Spring Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music & Dance starts tomorrow, May 2nd and runs until Sunday, May 5th. Located in Chatham County, North Carolina between Pittsboro & Siler City its close to both the Triad & Triangle. We have friends who have traveled as far away as Florida, California, Washington State, Texas, Upstate New York, & beyond. If you come, you'll enjoy four days of live music, dance, arts, and crafts. You can day-trip to this fun festival or camp all four days. They have a children's area and a place for teens to hang out together. Its definitely family and child-friendly and I love to see that! There's something for everyone to enjoy there. There's a healing arts area where you can get a massage, take a yoga class, attend a 12-step meeting, or just a place to relax.
Have you ever wanted to learn how to swing dance or Zydeco dance? They have workshops for that too. There are also several music workshops throughout the festival including a banjo workshop and an African drum workshop. There are also workshops where you can make things! Last fall, my partner, Terry and our friend Bill both took a didgeridoo workshop and I believe they'll have that again this spring. They'll have food trucks, Homeland Creamery ice cream, beer and wine sales, and a place to get a hot cup of coffee.
This will be my 10th consecutive year since I've been coming, which was fall 2009 - and my 19th Shakori, as they have it twice a year. Since Spring 2014, I've been coming as a staff photographer. Years prior to that, I volunteered pre festival getting the place ready with all kinds of projects from laying the dance tent floor, to cleaning the pizza oven, to planting flowers. Although I enjoyed volunteering, my real love is in photography and capturing all of the magic at the festival. There is so much to see and do!
This morning, I'm sharing just a sampling of my photos from fall 2018. During the fall festival, my photo of the band Donna the Buffalo made it to the program cover and to their poster, so that was pretty exciting. Donna the Buffalo of course will be there, as they are the festival hosts. They'll play several sets throughout the weekend including Thursday evening. And just before they go on stage, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, takes stage. They are the biggest act of the weekend and will definitely draw a crowd. We are also looking forward to seeing Driftwood, Dr. Bacon, Preston Frank with Donna the Buffalo (Zydeco), Zach Deputy, The Broadcast, Travers Brothership, and more! We are always happy to learn about some new to us bands too, so I'm planning to do just that!
They still have tickets available, but don't wait too long! They have 4 day passes, daily passes, and camping. And I'm pretty sure there are still more opportunities to volunteer during the festival too. Check out their website for more information at www.shakorihillsgrassroots.org.
Hope to see you at this unique, one-of-a-kind, and peaceful festival!
all images © Elizabeth Larson Photography | 2018
to see more photos from spring 2018, check out my blog post HERE!
0 Comments