The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

Seedtime Festival marking 30th anniversary June 3-4




The media and arts organization Appalshop will present its 30th annual Seedtime on the Cumberland Festival in downtown Whitesburg, June 3 and 4. The event, which is free and open to the public, features a jam-packed weekend lineup of the finest traditional artists and musicians the Appalachian region has to offer.

The 30th annual Seedtime Festival is shaping up to be the biggest and best yet, with a number of local organizations and businesses extending festivities beyond the Appalshop grounds and into downtown Whitesburg over the course of the three-day event. This year’s festival will also feature a kick-off meal event, entitled Feedtime on the Cumberland, held by the Letcher County Farmers Market on Thursday evening, June 2, in the free parking lot by the Veterans Memorial Museum.

Additionally, downtown businesses Heritage Kitchen, The Thirsty Heifer, StreetSide Bar and Grill, Roundabout Music Company and Summit City will also have live music throughout the weekend. In addition to a stellar main stage lineup of traditional and bluegrass musicians, special events include an Appalachian ballads workshop at Heritage Kitchen led by Saro Lynch-Thomason, an educational hike up Pine Mountain with the Pathfinders of Perry County and Jenny Williams, and the largest shape note sing workshop in recent Seedtime history, to be held at the First Baptist Church in Whitesburg.

Another new and exciting addition to Seedtime this year is the sponsorship from West 6th Brewing in Lexington. With this new partnership, the festival will feature West 6th brews available for sale on the festival grounds, with all proceeds benefitting Appalshop and supporting future Seedtime festivals.

This year’s weekend musical line-up includes Lee Sexton, Jericho Woods, Amythyst Kiah, Larry Sigmon and Martha Spencer, The Local Honeys, Chris King and Nigel Jones from Wales, Nikos Pappas, Sam Gleaves, Kevin Howard, Brett Ratliff, Bill & The Belles, The Price Sisters, and Letcher County’s own Sunrise Ridge, among others.

Seedtime will also feature workshops with Dr. Sunshine Brosi of the Society of Economic Botany on Ethnobotany, and with Sarah Fannin and Bill Best on seed saving and sweet potatoes pre2sented by Grow Appalachia. Also featured will be a group sing with Michael and Carrie Kline, literary readings from the Southern Appalachian

Writers Cooperative, a live theater performance by Cowan Community Theater, a gallery exhibit of tintype photography by Lisa Elmaleh, world renowned artisans demonstrating their craft and selling their wares, and of course the long standing tradition of the Carcassonne square dance in front of the Seedtime main stage.



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