Earl Scruggs Music Festival set to debut in 2022

The ill-fated debut of the Earl Scruggs Music Festival is now set for September 2022. This large scale event, designed to bring together fans of bluegrass, old time, Americana, and Piedmont blues music, was announced to great fanfare in 2019, with a planned launch in the summer of 2020. We all know what happened to those plans. Postponed until September of 2021, the festival was again victim to COVID panic, and was delayed yet another year.

But this time for sure… the inaugural Earl Scruggs Music Festival will be held September 2-4, 2022 at the Tryon International Equestrian Center in Mill Spring, North Carolina. Built as a partnership with WNCW 88.7 and the Earl Scruggs Center, which will both benefit from the event, the festival will be hosted next year by Jerry Douglas, who will also perform with The Earls Of Leicester.

The founding principle behind this festival was to honor the many musical accomplishments of the one and only Earl Scruggs, and to celebrate the legacy he has left in his wake. As such it will feature performances from artists who continue with the bluegrass music which we call traditional these days, but which Earl helped pioneer with both Bill Monroe and Lester Flatt more than 75 years ago. After leaving Flatt & Scruggs, however, he also involved himself in music that helped define a sound we now describe as Americana, so the festival will showcase acts in that style as well.

The promoters of the Earl Scruggs Music Festival have today announced an initial lineup of artists for 2022, which include:

  • The Earls of Leicester
  • Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
  • Sam Bush Band
  • Alison Brown
  • Acoustic Syndicate
  • Balsam Range
  • Darin & Brooke Aldridge
  • Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley
  • Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway
  • Chatham County Line
  • The Becky Buller Band
  • Dom Flemons
  • Unspoken Tradition

More are expected to be added in the months to come.

Advance tickets sales are in effect now, with a number of general admission and VIP packages on offer. They range from simple access to all music shows and workshops, to deluxe packages that include gourmet table food service and artist availabilities. Full details can be found online.

A portion of the proceeds from the Earl Scruggs Music Festival will go to WNCW 88.7, public radio in western North Carolina and longstanding supporters of traditional Appalachian music, and The Earl Scruggs Center in Shelby, NC which serves as both a museum honoring the legacy of Earl Scruggs, and a community center for the town of Shelby, near where Earl was born.

This promises to become a heralded stop on the summer festival circuit, while also serving to benefit a beautiful section of North Carolina often bypassed by tourists and travelers.

See all the details about the 2022 Earl Scruggs Music Festival online.

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About the Author

John Lawless

John had served as primary author and editor for The Bluegrass Blog from its launch in 2006 until being folded into Bluegrass Today in September of 2011. He continues in that capacity here, managing a strong team of columnists and correspondents.