MerleFest Wilkesboro, N.C.

MerleFest, the sprawling four-day Americana music festival held each April at Wilkes Community College, is what outdoor music festivals should aspire to. It is professionally run and offers hundreds of performances. Many artists play together in combinations that will never happen elsewhere. The festival is held in honor of the late Merle Watson, the son and musical partner of Doc Watson who was killed in an accident in 1985. Since the first show in 1987, it has grown into a celebration of traditional music and the many forms that have grown from it. Doc and such partners as grandson Richard Watson, David Holt and members of Merle’s side band Frosty Morn play frequently during the weekend. Other performers include top touring acts from Americana, progressive acoustic, bluegrass, country and rock; bluegrass mainstays; and up-and-coming groups and artists. In recent years, the festival has presented a mainstream country band as Thursday night's headliner, and a classic rock band to top the Friday night bill. Some acts play only a single evening or Sunday afternoon show on the main stage, but many bands perform several times during the weekend, and some return to Merlefest year after year. The Chris Austin Songwriting contest draws hundreds of entries and has been a boon to the careers of Gillian Welch, Tift Merritt, Martha Scanlan and others. There are also competitions for guitar, banjo and mandolin players, and raffles for musical instruments, ticket packages for the following year’s festival, and other goodies.

As bands set up on the Watson Stage, MerleFest's main stage, other acts keep the music going on the Cabin Stage, to the right (and below).

Merlefest draws 60,000 to 70,000 people over the course of the weekend. It’s an orderly crowd of diverse age. The local school system closes on Friday and gives students tickets, making it a big day for teens at the festival and the most crowded afternoon. The weekend’s headliner plays Saturday night, making it the most crowded evening (Dolly Parton headlined in 2001, contributing significantly to the weekend’s record attendance of more than 77,000). Alcohol is not allowed, though coolers are OK. Backpacks, coolers, chair bags and the like get a quick search on the way in, with more focus on keeping glass out of the grounds than anything else. Free overnight storage for chairs and other gear is available on the festival grounds, and is well run. Shuttle buses operated by local Boy Scout troops run constantly, ferrying thousands day and night between the festival and off-campus parking lots.

The main stage area consists of the Watson Stage, and the Cabin Stage, a log cabin next to the main stage where performers play on the porch between sets on the Watson Stage. The area holds several thousand people, with 48 rows of reserved seats and acres behind them for camp chairs. General admission ticket-holders typically stake out a spot with chairs and coolers at the start of the day, and freely leave them unattended as they head for shows at any of a dozen other stages. Some have second camp chairs, cushions or blankets they carry with them. Until 4:30 p.m., anyone can sit in a reserved seat but must move if the ticket-holder shows up and wants it. At left, The Carolina Chocolate Drops played a Sunday afternoon set on the Watson Stage in 2009.

That's Doc and David Holt above on stage at the Traditional Music tent.

There are stages just about wherever they could find room for one among the campus’ hills, which provide an amphitheater effect at several sites. From the Creekside Stage on one end of campus to the Hillside Stage on the other is a reasonably good hike when you’re trying to get there between shows. It’s also uphill headed toward Hillside. The Walker Center auditorium, where Saturday’s Midnight Jam is held in addition to daytime shows Friday and Saturday, is a nice respite during the heat of the day. But as space is limited indoors, it can be difficult to get into some Walker Center shows. For any show, if you can tear yourself away from the one you’re watching to get to the next one early, you’ll stand a better chance of getting a choice seat. Except for the Dance Tent and the songwriters’ showcase in the Alumni Lounge, the smaller stages shut down for the Friday and Saturday evening shows on the Watson and Cabin stages.

The open lawn at the Americana stage, below, can leave audiences jockeying for shade during midday shows.

Hillside, one of the festival's main stages, below, is true to its name. Several rows of plastic chairs on the pavement in front of the stage fill quickly, and the hillside fills for big shows.

Several top acts play the bowl-shaped amphitheater at Creekside, below, during the festival. Doc Watson usually joins the Spirit of Sunday gospel show there.

The ASCAP stage, below left, is set below a very steep hillside. It wasn't used for the 2011 festival, and shows normally held there were moved inside to the Austin/Lounge stage, right, where Catfish Keith was part of Saturday's Greatest Acoustic Blues Show on Earth.

The length of the rear of the main stage area is occupied by a food concessions tent, where several campus and community nonprofit groups sell a variety of food and drinks. To stage right, a large tent houses CD sales, and just beyond the audience area a convenience store sells batteries, sunblock and the like. Adjacent to the food tent, at the far end of the area, top companies sell acoustic musical instruments and accessories. A separate vendor area offers T-shirts, caps and similar MerleFest ware, high-quality arts and crafts, such as handmade clothing, pottery and lithographs (plus some lesser-quality fare), a tent with Internet access, and many other shopping opportunities.

Some RV and tent space is available on campus, but thousands camp in and around a city park that also has parking along an old airstrip that is served by shuttle buses. Nearby, the YMCA offers a lawn for family camping (at right) – with no alcohol allowed and quiet hours for those who are not interested in partying or picking all night.

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