FloydFest is a world music

World music

World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...

 and arts festival held annually near Floyd, Virginia

Floyd, Virginia

Floyd is a town in Floyd County, Virginia, United States. The population was 432 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Floyd County. The Town of Floyd was originally named Jacksonville as the surrounding county was formed during the tenure of President Andrew Jackson...

, situated in the Blue Ridge Mountains

Blue Ridge Mountains

The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. This province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which divide near the Roanoke River gap. The mountain range is located in the eastern United States, starting at its southern-most...

. It began in 2002 and has received excellent reviews ever since, earning a name for itself in 2005 when it played host to well-known folk singer Ani DiFranco

Ani DiFranco

Ani DiFranco is an American Grammy Award-winning singer, guitarist, poet, and songwriter. She has released more than 20 albums, and is widely considered a feminist icon.-Biography:...

. It lasts for four days with on-site camping and has over seven stages featuring Rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

, Bluegrass

Bluegrass music

Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...

, Reggae

Reggae

Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...

, Folk

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

, Cajun

Cajun music

Cajun music, an emblematic music of Louisiana, is rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Acadians of Canada. Cajun music is often mentioned in tandem with the Creole-based, Cajun-influenced zydeco form, both of Acadiana origin...

 or Zydeco

Zydeco

Zydeco is a form of uniquely American roots or folk music. It evolved in southwest Louisiana in the early 19th century from forms of "la la" Creole music...

, African

Music of Africa

Africa is a vast continent and its regions and nations have distinct musical traditions. The music of North Africa for the most part has a different history from sub-Saharan African music traditions....

, World

World music

World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...

 and Appalachian

Old-time music

Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music, with roots in the folk music of many countries, including England, Scotland, Ireland and countries in Africa. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dance, buck dance, and clogging. The genre also...

 performers and showcases local Arts and Crafts, in addition to scheduling music and dance workshops and other small events, such as morning yoga lessons, story telling, and poetry readings, and a Children's Universe tent.

The themes from each iteration of FloydFest have been:

2002: Floyd County World Music Festival

2003: Out Of This World Music

2004: Midsummer's Dream

2005: Rock of Ages

2006: Roots Alive

2007: It's in the Mix

2008: Family Affair

2009: Revival

2010: Breaking Ground

2011: The EXperience

FloydFest Performers

Each of the following sections has a list of notable performers for that year.

2003: Out Of This World Music

Baka Beyond

Baka Beyond

Baka Beyond is a world music group formed in 1992 with members from a wide variety of backgrounds and cultures, fusing Celtic and other western music styles with traditional Baka music from Cameroon.-Biography:...

David Grisman Quintet

David Grisman Quintet

David Grisman Quintet is a self-styled alternative bluegrass/ acoustic jazz band founded by David Grisman in 1975 in San Francisco, California, USA. Following the Bill Monroe's bluegrass legacy and Django Reinhard's 30s swing, the David Grisman Quintet comes with entirely new style to the acoustic...

Garaj Mahal

Garaj Mahal

Garaj Mahal is a four piece band, based in the United States, playing a fusion of jazz, Indian music, rock, and especially funk: Kai Eckhardt , Fareed Haque , Alan Hertz , Sean Rickman and Eric Levy...

The Larry Keel Experience

Old and in the Gray

The Hackensaw Boys

The Hackensaw Boys

The Hackensaw Boys are an Americana band from Charlottesville, Virginia inspired by punk, bluegrass, and old-time music. They formed as a quartet consisting of Tom Peloso, David Sickmen, Rob Bullington, and Robbie St. Ours in the fall of 1999...

2004: Midsummer's Dream

Acoustic Syndicate

Acoustic Syndicate

Acoustic Syndicate is a rock/folk/bluegrass band from North Carolina formed in 1992. They have toured nationally in the US, including appearances at Farm Aid and the Bonnaroo festival. Their sound is characterized by three-part vocal harmony and complex polyrhythmic banjo playing...

RailRoad Earth

Railroad Earth

Railroad Earth is a roots and Americana-based newgrass band from Stillwater, New Jersey. Their name was borrowed from the Jack Kerouac short story "October in the Railroad Earth," to which the band also has a song by the same name...

Sam Bush

Sam Bush

Sam Bush is an American bluegrass mandolin player considered an originator of the Newgrass style.- History :...

