Blue Ridge Folklife Festival

The Blue Ridge Folklife Festival fills the Ferrum College campus and the Blue Ridge Institute and Museum's 1800-style farm museum with musicians, cooks, moonshiners, mule jumpers, horse pullers, coon dog racers, and antique tractor fans. The Institute, Virginia's official State Center for Blue Ridge Folklore, calls it the largest regional event of its kind in Virginia. An arts and crafts show of more than 100 artisans sits beside the lakeside folklife grounds, with contemporary work at Franklin Hall and Bassett Field. Four music stages, storytelling sessions, a children's area with a petting zoo and mechanical bull, and the Thunder in the Blue Ridge Car Show share the day. It goes on rain or shine.

Our take: Start at the living-history farm museum if the horse pulls and mule jumping are why you came, then cross to Franklin Hall for the artisan show.