Histories & Harmonies Hootenanny
Join us May 17, 2025 at MidMountain Retreat (338 Arnolds Valley Rd, Natural Bridge Station, VA 24579) for the Histories and Harmonies Hootenanny - a day of storytelling, music, art installations, and craft workshops centered around uplifting songs and stories too often left untold in our region.
Featuring performances, exhibits, or presentations from Ammonite, Geonovah, Harli Saxon, Dr. Nneka Dennie, Betsy Podsiadlo, Soleil Ouimet, Malcolm Davis, Handmade Void, AnaMarie King, The City Salt (Jason Jones), Andy "River" Peterson, and more! Plus, the debut performance of original MidMountain produced folk opera Save from Oblivion, a show focused on the unsung story of Osborne Perry Anderson, the sole Black survivor of the Harpers Ferry raiding party, as narrated by Mary Ann Shadd Cary—his collaborator and a Black female publishing and legal pioneer.
Save from Oblivion contrasts the popular legacies of Anderson and raid leader John Brown, who has achieved mythic status as the subject of a folk song about his corpse, including their afterlives: The cemetery where Anderson, Shadd Cary and tens of thousands of other Black bodies were originally buried in Washington, DC was later displaced and is now a Metro stop. Save from Oblivion re-writes “John Brown’s Body” to focus on Anderson amid original songs that incorporate sounds from historical sites, readings from the source documents, and projections featuring photography of sites of historical sites and original documents. Using a barebones production requiring a trio of performers, digital projection, and a sound system, we are developing a work that is easy to reproduce and forces the audience to consider whose stories we chose to remember.
Stay tuned for more details and the full schedule!
Want to volunteer and help make the magic happen? Reach out to info@midmountain.org.
Early bird pricing pre-sale pricing available until May 1, 2025. Purchase tickets below!
Want to perform?
We have an open call for our Histories & Harmonies Fellowship Cohort available until March 31!
Histories & Harmonies Hootenanny FAQ
Date: May 17, 2025
Location: MidMountain Retreat, 338 Arnolds Valley Rd, Natural Bridge Station, VA 24579
Gates open to the public: Noon
Outdoor musical performances: 2-8pm
Grounds close: 9pm
Scale festival map and final schedule to come!
Two Safety Centers equipped with first aid kits will be maintained by at least one staff or volunteer wearing nametags, reflective vests, and MidMountain gear and with 911 access via cell phones at all times – one in the Post Office Community Center near the entrance, water station and another in the small barn at the back of the main audience area.
We welcome supervised minor guests with parental discretion and will have a variety of arts and crafts experiences suitable for all ages, children under aged 12 may join for free with a ticketed adult. We also welcome friendly, leashed dogs as long as their owners clean up after them!
Community Code of Conduct
We ask all visitors to take responsibility for creating a safe community experience for everyone and follow this code of conduct:
Although there will be discussions of serious topics, this will be a family friendly event with activities available for a range of ages.
Please prioritize the functionality of our space as an inclusive environment regardless of race, gender, sexuality, disability, or other differences. Hateful behavior will not be tolerated.
Assume positive intent and bring positive intention into your interactions with others, acknowledging that we all come from different life experiences.
Ask clarifying questions if you are unsure about something. Communicate your boundaries as necessary. If you need help, look for a MidMountain volunteer or staff member in a reflective vest.
Avoid shaming or belittling each other and ourselves as we approach these hard topics. Embrace self-care or take space if overwhelmed. We will have a designed calm area for for if visitors get overstimulated as well as multiple opportunities to process feelings through craft creation.
Accessibility Information
A water station and two ADA-accessible porta potties as well as Accessible Parking will be available near the road entrance and we are happy to work with folks who need additional accommodations as needed. Due to the age and residential nature of our property, the interior half-bath available as part of the Backstage Passes is not wheelchair accessible, but we have a mobile ramp that can allow access to Backstage Lounge and we are working on long-term plans to improve facility accessibility. We will have a shade-covered, designated accessible audience area with spaced out seating for the main stage as well as a designated calm space with pillows and blankets in a separate part of the property for guests who may become overstimulated or overwhelmed. There will also be a dedicated captioning on our free public livestream of the main stage for the hearing impaired. Please reach out to river@midmountain.org with any accessibility questions.