Scott Perry

Steep Canyon Rangers

Steep Canyon Rangers

The Steep Canyon Rangers are an American bluegrass band from Brevard, North Carolina.In 2008, the band received a nomination from International Bluegrass Music Association for "Album and Gospel Performance of the Year"....

Tempest

Tempest

Tempest or The Tempest may refer to:Tempest, a violent storm- Fiction :* The Tempest, a 1611 play by William Shakespeare** The Tempest , a 1667 adaptation of Shakespeare's play by John Dryden and William D'Avenant...

 

Tom Ohmsen

Tricia Carter

Trumystic

TruSound

Vulgar Bulgars

Zen Fisherman

2005: Rock of Ages

Ani DiFranco

Ani DiFranco

Ani DiFranco is an American Grammy Award-winning singer, guitarist, poet, and songwriter. She has released more than 20 albums, and is widely considered a feminist icon.-Biography:...

Xavier Rudd

Xavier Rudd

Xavier Rudd is an Australian singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He was born in 1978 and grew up in Torquay, Victoria. He attended St. Joseph's College, Geelong....

Donna the Buffalo

Donna the Buffalo

Donna the Buffalo is a band from Trumansburg, New York. They play both originals and covers....

Railroad Earth

Railroad Earth

Railroad Earth is a roots and Americana-based newgrass band from Stillwater, New Jersey. Their name was borrowed from the Jack Kerouac short story "October in the Railroad Earth," to which the band also has a song by the same name...

The Avett Brothers

The Avett Brothers

The Avett Brothers is a folk rock band from Mount Pleasant, North Carolina. The band is made up of two brothers, Scott Avett and Seth Avett, who play the banjo and guitar respectively, and Bob Crawford who plays the stand-up bass. Joe Kwon, cello, and Jacob Edwards, drums, are touring members of...

J.D. Crowe

Hot Tuna

Hot Tuna

Hot Tuna is an American blues-rock band formed by bassist Jack Casady and guitarist Jorma Kaukonen as a spin-off of Jefferson Airplane. It plays acoustic and electric versions of original and traditional blues songs.- Jefferson Airplane side project :...

Corey Harris

Corey Harris

Corey Harris is an American blues and reggae musician, currently residing in Virginia. Along with Keb' Mo' and Alvin Youngblood Hart, he raised the flag of acoustic guitar blues in the mid 1990s...

Kruger Brothers

Kruger Brothers

The Kruger Brothers is a trio of musicians who play new American folk music, or music within the folk genre inclusive of new compositional and thematic elements. The trio consists of Jens Kruger , Uwe Kruger and Joel Landsberg...

Akoya Afrobeat Ensemble

Franck Biyong & Massak

Bryan Vargas & ¡Ya Está!

Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys

Larry Keel & Natural Bridge

Geno Delafose & French Rockin' Boogie

Baba Ola Jagun & His Ancestral Rhythms

Jim Lauderdale

Jim Lauderdale

Jim Lauderdale is a musician & singer-songwriter who performs bluegrass and country music. He has recorded since 1986 and has released nineteen studio albums. Artists who have recorded his material include George Strait and Patty Loveless.-Biography:...

Porter, Batiste, Stoltz

D J Williams

Trumystic

Snake Oil Medicine Show

Dread Clampitt

Asylum Street Spankers

Asylum Street Spankers

The Asylum Street Spankers, formed in Austin, Texas in 1994, was a band whose music was rooted in early 20th century American musical forms. In fall 2006, the band's anti-war satire video "Stick Magnetic Ribbons on Your SUV", directed by Morgan Higby Night garnered 1,054,743 views on YouTube within...

Raquy & The Caveman

Blueground Undergrass

Floetic Ascent Aerial Dance Company

Soldiers of Jah Army

Soldiers of Jah Army

Soldiers of Jah Army is a band based in Arlington, Virginia in the Northern Virginia / Washington D.C. area. Starting as an active band in 1997, their music is produced under the record label Innerloop.-Biography:...

African Showboyz

Scott Miller & The Commonwealth

Kusun Ensemble

Jan Smith

Dub Is A Weapon

Jackass Flats

Cadillac Jones

Appalachian Roots

Michael Farr

Michael Farr

Michael Farr is a British expert on the comic series Tintin and its creator, Hergé. He has written several books on the subject as well as translating several others into English...

Wild Turkeys

Tortured Soul

William Walter

William Walter (musician)

William Walter is a singer/songwriter from Virginia. He is the lead vocalist and founder of the band William Walter & Co.-External links:*...

