![]() Today is the day we look beyond winter and think about our first long road trip of 2023 to enjoy a music festival once again. If you have the itch to follow the roads south and hear some truly spectacular music, we think that you will not regret making the trip to Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, in April 2023. Keep an eye out for more lineup announcements from MerleFest. From that flatbed trailer stage at the 1988 Eddy Merle Watson Memorial Festival to today, and looking into the future, MerleFest will continue to draw fans from all over the world to the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains each spring to make music, moments, and memories together. MerleFest started as a small festival set upon a flatbed trailer as a fundraiser to help the community college back in 1988, and today MerleFest typically draw s 75,000 to 80,000 festival-goers throughout the four-day festival. Please check out the full 2023 lineup here. In addition to new artists, award-winning MerleFestveterans Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, and Peter Rowan are returning again to the stages of MerleFest. The initial lineup announcement includes North Carolina's favorite sons, The Avett Brothers, country mega-star and Highwoman Maren Morris, and the genre-weaving cultural collective Black Opry Revue. Speaking of lineups, MerleFest 2023 is set to be another spectacular edition of the festival. To understand the magnitude of world-famous artists that perform at MerleFest, please look no further than the past lineups. Road trip aside, people flock to MerleFest because of the sheer depth of talented artists grace the thirteen stages during the four-day event. MerleFest has camping options for your car, tents, and RVs, but there are also ample hotel accommodations in Wilkesboro. ![]() The highway is sprinkled with picturesque landscapes, comes within an earshot of Devils Backbone Brewing's Basecamp (we recommend stopping there for a tasty meal), and every mile is dotted with spring flowers, including the ever-present Eastern Redbud trees along the highway. Although this drive will take you six hours from Washington, DC, the journey is worth the trip. ![]() MerleFest is the perfect excuse to cruise straight down picturesque I-81 alongside the Shenandoah Valley and Blueridge Mountains. There is that intangible sense that "we should pack up the car/tent/camper and make our way down to MerleFest," which is recognized as one of the premier music festivals in the country and also one of the first festivals in the calendar year. Many of us in the Washington, DC Metro Area have heard of MerleFest and always ponder making the journey to Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Over the years it has expanded to include Americana, classic rock, and other emerging music. MerleFest is a celebration of "traditional plus" music, a unique mix of traditional, roots-oriented sounds of the Appalachian region, including old-time, classic country, bluegrass, folk, gospel, and blues. Merle Watson was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in October 2019. MerleFest was founded in 1988 in memory of the son of the late American music legend Doc Watson, renowned guitarist Eddy Merle Watson. In addition to reaching such a prolific festival milestone, MerleFest will also honor and celebrate North Carolina's beloved son - Doc Watson. MerleFest just shared its initial lineup for the 2023 edition of their festival - the 35th edition of MerleFest. How glorious it is to have something to look forward to on the cold winter nights that lay ahead. It is hard to imagine that the ground has not frozen over yet, nor thawed out, but yet we already have our sights on 2023. Twenty Twenty-Three is shaping up to be an extra special year in the roots, americana, and bluegrass world as the music community celebrates what would have been Doc Watson's 100th birthday.
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