Volume 38- Issue 4
MerleFest 2008
Alison Brown Quartet with Joe Craven; Donna
Tlie Buffalo; Blue Highway; The Claire Lynch
Band; Dirk Powell & Riley Baugus; Tony Rice;
Peter Rowan; Ollabelle; Sally Van Meter; Rhonda
Vincent & 'The Rage; Pete Wernick & Flexigrass;
Tim O’Brien; The Waifs; The Waybacks; Old
Crow Medicine Show, and many more.
In addition to promoting traditional-plus
music, MerleFest also features heritage crafts
demonstrations and sales along with other
vendors in The Shoppes at MerleFest. This is a
central area of the festival that contains crafts.
merchandise vendors, the official MerleFest Gift
Shop, and easy to grab snacks and drinks. In
addition, this area is where guests of the festival
can find needed services such as information, lost
and found, overnight storage, medical services,
and more.
"This concept has been very well received,”
comments festival director Ted Hagaman,"Not
only does it centralize shopping and services, but
it fiilfilled a goal of our staff to create more green-
space in the middle of the festival and move cars
to the outer edges of the festival grounds.” The
area that The Shoppes at MerleFest now exists in
used to be parking lots. Now, it features shopping
and services along with a large area of grass that
festival-goers enjoy
for reading, meeting
with friends, enjoying
a snack, pickin'
with friends, or just
relaxing.
MerleFest prides
itself on creating
a family-friendly
atmosphere and a
key part of that effort
is the Little Pickers
area, sponsored
by Charlotte and
Greensboro Area
BURGER KING
Restaurants*. This
area is all about the
young and young at
heart. Special
performances
for children
are scheduled
on the Little
Pickers stage and
activities for kids
are coordinated
so that youngsters
can have just
as much, if not
more, fiin than
their parents.
With all this
going on,
MerleFest
attendees get
hungry and when
they do, food
vendors with a
variety of reasonably-priced meals are ready to
serve them. The unique thing about MerleFest’s
food offerings is that each food vendor supports
an area non-profit with proceeds from sales going
towards a groups mission and activity.
That spirit of community involvement and giving
back is found throughout the festival. Over 500 of
individual volunteers, 150 volunteer stagehands,
and over 35 volunteer groups, including college
and community groups, helped to make the
festival a success. “We simply cannot do this
without our volunteers,” says festival director Ted
Hagaman.
Page 11
Photo by Dr. Gordan Burns
MerleFest 2008 is grateful to 80+ sponsors for
their support in making MerleFest possible.
Those sponsors include; Lowe’s, Tyson, Brushy
Mountain Smokehouse and Creamery, Charlotte
and Greensboro Area BURGER KING*
Restaurants, G & B Energy, Hardee’s, MVY
Radio, Pepsi, WXII TV 12, Winston-Salem
Journal, D'Addario, GHS, Gibson, Taylor
Guitar, John Pearce Strings, Embarq, Charter
Communications, SE Systems, Sugar Hill, and
many other fine companies. A complete listing of
all MerleFest sponsors and additional information
about all aspects of the festival can be found at
www.merlefest.org
Photo by Jacob Caudill
Don't forget to check out the
weekly menu posted on
CampusCruiser and The Insider]
Meal Special
1 Meat, 2 Vegetable,
Roll and Large Drink
ONLY $4.95!
Combo Specials
(With Fries and 16oz Drink)
Cheeseburger $4.35
DBL Cheeseburger $5.45
Chicken Sandwich $4.85
Hot Dog $3.10
Learning
takes fuel,
Ent at the
WCC Cafe!
Hours
Mon - Thur 7:30 am -1:30 pm
Friday 7:30 am -1:00 pm
Now accepting Debit, Visa, and Mastercard!