Get to Know Local History: Blue Ridge Folklife Festival

These horses are simply massive! Blue Ridge Folk Festival, Ferrum College Virginia

UPDATED: 2/4/2023

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Each October around the time that you think you should get outside and enjoy a fall weekend before the chillier weather arrives, Ferrum College has a perfect event planned to meet your need. The annual Blue Ridge Folklife Festival has been held for 45 years at the college in (of course) Ferrum, Virginia, about an hour from Roanoke.

The festival is really centered around regional music, livestock activities, as well as crafts and other items of note, such as historic farm vehicles.

Not originally from this part of the country, my three trips in to the festival in 2010, 2014, and 2018 have opened my eyes to things I otherwise wouldn’t have learned or experienced. I love animals so it is no surprise that some of my favorites over the years have been the sheep herding (if only my dogs were as well trained!), mule jumping (who knew?!), horse pulls, and coon dog water races. There is also a plethora of regional music under several tents and spanning from gospel to bluegrass.

mule jumping at the blue ridge folklife festival

I feel the need to expand upon mule jumping so that those who have never seen it and likely never will can understand this from the viewpoint of a casual observer. First, we may remember from our childhood days of learning farm animals that a mule is a sterile mix between a (female) horse and (male) donkey. I’ll leave that part to the imagination…

So, mule jumping is what it sounds like - a mule jumping over a gate/post. Its origins are likely regional to the south and began as a way to address a practical need when mules went on hunts. When their riders came upon a fence, they’d get off, put a cloth over it (perhaps to protect against injury, perhaps to help the mule better see it, or a combination thereof), and then they urged the mule to leap over. In competitions such as those at the festival, you’ll get a sense of individual mule’s personalities - some seem willing to take leaps beyond their capabilities (the dreamers!), others let their donkey stubbornness out and simply stand there once the gate gets too high (the pragmatists!). To be clear, I would never try to jump over anything equally high in front of me, so all of them deserve a lot of credit!

clogging at blue ridge folklife festival

In many of the music tents play traditional bluegrass style music, there are wooden boards placed on the ground for anyone to come up and give it a go at clogging. While we have seen people of all ages, most commonly it is older participants who are up and at it, likely dancing as they learned as children in the area.

The first time I saw clogging, I didn’t know quite what to make of it. It is sort of like tap dancing but requires keeping the upper body stiff and some different foot motions. There are different types of clogging, and the type seen in this area is called flatfooting with minimal foot motions. The clogging found in the Appalachian region is believed to have been the conjoining of a few different parts of dance around the world. A lot of settlers to the area were from the United Kingdom - Scots-Irish and British - and the clogging is similar to styles in that region, but also there are some additional movements and steps that originated in Africa and came to the area through the slave population. The best way to understand what I am describing is to see it for yourself. Watch a TED video that depicts it here.

All three times I’ve gone to this festival, I’ve chosen different elements to watch. With multiple activities at once, all attendees have to pick and choose where to be during any portion. This alone makes it worth coming back again and again: you can always see something new!

I think festivals like this are important to preserve the history of areas around the world as skills, dances, and songs that used to be common knowledge risk becoming relics of the past. There have been immense efforts put forth in the Appalachian region by groups and individuals who recognize the important historic value and seek to capture culturally important stories and songs before they are lost to time. One such organization is the not-for-profit Appalachian Memory Keepers.

There are writers who grew up in the Appalachians who have used their unique lens into the region to tell their stories and bring that world to a broader population. A great example of that is Lee Smith’s Fair and Tender Ladies, told in an epistolary novel format. It follows the trials and tribulations in a mountain town as Ivy Rowe grows from youth to old age across the middle of the 20th century.

If you’re interested in our book reviews on three books we would recommend on the Blue Ridge folklife, culture and history, check that out here.