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,