COVID-19 Policy
We will be strongly encouraging masking inside and ask all attendees to be up to date on COVID-19 vaccination. We will also be asking all performers, staff, volunteers and Backstage Pass holders to rapid test prior to the festival. We are working on our final COVID-19 mitigation plans, including prioritizing airflow in the backstage and green room areas as exploring use of Corsi-Rosenthal boxes or other filtration systems.
Parking
Due to the limits of our site, only General Admission tickets include parking and we strongly encourage carpooling among attendees to reduce traffic congestion and help protect our local environment. To incentivize ride sharing, we are offering Flock of Friend deals thta come with access for four guests and one parking spot. Please note there is no public parking along Arnolds Valley Road near our space and parking alongside the road will put you at risk of ticket and towing.
Other information
You will be asked to show ID and your confirmation email at check-in. We recommend saving a screenshot to your device prior to arrival just in case you have any cell phone issues in our area.
Trash
We ask our community to embrace a leave no trace approach to our space and pack out their own trash or recycling, but will also provide a handful of trash and recycling stations on site as shown by the site map.
Smoking
This will be no smoking festival due to fire risks and we ask that visitors prepare accordingly. However, we will have a designated area being observed by staff/volunteers for art-related ritualistic burning where we will accommodate those who need to smoke for medical reasons.
Documentation Notice
Please note that we will be live-streaming and video documenting much of this festival. By purchasing a ticket, you consent to being filmed in the background and understand you may appear in future media productions from MidMountain. We will ask for affirmative consent before interviews or more substantive engagement with our documentation efforts.
Emergency Plan
In the event of a fire or other emergency, a staff point person will call 911 for assistance. The emcee will make an announcement for people to calmly make their way to an identified Safety Center. Parking attendants will keep roads on site accessible to emergency vehicles and meet them at the entrance to the property at 338 Arnolds Valley Road. The rest of staff and volunteers will join the public in a safety zone and keep them from interfering with emergency vehicles and personnel or blocking the ingress/egress.When first responders have safely contained the situation and it is deemed safe, volunteers and staff will guide the public in batches to leave the property.
Nearby Food and Lodging
On-site lodging will be limited to staff, performers, and volunteers for MidMountain Fest. But there are plenty of places to stay nearby!
The Glenwood-Pedlar Ranger District of Washington-Jefferson National Forest offers numerous free dispersed campsites up the road from on the Petite's Gap route to the Blue Ridge Parkway, along with great hiking, including the Devil's Marbleyard!
There is also a campground available at Cave Mountain Lake Recreation Area nearby in the National Forest.
Jellystone Park at Natural Bridge is a RV and camping resort with a variety of tent and cabin options just up the road.
ThunderBRidge is a nearby artist studio space and campground featuring cottages on Airbnb and rustic cabins and campsites in a developed, but natural, setting in what was once a Civilian Conservation Corp property.
Stanimals 328 offers very moderately priced hostel-style lodging and a limited number of private cabins, as well as camping spots, just up the road in Glasgow. A favorite of Appalachian Trail folks!
Nearby Hotels:
Nearby Bed and Breakfasts or unique lodgings:
The Histories & Harmonies Hootenanny is a community project of MidMountain, a 501(c)3 nonprofit arts collective and project in constant growth that believes in the power of people to reclaim space and caring for your neighbors. The majority (75%) of net ticket sales are being redistributed to performers and artists on a profit-share basis and we plan to use the rest to fund future programming.
This event made possible thanks to the generous support of Mid Atlantic Arts and their Central Appalachian Living Traditions Program, Virginia Humanities, and the Appalachian Community.
