in Dickenson County, Virginia—Carter in 1925 and Ralph