Balsam Range, the award-winning and chart-topping bluegrass band from Haywood County, North Carolina, has hosted its own weekend music festival at the Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center in Waynesville, N.C., since 2017.
It is a two-day festival with a kick-off show by Balsam Range on Thursday night as well as shows by the band and a couple of guest acts Friday and Saturday nights and workshops and showcase performances Saturday morning and afternoon. A highlight of the festival each year is the band's performance with the Atlanta Pops Orchestra Ensemble (above), a 14-piece version of the typically 30+ piece Atlanta Pops Orchestra.
We attended the 2022 Art of Music Festival, which celebrated the band's 15th year together, and included shows by the Travelin' McCourys, Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper, Sierra Hull and Justin Moses, Adam and Shannon Wright, and more.
Weekend shows are in the evening in the historic Stuart Auditorium, a theater known to many in the western part of the state who attended summer church camp at Lake Junaluska as kids and teens. Stuart was an open pavilion when it hosted the first meeting of the Methodist Assembly in 1913.
Our photos taken inside Stuart Auditorium prior to Friday night's concerts show it's now a theater with permanent seating for 2,000. Though heated, the round wooden building with large windows can be cool at night, and several audience members in the know brought blankets with them the weekend we were there.
Thursday's show, which is designed as an intimate event for about 150 people, was in the auditorium at Shackford Hall (below), the former religious education building on the Lake Junaluska campus. In previous years, the kickoff has been held at theaters in nearby towns, like Canton.
The lower floor of the Shackford Hall auditorium, seen from balcony seating in our first photo below, was set up with tables. A bar at the back of the theater sold sodas, hot cocoa and wine.
Milan Miller (second from right below), who has written some of Balsam Range's most popular songs, joined the band on stage Thursday and again Saturday as part of the "Studio Dream Team."
Milan Miller (foreground below) and Adam Wright led the songwriters' workshop.
Below, at the band workshop and jam, Balsam Range's Caleb Smith demonstrates the chord progression for "The Touch" for a couple who said they wanted to take the song back to their church's guitarist.
A cello player, below, and two violinists from the Atlanta Pops Orchestra Ensemble's show Friday night joined Saturday morning's open jam.
Balsam Range opened Saturday night's show accompanied by musicians from that afternoon's kids' showcase.
Saturday's Balsam Range show (below) with the Studio Dream Team (Tony Creasman, drums; David Johnson, steel guitar; Milan Miller, guitar; and Adam Wright, piano) was also mandolin player Darren Nicholson's last with the band before pursuing a solo career. Other band members are Marc Pruett (banjo), Buddy Melton (fiddle and vocals), Caleb Smith (guitar and vocals), Tim Surrett (bass, dobro and vocals)
As such, festival tickets are available in packages that include two nights' lodging at either of two hotels at Lake Junaluska and a breakfast buffet each morning. Tickets for Thursday's show are separate.
The Terrace Hotel (below), the newer and more modern of the two hotels, overlooks the lake and is within yards of Stuart Auditorium. Breakfast and Saturday morning's workshops were at the Terrace. It has 105 guest rooms.
The Harrell Center, which hosted Saturday afternoon's shows, is directly across from the Terrace Hotel and has a gift shop, which also serves coffee and ice cream, a library and additional meeting rooms.
The Lambuth Inn (below), which was built in 1921 and renovated in 2018, is on a bluff that overlooks the northern end of the lake. It has 131 rooms, many with views of the lake. On a summer evening, a walk back to the Lambuth Inn from Stuart Auditorium might be pleasant. It's less enticing in the dark of December, but it's a short drive and there's plenty of parking at either end.
Because the Art of Music Festival is not jam-packed with performances, there's plenty of down time, especially between Thursday night's show and the true start of the festival Friday night. This provides opportunity to visit downtown shopping and dining in Waynesville, Canton and Clyde, which you'll likely need to do because there are no sit-down restaurants on campus, other than a crepes and frozen custard shop. (There were two food trucks in front of Stuart Auditorium on Friday and Saturday nights.) It would also be reasonable to schedule a Friday day trip to Asheville (30 miles) or Cherokee (37 miles) or to sites in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Pisgah or Nantahala National Forest or the Blue Ridge Parkway.
There's also plenty of time to relax and enjoy the Lake Junaluska resort ...
A walk along the lake, where 2.3-mile or 3.8-mile loops are available along with the Rose Walk ...
Shackford Hall is seen above and beyond the lake walk ...
Inspiration Point ...
And because it's December, the resort and its hotel lobbies are decorated for Christmas.
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