Shakori Hills: Why It Matters…
Here at Shakori Hills, we support our local music and arts community through diverse cultural events and inclusive outreach to our local schools, while teaching environmental awareness and sustainable living practices. Our most notable events are the twice-yearly Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance in May and October and the Hoppin’ John Old-Time & Bl
uegrass Fiddlers’ Convention each September. Each moment of the festival offers exciting and educational opportunities in which the entire family can participate! There are special children’s and youth areas with games, crafts, and interactive workshops. Children and adult workshops encompass everything from how to play the fiddle, to movement (dance, yoga, etc) or garden classes and seminars on current green issues affecting the world around us. The festival also provides a great venue for education in World Music, volunteerism, and for local food and craft vendors to display and sell their wares. We support our local nonprofit community and organizations by offering space to set up tables and share their mission with thousands of festival attendees and donate festival tickets to local nonprofits to help their mission and fundraising activities. The Hoppin’ John Old-Time & Bluegrass Fiddlers’ Convention brings musicians, dancers and music lovers together in celebration of old-time and bluegrass music, North Carolina’s traditional music. Attendees enjoy dance, instrument and band contests, girlbanjosquare dances, instructional workshops and unscheduled magical moments. The convention helps keep traditional music and culture alive and offers opportunities for young people to play on stage, learn and share the music, regardless of experience or skill level. Now in its 14th year, Hoppin’ John is the only event of its kind in the Piedmont Region. As each part of the land bearing Appalachian traditions has its own nuances and playing styles, the event has played an important role in the preservation of our traditional music and culture. Our longest running program, Roots in the Schools (formerly Hopes and Dreams) brings musicians and artists into local schools. These sessions range from classroom instructional workshops to entire-school concerts. At a time when public schools are cutting music and art budgets, Roots in the Schools (RiS) makes a real difference in our children’s education. RiS operates in conjunction with the GrassRoots Festival and Hoppin’ John Fiddlers’ Convention three times per year, but with your support we can extend it throughout the school year. The Shakori Hills Community Garden is an 8,800 square foot organic garden with three garden crop rotation areas designed to keep the growing and harvesting on a year-round cycle. Anyone interested in participating can, from sharing in the decisions about what gets planted to taking home the harvest. Excess harvest is donated to the CORA Food Pantry. Shakori Hills also partners with other non-profit groups in hosting their events and fundraisers. In 2017, we built a 10-stall permanent public restroom, improved landscape engineering to promote site drainage and beginning the plans for a multi-use community hall for hosting special events, workshops, art and craft shows, classes, dances and small concerts. Work has already begun improving the beautiful trails throughout the 72-acre park and expanding picnic areas to be enjoyed by the public year-round. Fostering and developing our infrastructure allows us to create and host more offerings and events year round through Roots in the Schools, Community Sing classes, and Shakori Hills Junior Appalachian Musicians. Shakori Hills Community Arts Center is a place where everyone can enjoy nature, take strolls on beautiful trails, have family afternoons in the sun and enjoy art, music, family, life and all it has to offer. By building on what we are blessed to have at our fingertips, our local culture will continue to strengthen and prosper!
