MerleFest
merlefest annual traditional plus music festival held wilkesboro north carolina campus wilkes community college festival held last weekend april hosted grammy award winner doc watson prior death named memory honor son eddy merle watson died farm tractor accident originally festival annual homecoming event memory merle watson believed festival got name woman called asking ticket merlefest festival founded doc watson primary fundraising event wilkes community college attracts crowd consistently exceeding number making one largest music festival united state estimated festival brings million business tourist revenue wilkes county surrounding area year music spread across different stage four day provides festival visitor wide variety musical venue group style choose merlefest offer mix traditional contemporary root music music blend doc named traditional plus brings together bluegrass contemporary acoustic blue folk oldtime music cajun jazz country celtic americana rock singersongwriter music artist often enjoyed onstage jam session featuring unusual combination musician bob weir formerly grateful dead singing sam bush gillian welch waybacks artist performed merlefests stage first year included dolly parton willie nelson earl scruggs kruger brother carolina chocolate drop john prine alison krauss union station donna buffalo natalie macmaster vassar clements hot tuna alan jackson darius rucker david grisman ricky skaggs emmylou harris jerry douglas del mccoury billy string junior brown mary chapin carpenter claire lynch elvis costello howard armstrong randy travis lyle lovett doobie brother robert plant band joy sharon gilchrist avett brother tony rice françois vola old crow medicine show steve martin steep canyon ranger zac brown band dierks bentley linda ronstadt levon helm taj mahal bruce hornsby cadillac sky vince gill list bluegrass music festival list country music festival list folk festival official website