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Mountain Dance and Folk Festival Through Tonight in Asheville

The Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, the country�s longest running folk festival, marks its 78th year of highlighting mountain culture. The Festival runs for three full evenings of dance, music, and storytelling through tonight at the Diana Wortham Theatre at Pack Place in downtown Asheville, NC.

Founded by Bascom Lamar Lunsford in 1928, the Festival celebrates the early musical traditions handed down by generations and recounted at the homes of the early settlers in the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains.

Beginning at 7 PM each night, the Festival formally showcases the best of the region�s mountain musicians and dancers � old-timers as well as the newest generation of bluegrass and mountain string bands, ballad singers, storytellers, big circle mountain dancers, and cloggers.

Audiences at each of the three performances will see an extensive line-up of musicians and dancers from in and around the mountains; each evening features at least four dance teams, from the very young to the young at heart.

Festival emcees and a sampling of the many performers scheduled for each evening (note � schedule is subject to change):

Thursday: Hosts Maggie and Zack Lauterer. Performers include Cole Mountain Cloggers, Steep Canyon Rangers, Shape Note Singers, Don Pedi, Mud River Ramblers, Appalachian Attitude Cloggers, Joe and Karen Holbert, Denise O�Sullivan, Cattaloochee Boys, Maggie and Zack Lauterer, UNCA Dancers, Dan Lashbrook, Greasy Beans, Melanie Rice, Slight Departure, and Dixie Darlin Cloggers.

Friday: Hosts Laura Boosinger and Flora McDonald Gammon, with performers Mountain Valley Cloggers, Hogtown Squealers, Laura Boosinger, Bruce Moody, David Brose, Green Valley Cloggers, Roberta and Furman, McDowell Family, Danny Johnson, Old Time Mountain Dancers, Peg Twisters, Flora McDonald Gammon, Queen Family, Lena Jean Ray, and Appalachian Mountaineers Cloggers.

Saturday: Hosts Richard Hurley and Glenn Bannerman. Performers include Belles and Beaus Cloggers, Buncombe Turnpike, Phil and Gaye Johnson, Betty Smith, The Dowden Sisters, Bannerman Family Cloggers, Hickory Grove, Harry and Jeannie West, Bailey Mountain Trio, Richard Hurley, Stoney Creek Cloggers, Blue Ridge Tradition, Trantham Family, George and Brooke Buckner, and Southern Appalachian Cloggers.

Tickets (Regular, $15; Children 12 and under, $8, 3-night package, $36) for Mountain Dance and Folk Festival are available from the Diana Wortham Theatre at Pack Place box office in Asheville (NC), 828-257-4530. For more information on the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, please call the Folk Heritage Info Line at 828-258-6101 x 789, or visit their web site at www.folkheritage.org.