IBMA World of Bluegrass will return with in-person events in Raleigh this year
After a completely virtual event last year, the IBMA World of Bluegrass is set to return to Raleigh with a mostly in-person event this fall, organizers announced Tuesday.
The World of Bluegrass will run Sept. 28 to Oct. 2 in downtown Raleigh and include virtual streaming options for some events. The five-day event will include the IBMA Business Conference, the IBMA Bluegrass Ramble showcase series, the 32nd Annual IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards and IBMA Bluegrass Live! powered by PNC.
Events will be held at the Raleigh Convention Center, the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, the Red Hat Amphitheater and other downtown Raleigh venues.
In addition, IBMA announced that it has extended its contract with the City of Raleigh to host the festival through 2024.
“We're also excited that World of Bluegrass will continue to call Raleigh home through 2024,” said Morris. “Raleigh is welcoming, flexible and creative, and has become the essential stop each year for those in the bluegrass community.”
David Brower, one of the event organizers, said, adding more space was the biggest priority. To ensure everyone is safe and comfortable, the very popular "Dance Tent" will not be included this year.
"Square dancing, the music that goes along with this, includes touching strangers, which we may not be quite ready to do yet," Brower said.
The festival will span from Duke Performing Arts Center to Martin Street and all the way over to the PNC arena to give people space to move around.
On Oct. 1-2, IBMA will hold its free street festival, Bluegrass Live!, in downtown Raleigh. The festival will include ticketed performances at Red Hat Amphitheater. Performers will include Béla Fleck's My Bluegrass Heart featuring Michael Cleveland, Sierra Hull, Justin Moses, Mark Schatz and Bryan Sutton; The Del McCoury Band, Steep Canyon Rangers, Yonder Mountain String Band, Jerry Douglas, Edgar Meyer & Odessa Settles; Sister Sadie and The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys.
Despite the street festival being free, organizers said the main stage performances would be fully ticketed with a low-price admission option to help maintain health and safety measures requested by the city. Premium seating tickets are available for purchase, with additional seating and lawn tickets available later this summer.
Adam Lindstaedt, owner of pour house in Raleigh said he's been hosting music events for 3 weeks now. But there's still some hesitancy among the public.
“There’s definitely a little bit of PTSD still going on. A little bit of weariness from a lot of folks not quite comfortable to go out in that type of setting yet,” Lindstaedt said.
He hopes the bluegrass event will set the tone for music events to return, and give people a sense of comfort to attend.
"Slow but surely, everyone is coming back out," he said. "The hope is that, as more people start producing music events, COVID is going to be a thing of the past and people will have forgotten it and moved on with their lives and enjoy themselves."
All street stages and Raleigh Convention Center events are free of charge and open to the public, although modifications might be made to deal with crowd sizes.
Performers for the Bluegrass Ramble, planned Sept. 28-30, will be announced at a later date.
Reserved tickets for IBMA Bluegrass Live!, conference registration, hotel room reservations and other IBMA World of Bluegrass events are available for IBMA and PineCone members now. Tickets for non-members go on sale at 11 a.m. on June 15.
WRAL has been a long-time sponsor of the World of Bluegrass.
