Rain fails to dampen spirits at Merlefest

WILKESBORO — Anyone familiar with Merlefest will say the annual music festival wouldn’t be the same without a little rain.

In fact, on Friday, the only visible cloud in the otherwise perfectly unblemished sky was a black one hanging over the festival and the campus of Wilkes Community College.

“Of course it’s raining, it’s Merlefest,” Timon Van Heerdt said with a laugh. “It’s not Merlefest if it doesn’t rain.”

But a few rain drops, even the very large ones mixed with lighting and some thunder, didn’t dampen the artists’ or the fans’ enthusiasm.

Tiffany Yowell and Hanna Traynham huddled in the rain while listening to Mountain Heart and waiting for bluegrass music icon and Merlefest regular Tony Rice to appear on stage on Friday evening.

Rice, who is a native of Danville, Va., has lived in Wentworth for the past 18 years. And for the past 22 years, he has been picking his acoustic flattop guitar with the likes of Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, John Cowan and, this year, Peter Rowan and Mountain Heart at Merlefest.

Last year, an estimated 80,000 fans of Americana and bluegrass music flocked to Merlefest, the largest festival of its kind in the U.S.

Vendors at Friday’s festival said this year’s crowd was smaller due to the economy, but official attendance numbers won’t be available until after the festival, which featured a number of new offerings, including a welcome stage on which various acts played at the festival’s entrance.

Yowell and Traynham, who are students at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., are both big fans of Rice.

“He’s the reason we came to see Mountain Heart,” Yowell said. “You know he’s going to shake things up.”

Traynham is the daughter of Mac and Jenny Traynham, a duo which specializes in the early country duet style of singing and playing old-time country music. This weekend is the first time all three Traynhams visited Merlefest. It was also Yowell’s first time.

But it was the eighth visit for Timon Van Heerdt and his wife, Jennifer, who live in Baarn, The Netherlands.

“It’s the music that keeps us coming back year after year,” he said. “And it’s a great festival.”

A rainbow that came out after the passing storm promised good things to come for the rest of the four-day festival, which concludes this afternoon with performances by Carolina Chocolate Drops and Linda Ronstadt featuring Los Camperos De Nati Cano.