The Appalachian and folk music Fly Around Festival returns to Lansing, North Carolina, this weekend.
The mountain town of about 130 people in Ashe County was devastated by Hurricane Helene’s aftermath, with up to eight feet of water in downtown businesses. Festival proceeds will support continued restoration efforts, transforming the WPA-era Lansing school into a new cultural arts center.
Organizer Chris Jude says this year’s Fly Around is a mix of some of the state’s finest traditional pickers and artists who push the envelope, like headliner Jake Xerxes Fussell.
"He is, in my opinion, one of the most important interpreters of folk music going these days," says Jude. "And the way that he kind of recrafts these songs to sound so present, yet they're hundreds of years old, he's an amazing artist."
Other performers in the two-day event include Murphy Campbell and P.G. Six. Fly Around Festival is on Friday and Saturday in Lansing, nine miles north of West Jefferson.