The Floyd Living Traditions Festival Returns — Saturday, August 23, 2025!
10 AM – 6 PM | Floyd Center for the Arts | Free & Family-Friendly
Join us for the 3rd annual Floyd Living Traditions Festival, an all-day celebration of Floyd County’s traditional art and music. This year’s festival honors the region’s rich cultural heritage through live demonstrations, performances, hands-on workshops, and interactive activities.
Presented by the Floyd Center for the Arts in partnership with the Handmade Music School, this free, family-friendly event draws thousands each year to experience the sights, sounds, and flavors of Appalachia. Free parking with shuttle service will be available at Floyd County High School.
Across the festival grounds, nearly 70 artists and tradition bearers will showcase skills passed down through generations, from blacksmithing, basketry, weaving, and woodworking to luthiery, broom making, cornhusk dolls, and more. Visitors can watch, ask questions, and connect with the craftspeople keeping these traditions alive.
The Outdoor Stage, curated by Handmade Music School, will feature a full day of music including the Little River Missionary Baptist Choir, Tyler Hughes with The Crooked Road, the Handmade Music School Youth Ensemble, Laura Boosinger & Mike Compton, Up Jumped Trouble, and two powerful tributes: The Comptons: A Tribute to Randall Hylton and Tribute to the Floyd County Ramblers with George Slusher & Mac Traynham, presented with the Old Church Gallery.
Inside the barn, the Indoor Stage will offer a variety of music and movement, including the Floyd Historical Dancers, an artist talk Learning to See Again: Loss & Resilience by Charlie Brouwer, flatfooting with Sophie Moeckel (Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship recipient), the June Bug Center’s JAM (Junior Appalachian Musicians) Program, and the Floyd Contra Dancers.
New features this year include a live sheep shearing demonstration by Lord Willin Shearin and a presentation by the NRV Master Gardeners in the new FCA Dye Garden, beside the recently opened Loom Barn. Storytelling from Blue Ridge Story Space and Let Me Tell Ya! will take place on the Pottery Porch.
Inside the galleries, explore Kindly Mirrors, presented by the Old Church Gallery in the Hayloft Gallery, and Lamentations and Exultations, a solo exhibition by Charlie Brouwer in the Falcon Gallery. The FCA Art Silent Auction runs August 16–23, closing during the festival, with proceeds benefiting the Floyd Center for the Arts.
The festival also offers artisan vendors, kids’ activities, local food trucks, homecooked pinto beans and cornbread, and a beer garden — making it a perfect day for the whole family.
Special Kickoff Event: On Friday, August 22, join us at the Floyd Country Store for an evening of music starting with the Floyd Shape Note Singers, followed by a gospel set, and closing with the Whitetop Mountain Band. Tickets at the door: $10 adults, $7 youth (7–12), kids 6 & under free.
The Floyd Living Traditions Festival is made possible by Skyline National Bank, Mid Atlantic Arts’ Central Appalachia Living Traditions program, the National Endowment for the Arts, Virginia Humanities, the Town of Floyd, Floyd Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram, Floored LLC, and Virginia Tourism. Festival Friends include Thomas & Wall Real Estate, Crenshaw Lighting, Red Hill General Store, and Finn Graphics.
More info and full schedule: www.floydartcenter.org
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