Shakori Hills Community Arts Center

Call Directions Website Contact the organization

Shakori Hills Community Arts Center The GrassRoots Festival presents over 40 bands spanning world-wide traditional styles and genres. We are looking for someone to take the lead on the garden.

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 & Bluegrass 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!

Congratulations to all of our winners from the 19th Annual Hoppin' John Fiddlers' Convention this year! Big thanks to ev...
09/24/2026

Congratulations to all of our winners from the 19th Annual Hoppin' John Fiddlers' Convention this year! Big thanks to everyone who participated, attended, jammed, or volunteered in any way. Shakori Hills wouldn't be such a special place without each and every one of you!

That’s a wrap on the 19th Annual Hoppin' John Fiddlers' Convention! A huge congratulations to all of this year’s contestants, and especially to our 2026 winners. We’re grateful to everyone who brought their music, dancing, cooking, and creativity to Shakori Hills Community Arts Center! (If you see any errors/misspellings, please holler at us!)

Here’s the full list of winners:

🎻 ADULT CONTESTS

Mandolin
🥇 Zeb Gambill
🥈 Alex Meredith
🥉 Andrew Burns

Bass
🥇 Jacob Brewer
🥈 Ben Noblit
🥉 Chris Stockard

Guitar
🥇 Jen Maurer
🥈 Zeb Gambill
🥉 Alan Barnosky

Duet Singing
🥇 Maggie Thornton & Emilyn Bishop
🥈 Ed Norman & Soo Keith
🥉 Ashlee Watkins & Andrew Small

Folk Song
🥇 Ashlee Watkins
🥈 Jon Newlin
🥉 Madison Cox

Banjo
🥇 Sam Harris
🥈 Lilli Shelton
🥉 Devon Flaherty

Fiddle
🥇 Nathan Vargo
🥈 Andrew Small
🥉 Michael DeVito

Instrument Duos
🥇 Erynn Marshall & Carl Jones
🥈 Alex Meredith & Zeb Gambill
🥉 Nathan Vargo & Lilli Shelton

Adult Dance
🥇 Julie Chiles
🥈 Kelsey Sutton
🥉 Nathan Vargo

🧒 KIDS CONTESTS

Kids Folk Song
🥇 Layla Sawyer
🥈 Cody Sawyer
🥉 Sam Purvis

Kids Fiddle
🥇 Miles Kexel
🥈 Esamae Riley
🥉 Shepard Riley

Kids Other Instrument
🥇 Miles Kexel
🥈 Esamae Riley
🥉 Shepard Riley

Kids Dance
🥇 Walter Lewis
🥈 Miles Kexel
🥉 Alice Lewis

🎶 BAND CONTESTS

Old-Time String Band
🥇 The New Floyd County Ramblers
🥈 The Horse Thieves
🥉 Doctor O’Connell’s Country Dance Orchestra

Bluegrass Band
🥇 The Cultivators
🥈 Tiny Cowboy
🥉 Rocky Top Bottoms

Non-Traditional Band
🥇 Shady Grove
🥈 Ferrum College Roadshow
🥉 Super Critter

🍲 COOK-OFF

🥇 Shady Grove
🥈 Team Turtle
🥉 Princess and the Cow Peas

🧵 QUILT RAFFLE

🎉 Katherine Baldwin

Congratulations to every one of our winners! And thank you to every contestant, judge, volunteer, musician, dancer, cook, vendor, sponsor, and festival-goer who made this year’s Hoppin’ John such a special weekend. We’ll see y’all again next year! 🪕❤️

🎨 Art by Buffalo Hoynas Jr. AKA Gregory Krolick.

09/23/2026

Is anyone missing this fella from Hoppin’ John? We would love to get him home to his owner. Please share!!!

09/22/2026

Exciting news from the 19th Annual Hoppin' John Fiddlers' Convention in Pittsboro, NC - Ferrum College's Madison Cox takes Third Place in folk song competition!

Madison was later joined onstage by Emily and Rachel Blankenship-Tucker and the trio competed in the band competition as the "Ferrum College Roadshow".

Congratulations, Maddie!

09/22/2026

MORE exciting news from the 19th Annual Hoppin' John Fiddlers' Convention in Pittsboro, NC - The Ferrum College Roadshow takes Second Place in the Non-Traditional Band Competition! Congratulations to Maddie, Emily, Rachel, and Ferrum College!

09/18/2026

Looking forward to photographing Hoppin' John Fiddlers' Convention today and tomorrow, Friday 9/18 & Saturday 9/19.
Also super excited to be seeing A Different Thread | Americana, Folk, Alt Country Music again for this evening’s concert out there. A Different Thread goes on stage after a Nest of Singing Birds, which starts around 7:30pm.

Come on out, if you aren’t already there! Terry and I will be there both days. Located on the same grounds as Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance - Shakori Hills Community Arts Center in Chatham County.

This photo was taken last year of A Different Thread at Doodad Farm - May 2025. 📸 Elizabeth Larson Photography

Hoppin’ John is here!
09/17/2026

Hoppin’ John is here!

09/16/2026

Address

1439 Henderson Tanyard Road
Pittsboro, NC
27312

Telephone

+19197049174

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Shakori Hills Community Arts Center posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to Shakori Hills Community Arts Center:

Shortcuts

Share

Category