Bluff Mountain Music Festival

The Bluff Mountain Music Festival was first produced in 1996 by the Bluff Mountain Coalition, an informal group of community folks, hunters, environmentalists and business people from the Hot Springs area.  The Coalition held the first three festivals (‘96-’98) as part of their successful grassroots effort to raise funds and awareness and save beautiful Bluff Mountain (part of the Pisgah National Forest) from a destructive logging and road-building plan.  Musicians, artists and the community of Hot Springs pulled together to make the festival happen and began its original free and community spirited format.  The festival helped to publicize Bluff Mountain’s plight far and wide, and gained the Coalition “clout.”  A compromise was reached with the timber industry and now hiking trails and a public parking area have been built where logging roads were once scheduled.  The first festival was a protest, the second a celebration and the third helped to raise funds for trail building and future needs.  And the festival proved so popular that people wanted it to continue!  Bluff Mountain STILL needs to be “re-zoned” for future protection.  In 2005, work got underway to complete a four-mile upper loop trail off of the Betty Place Trail.  It heads up through Bluff’s beautiful upper cove forests, waterfalls and forest vistas.

In 1999, the founders of the Bluff Mountain Music Festival joined forces with the Madison County Arts Council (MCAC) to find the festival a new home.  Since 1999 the Bluff Mountain Festival has been a major “fun”-draiser for the MCAC and its many programs and is one of the largest shows in Madison County.  The performers still donate their time and talents; artists and businesses from around the county and region donate items for the Silent Auction and local non-profit organizations sell food to benefit their cause. In recent years artist booths have been added to the festival, giving attendees a chance to see and purchase local crafts.  Now celebrating its 24th  year, we think it’s the best one-day festival in the country!