Shakori Hills
Grassroots Festival
of Music & Dance

Silk Hope, N.C.

  

The Shakori Hills farm in Chatham County presents several concerts and other events each year, but it’s primarily known for the spring and fall Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music & Dance. The festival, hosted by Donna the Buffalo, is a younger sister of the Finger Lakes Grassroots Festival of Music & Dance that Donna puts on each July in Trumansburg, New York.

There's plenty of room
at the front of the Meadow Stage
to kick up your feet and,
on a warm, dry afternoon, a little dust.
Shakori Hills has a distinct neo-hippie/green vibe, and draws young and old music fans, as well as families with kids for a wide range of music. (The alcohol policy prohibits “public display,” calling for the use of cups and coozies.)

One recent Saturday night on the Meadow Stage featured bluegrass stalwarts the Del McCoury Band, progressive acoustic favorites The Waybacks and jazz chanteuse Nnenna Freelon followed by Donna the Buffalo. Elsewhere, most acts are from the Americana/bluegrass and jam-band realms, but you can expect just about any kind of popular music over the course of each festival’s four days and four stages. It’s a great place to discover new and different acts – we saw the Romanian Gypsy punk band Luminescent Orchestrii there for the first time (when they had three female fiddlers in the lineup) and for weeks were telling everyone we knew to try to catch their show.

The spring festival’s lineup often provides a preview of lower-tier bands heading next to Merlefest, and the fall festival attracts regional bands that have just played the Carrboro Music Festival. Donna the Buffalo typically plays Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, often with such friends as Jim Lauderdale.

At top left, James Nash of The Waybacks
and, below, the venerable Del McCoury.

The Meadow Stage (at right) is on a slightly sloping field that accommodates the largest audience. The Grove Stage is right around the corner from the main stage, and sometimes louder Meadow Stage shows bleed into acoustic performances there. Across the grounds, the Dance Tent and smaller Cabaret Tent are each intimate settings that can spur hot performances.

Acoustic acts play the Grove Stage, left.

The Dance Tent, at right on a Saturday afternoon, holds more than 2,100 people, and fills to become one of the hotter venues on festival nights.
A covered porch next to the Coffee Barn (where a local co-op also sells pastries, baked goods, wraps and sandwiches) hosts smaller acoustic performances. There’s also a battle of the bands, musician competitions for fiddle, banjo, guitar and mandolin, a poetry slam and dance workshops.

The festival keeps the kids amused with lots of crafts, storytelling, music, dance and games that children and other family members can take part in. Paperhand Puppet Intervention leads Saturday afternoon’s parade (left), which everyone is invited to join. Each evening, an informal drum circle keeps a continuous rhythm around a bonfire. Healing arts practicioners offer massage and other bodywork therapy during the day, and there are tai chi, yoga and other movement arts clinics available over the course of the weekend, as well.


Play is a big part of Shakori Hills, with tents and space dedicated to kids' activities, at left, and another set up for Carrom games and demonstrations.
A clutch of vendors peddle jewelry, tie-dyed clothing, hats, candles and other arts and crafts along one side of the Meadow Stage area and on the field at the center of the farm. Several non-profit/advocacy groups and other vendors are also positioned near the Grove Stage. About 10 food vendors occupy one end of the center field, and a coffee barn annex has recently been built at the rear of the Grove Stage area.

 


Return to April or October Music Festivals or our home page.

Visit Our Sister Sites
Carolina Outdoors Guide   This Land, Your Land   The Medium, The Message