Americana Music Magazine – Bluegrass, Roots, Folk, Blues, and Old-Time
Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas, Old Crow Medicine Show, Charles Wesley Godwin, Blackberry Smoke, Molly Tuttle, and Ketch Secor are just a few of the names set to headling the 38th edition of Merlefest, set to take place on the campus of Wilkes Community College, in Wilkesboro, NC, April 23 – 26, 2026.
It’s such an accomplishment to have a festival continue at this level for this long. “I have to give a lot of the credit to the folks that put this festival together back in the early days,” director Wes Whitson, told us. “They had a the vision to do all the good they could with this festival, whenever they could; everything from placing nonprofit organizations in the food booths, and letting them raise money for their causes. The main mission of our festival is to provide student scholarships, and other ways we can fund, and help make real change for folks in our community here at Wilkes Community College. Everything we do goes back to the students and the community here.”
Why It Works
It’s such a well oiled machine, and one that many other festivals have modeled over the years. And while measured growth is often a good thing, Wes acknowledges they are limited by the room they have there. “We are limited as far as real estate goes – we can only fit so many people on campus. So we focus on ways we can grow that helps our community, and hope we can still wow our fans every year,” he said.
“It works out pretty well,” he exclaimed. “Our campus is beautiful, and we’ve got volunteers working all year long to keep it looking good. Especially heading into the spring, they really get at the top of their game, and have it looking really good for festival time. We draw big crowds, but there’s still room for personal space too. There are 12 stages spread across this place. It’s a lot. And it’s a big schedule, but it’s a lot of fun to put together. This year we’re adding a new shuttle to help folks get from the lower parking lot where the Americana stage is, around towards the hillside stage. People who have been here before will understand what that means and how helpful that is.”
The History
Merlefest was originally the, Eddie Merle Watson Memorial festival. As the story goes; Years ago, a horticulture instructor at the college wanted to raise money for the gardens on campus. “The gardens have always been a thing,” Wes said. “He had a friend who knew Doc Watson, and knew that he was very active in his community, and they asked him to do a one time fundraiser to raise money for them. He said he would if they would name the event in honor of his recently passed son, Merle Watson. That’s how it started. It’s been 40 years this fall since Merle passed away, and we’ve got our 40th anniversary coming up in 2028.”
Although the music sometimes seems across the board, you have to understand a little something about how Doc viewed music. “When Doc and Merle were touring, maybe they were at a random club setting up somewhere, and someone would ask, ‘what are we going to hear tonight,” Wes offered, “They would say, ‘we play, traditional plus music. That means we play traditional music, plus anything else we want to play.’ And so the festival adopted that mind-set that Doc brought with him. So we’ve got bluegrass, Americana music, and folk music, but we also have rock and roll, and blues and, and even country music, you know, it’s an open space. We feel like we’re honoring that legacy of Doc and his traditional plus music.”