After having to cancel both the past three festivals, we are beyond the moon to be able to welcome back our festival friends the weekend of Thursday, October 7 through Sunday, October 10, 2021!
Early Bird tickets are on sale now!
This post will be updated soon with FAQs, including details on previously purchased tickets and the full lineup when it is released.
For the past 30 years the GrassRoots Festivals have been a part of your family and you have been a part of ours.
We have come together several times a year in the spirit of music, art and community, and what started as a benefit to support AIDS related causes has transformed into an engine for expression, creativity, education and critically weighing the issues of our time in order to create positive change in the community.
This feels like one of these times where all of this matters the most.
As a 501(c)3 non-profit organization we have worked very hard to keep this festival belonging to you, our fans, and each ticket purchased or volunteer hour performed has been instrumental to this mission.
We don’t have large pools of corporate sponsors as we have kept our festival an authentic experience, free from the boundaries of corporate influence. Each donation or ticket has ensured that this remains your festival, and for that the GrassRoots Festival Organization is very grateful for the generations of fans that have come together in this spirit.
Now, for the first time since the festival began 30 years ago, with an entire year of GrassRoots Festivals postponed, we need your support more than ever.
In order to raise the $100,000 needed to prepare for the 2021 season, the GrassRoots Festivals are bringing the spirit and essence of GrassRoots to your living room with Save Your Roots, a live stream event from the State Theatre in Ithaca, NY on Saturday, December 19, 2020.
So please save the date and help us launch the GrassRoots Festivals into the next 30 years by joining your GrassRoots Family to Save Your Roots.
The Shakori Hills Community Arts Center (SHCAC) will hold a virtual Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival October 8 through 11.
Carol Woodell, SHCAC board president said, “In this year of unprecedented global action to combat the Covid virus, we thought a virtual festival would help people escape to the hills of Shakori in their minds, since we can not gather in person.”
The virtual festival will act as a fundraiser for the 501(c)3 non-profit that functions as the steward of the 72 acre tract of land located in Pittsboro, NC.
To join, simply log-on to our Facebook, YouTube, or TwitchTV channels starting at 7:00 p.m. Thursday, October 8.
“Since the pandemic hit we have had to cancel two GrassRoots Festivals, which are our main source of revenue, in addition to the Hoppin’ John Old Time Fiddlers’ Convention, and multiple programs for children and families in Chatham and Orange counties. We have had several outside groups cancel their rentals of the land and experienced a virtual halt to all inbound lease inquires. This fundraiser will help us ensure the land is still there for generations to enjoy years from now, as they have for he past 18 years,”
SHCAC has set up two easy ways to donate to the organization, via PayPal or ThunderTix, which the festival ticketing system. If donors have purchased tickets in recent years they can use their ThunderTix log-in to simplify the process.
The virtual festival will feature archive performances from the Shakori Hill GrassRoots Festival, which started in 2003, including festival founders Donna the Buffalo and festival regulars such as The Del McCoury Band, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Jim Lauderdale, and Dr. Bacon.
A Beautiful Feeling, the GrassRoots movie that was recently selected for the Carrboro Film Festival, will kick off the festival on Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. Immediately following the film the movie’s director and executive producer will join the stream for a live Q&A session.
Music will start Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 11:30 a.m. and include a mix of audio and video throughout the day.
Viewers will experience at home performances by Ellis Dyson and the Shambles, The Shoaldiggers, Momma Molasses, Golden Shoals, Onyx Club Boys, Grand Shores, and The Tan and Sober Gentlemen.
“We want to thank all the bands who have donated their time and performances to this virtual festival. We encourage you to purchase music or merchandise from these band’s websites to help them endure this time in our history.”
Check the schedule page for the full list of performers.
Pittsboro, North Carolina, July 13, 2020 – The 17th Annual Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
All tickets purchased for the event, originally scheduled to host the Del McCoury Band, Rising Appalachia, Donna the Buffalo and many others October 8 through 11, 2020, will be honored at the next festival.
“Despite the beautiful summer weather, we encourage music lovers everywhere to wear masks and stay socially distant so we can enjoy the simple things in life again, like dancing with friends at Shakori Hills,” said Carol Woodell, board president.
The biannual festival, held every spring and fall, is the largest program for the non-profit Shakori Hills Community Arts Center. The Center provides low-cost to no-cost music, art, and sustainability education in the North Carolina counties of Chatham, Orange, and Durham.
Woodell continued, “We are putting the pieces together to host a virtual festival October 8 through 11. This will be a programmatic fundraiser for the Shakori Hills Community Arts Center. We are working on the details and will have a formal announcement of the schedule at a later date.”
Donations to Shakori Hills Community Arts Center can be made via PayPal on www.shakorihills.org or via the blue donate button on the SHCAC Facebook page.
