Imagine a festival big enough to have all of the bands, vendors, activities and amenities you desire, but small enough to avoid the hassles of long lines, $20 beers and disgusting portojohns?
Imagine a festival that successfully walked the line between truly being family friendly for the young (and young at heart), while also being a heck of a party for the grownups.
Imagine a festival that’s clean, friendly, organized, easy and so much darned fun that it just keeps growing every year without ever attracting the wrong kinds of music fans.
Now, stop imagining. Start coming to Rooster Walk.
Located in the rolling foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the 13th annual Rooster Walk Music & Arts Festival will take place May 25-28 (Memorial Day weekend) near Martinsville, Va.
Over four days, approximately 50 bands representing a wide swath of genres will perform 90+ sets of music at Pop’s Farm, a pristine 150-acre outdoor music venue that’s located less than an hour from Roanoke, Va., Danville, Va., Greensboro, N.C., and Winston-Salem, N.C.
Headlining bands include Greensky Bluegrass (Saturday), St. Paul & The Broken Bones (Fri), Pigeons Playing Ping Pong (Fri) and The Marshall Tucker Band (Sun). The full lineup also features Neal Francis, Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country, Kitchen Dwellers, Doom Flamingo, Trouble No More, Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, The Lil Smokies, Orgone, Brandon “Taz” Niederauer, Dangermuffin, Yarn, Neighbor, Mike and the Moonpies, Kelsey Waldon, The Stews, Crawford & Power, Jon Stickley Trio, Erin & The Wildfire, Sol Driven Train, The Judy Chops, Songs From The Road Band, Dave Eggar Band, Sneezy, Jared Stout Band, Cristina Vane, Empire Strikes Brass, Into The Fog, The Wilson Springs Hotel, Isaac Hadden Organ Trio, TC Carter Band, Sanctum Sully, Blue Cactus, Rob Cheatham & Co., Big Fat Gap, Jules & The Agreeables, Oh Christopher, P&HCC Jazz, Pirates of the Piedmont and the Junior Appalachian Musicians.
In addition, each year Rooster Walk books a talented cast of solo “artists at large” to sit in with other bands throughout the weekend. This year’s batch features Ron Holloway (sax), Jeff Sipe (drums), Josh Shilling (keys/vocals), Erin Lunsford (vocals/guitar), Wallace Mullinax (guitar), Robby Carden (harmonica) and Jake Dempsey (bass).
With much of the beautiful on-site camping under mature hardwood canopy forests, Rooster Walk offers an incredible on-site experience featuring six stages, a robust Children’s Area, a plush VIP Only Area, plus a litany of elite food, art and craft vendors, craft beers, wines and more. The festival has partnered with Blue Ridge Outdoors to provide an array of outdoor excursions during the event, including guided river floats, fly fishing trips, road bike rides, slacklining, nature hikes, and more.
Multi-day and single-day tickets are available, and for non-campers, the festival provides a free off-site that runs on a constant loop to and from partnering hotels in the area. Children ages 12 and younger are admitted free of charge with a paying adult.
Rooster Walk Inc., is a 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to promoting music, arts and education in our home of Martinsville-Henry County, Va. The festival was created in memory of two fallen friends from childhood: Edwin “the Rooster” Penn and Walker Shank. A portion of festival proceeds go to fund an endowment scholarship fund for Martinsville High School students, as well as a Band Instrument Program for local public school band programs. To date, Rooster Walk Inc. has donated more than $286,000 to local and regional charities.
For more information on the festival, including bands and tickets, visit us here.