Festival questions can be submitted to shakorihills@grassrootsfest.
The brutal murders of George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor join a long and painful history of extrajudicial murders of Black people. A passionate national and international protest movement against the discriminatory and violent treatment of Black Americans has emerged. Now is the time to take a stance—silence is complicity. In the face of racial inequality and injustice, it can be seen, or worse felt, like collusion. Addressing issues of racial injustice and white supremacy brings discomfort. Such uneasiness is incomparable to the daily life experiences of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.
Shakori Hills Community Arts Center understands the devastation that racism, inequality, and prejudices of any type brings about, so we want to be clear on the fact that we believe that Black Lives Matter. In light of recent events we have been reflecting on the role that Shakori Hills, an organization we founded together as a community, can play in this fight, and have come to recognize that we, like so many other organizations, should be doing more to support the Black community and as well as all other racial and cultural minorities, the LGBTQ community, Senior Citizens, Military Veterans, the Learning Disabled, Hearing and Visually Impaired, and all other individuals that are consistently marginalized.
At Shakori Hills we work to bring people together. We work to meet on a common and just ground—share, celebrate, and appreciate our differences. But we recognize that is not enough. As board members, we recognize that seven of nine of us are white, and with that comes white privilege.
As a board, we will not tolerate racism and commit to actively working against racism and for justice, we understand this is a lifelong, organization-long commitment. We will move forward with a commitment by vowing to do better. The country’s racial inequality has been made somberly clear. As an organization with a unique voice and broad audience, we are utilizing our platform to take a stand. Black Lives Matter and doing what is right matters. We are committed to fighting for justice, and for speaking up. We are committed to listening, listening some more, learning, and understanding.
We have revised our mission statement (additions underlined):
Shakori Hills Community Arts Center’s mission is to provide diverse, culturally significant arts, music and sustainability education and inclusive outreach to our local community and schools, while preserving the greenspace of its 72-acre Chatham County homestead.
This is just a start. We ask you, our community, to give us honest and open feedback of what we can do to better foster inclusivity, diversity, and social and racial justice.
Because knowledge is power, we recommend visiting the website of our friends at Abundance NC for a list of resources to help educate non-black individuals for what we know is right, as well as resources to support Black-owned businesses.
With gratitude,
Darrell Phillip Foushee, Board member
Charly Lowry, Board member
Andrew Branan, Board member
Carol Woodell, Board President
Clark Coppola, Board member
Jim Graves, Board Vice President
Jordan Puryear, Board member and co-founder of Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music & Dance
Lissa Farrell, Board Secretary and co-founder of Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music & Dance
Susan Reinecke, Board member
Dearest Friends,
The time has come to make a tough decision regarding the 18th Annual Spring Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance.
As you all know, Shakori Hills is a very special place that brings together music and dance fans twice a year to celebrate life and art. Therefore, you know how painful it is to announce the cancellation of the Spring 2020 festival due to the coronavirus.
Carol Woodell, board president of the Shakori Hills Community Arts Center (SHCAC), would like you to know, “In the interest of slowing the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and with particular concern for the health of our festival family, the performers, staff, and our Chatham County community, it is with deep sadness that we are canceling our Spring festival,” said Carol Woodell, board president of the Shakori Hills Community Arts Center.
The SHCAC is also cancelling all other programs until further notice, including all Road to Shakori shows, the Junior Appalachian Musicians classes, and multiple voice and art classes.
Carol said, “We choose to be proactive, given Governor Cooper’s Executive Order and the CDC’s recent recommendation that large events and mass gatherings be cancelled or postponed for the next 8 weeks. While we very much hope life returns to normal by early May, we are mindful of the scientific consensus that unknowns lie ahead. We want to see all of our supporters back healthy and safe in October.”
As previously announced, no ticket refunds will be given, instead SHCAC is waiving the no transfer clause of the purchase agreement.
All tickets and camping passes will be transferred to the fall 2020 festival, happening October 8 – 10.
However, ticket holders who prefer their purchases to be transferred to the Spring 2021 festival (May 6 – 9, 2021) are asked to please complete the online form found on the Tickets page by 5:00 p.m. Friday, April 17, 2020.
Donations to help ensure the continuation of our non-profit festival, and the important mission of the SHCAC to provide music and arts education to underserved communities in the Piedmont, can be made via PayPal on www.shakorihills.org or via the blue donate button the SHCAC Facebook page.
Carol has also made a commitment to everyone who launches a Facebook fundraiser to benefit SHCAC: she will personally donate $25 to every SHCAC fundraiser launched on Facebook.
Festival questions can be submitted to shakorihills@grassrootsfest.org for the quickest response or by calling the office at (919) 542-8142.
Thank you for your understanding and support. We encourage you to stay in touch with us on social media and look forward to seeing you in the fall to celebrate!
Sincerely-
Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival Staff
Dear Friends,
We are reaching out to assure you we are monitoring the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) situation in North Carolina. Like many others, we are taking guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization, the State of North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, and other state and local resources. The health and safety of our festival attendees, volunteers, performers, and staff has always, and will continue to be, our highest priority.
We will be working with the Chatham County Health Department and other local and statewide officials to make decisions that are in the best interest of our festival family. We encourage you to follow CDC cleaning and disinfection guidelines which you can find by clicking this link.
At this time we expect the 18th Annual Spring Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance to go on as planned May 7 – 10, 2020.
We understand there is concern around ticket purchases. Our ticket policy, located on the Tickets page of the festival website, states all sales are final. However, in the event of cancellation, any and all Spring 2020 tickets will be honored at your choice of the Fall 2020 or Spring 2021 festival.
For the fastest response, festival questions can be sent to us at shakorihills@grassrootsfest.org.
Thank you for your patience and continuing support as we monitor the outbreak. Please subscribe to our enewsletter, follow us on social media, and bookmark our blog to stay up-to-date.
Sincerely-
Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival Staff
The biannual Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance will be held Thursday, May 7 through Sunday, May 10 and Thursday, October 8 through Sunday, October 11, 2020. These dates will be the 18th annual spring festival and 17th iteration of the fall festival.
Tickets for Spring Shakori Hills GrassRoots will be available at the Holiday Rate starting Weds., Nov. 13 at 10:00 a.m. through midnight Tues., Dec. 31, 2019. The Holiday Rate is the lowest ticket rate offered for the spring festival.
Early Bird tickets will be available starting Weds., January 1, 2020 through January 31, 2020 and at that time tickets will increase to Advance Rates. Tickets will be available at the gate starting Monday, May 4, 2020.
Ticket details for the fall festival will be announced at a later date.
Typically, the festival starts the first Thursday in May and October. It just so happens the first Thursday in May, 2020 falls on Mother’s Day weekend.
Therefore, we are going to celebrate moms at the spring festival! There will be a champagne toast on Mother’s Day and we are working on several other programs to say, “thanks, Mom!” More details will be announced as we get closer to the spring festival.
The fall festival in October has been moved back one weekend and will start the second Thursday of the month. This change is due to the way 2020 falls on the calendar.
Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance is a non-profit event that benefits the Shakori Hills Community Arts Center, itself a non-profit. The Shakori Hills Arts Center provides free or greatly reduced music and arts programs to rural communities in Chatham, Orange, and Durham counties.
The festival takes place on 72 acres outside of Pittsboro that have been described as a, “music lovers’ paradise.” The site accommodates four stages and an average of 50 acts per festival. Recent headlining acts include Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real, Galactic, and Steve Earle.
More information can be found online at www.shakorihillsgrassroots.org and by searching for the #ShakoriHills hashtag on social media.
This post will be updated with any changes throughout the festival.
We are implementing a burn ban for the 16th Annual Fall Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance.
This includes all open flames, such as campfires, Tiki torches, charcoal fires, etc… Gas grills are allowed. Camp Rangers will be enforcing this ban.
Conditions on the property are very dry and we ask that you keep this in mind throughout your stay with us this week.
We know how much the fires add to your festival experience and do not come by this decision lightly. However, given that we have not had significant rainfall in the last 30 days, we feel this decision is the safest for all attendees.
The nightly drum circle fire will continue, but we ask that you not burn at your campsite.
Please dispose of cigarettes butts properly and do not smoke within 15 feet of festival structures, including buildings, tents, and vendors.
If you need somewhere to store your butts, check out our new pocket ashtray in the merchandise tent.
Not permitted:
Permitted:
Review our Camping Policies and our Smoke and Fire Tips for additional information.
The Great Pumpkin will be visiting Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance each evening of the festival this fall, lighting the Woods Trail with a parade of mystical, magical jack-o-lanterns.
You can contribute to the beauty and fun by bringing a jack-o-lantern to the festival. We’ll have a crew of Great Pumpkin faithful hanging dozens of jack-o-lanterns in the trees along the Woods Trail and lighting them each night.
And make sure to come up the Woods Trail each evening to take in the spectacle!
Join the “Punkin Heads” group on Facebook if you have any questions or want to share Pumpkin Parade ideas.
Special thanks to the Wilson family (Tim, Kathe, Jeremy, Jacob, and Alex) who started and supported this beloved fall tradition for many years. Tim and Kathe decided to pass this fun activity on to the next generation and we need your help to get it done.
Thank you!