Beggar's Circus

Hoorah Cloggers

The Non-Profits

Bebop Howdown

Mando Mafia

Scott Perry

Discordian Society

Old School Freight Train

Old School Freight Train

Old School Freight Train is a Charlottesville, Virginia-based band that combines bluegrass, jazz, Latin, and Celtic sounds to create their music.-Successes:...

Blue Mule

Mood Cultivation

Kat Mills

Vulgar Bulgars

None The Wiser

Magic Bronson

2007: It's in the Mix

The Hackensaw Boys

The Hackensaw Boys

The Hackensaw Boys are an Americana band from Charlottesville, Virginia inspired by punk, bluegrass, and old-time music. They formed as a quartet consisting of Tom Peloso, David Sickmen, Rob Bullington, and Robbie St. Ours in the fall of 1999...

North Mississippi Allstars

North Mississippi Allstars

North Mississippi Allstars is a Southern rock/blues jam band from Hernando, Mississippi, founded in 1996. The band is composed of brothers Luther Dickinson and Cody Dickinson , and Chris Chew...

The Duhks

The Duhks

The Duhks is a band from Winnipeg, Canada.The members play a blend of Canadian soul, gospel, North American folk, Brazilian samba, old time country string band, zydeco, and Irish dance music. Hailing from Winnipeg, Manitoba, their music draws heavily on all of the North American musical traditions,...

Sons of Bill

Sons of Bill

Sons of Bill is a five-piece rock and Americana band from Charlottesville, Virginia. Named after the father of three of the founding members, Bill Wilson, the band's sound combines traditional country and folk songwriting with instrumentation and presentation of a rock band...

DeVotchKa

DeVotchKa

DeVotchKa is a four-piece multi-instrumental and vocal ensemble. They take their name from the Russian word devochka , meaning "girl"...

Carolina Chocolate Drops

Carolina Chocolate Drops

The Carolina Chocolate Drops is an old-time string band from Durham, North Carolina, United States. Its 2010 album, Genuine Negro Jig, won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards, and was number 9 in FRoots magazine's top 10 albums of 2010.The Drops are one...

Red Stick Ramblers

Red Stick Ramblers

The Red Stick Ramblers are a Cajun Music and Western Swing band who formed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana while the members were attending Louisiana State University. Their name comes from a translation of Baton Rouge, which means "red stick" in French...

The Seed

Lil' Brian and the Zydeco Travelers

Rose's Pawn Shop

Rose's Pawn Shop

Rose's Pawn Shop is an Americana, bluegrass, rock, rockabilly and country band from Los Angeles, California. Their debut album The Arsonist was released in May 2006...

2009: Revival

Blues Traveler

Blues Traveler

Blues Traveler is a rock band, formed in Princeton, New Jersey in 1987. The band has been influenced by a variety of genres, including blues-rock, psychedelic rock, folk rock, soul, and Southern rock...

 (with special guest "Survivorman" Les Stroud

Les Stroud

Les Stroud is a Canadian musician, filmmaker, and survival expert best known as the creator, writer, producer, director, cameraman and host of the television series Survivorman...

)

6 Day Bender

The Acoustic Burgoo

Adrienne Young & The Old Faithful

American Dumpster

Barline & Collins

The Bittersweets

The Bittersweets

The Bittersweets are an alternative country duo from Nashville, Tennessee, founded by singer-songwriter Chris Meyers and Hannah Prater in 2005...

Blount Harvey

Blues and Lasers

Blues and lasers

Blues and Lasers is an American delta blues rock band from Burlington, Vermont.- Career:Blues and Lasers formed in 2007 in Burlington, Vermont out of The Scott Tournet Band. Scott Tournet set out to create another band with a Delta blues and classic rock sound...

Broken Wire

Cure My Enemy

Dance Afire

Dave Schultz & Skyline

Doug & Telisha Williams

Dry Hill Draggers

Electric Chameleon

Farm Vegas

Folk Soul Revival

Frank Newsome

Galen Kipar Project

Gerald Anderson & Spencer Strickland

Grupo Fantasma

Grupo Fantasma (American band)

Grupo Fantasma is an eleven-piece, Grammy Award winning Latin funk orchestra from Austin, Texas. Formed in 2000 from the merger of two Austin acts, The Blue Noise Band and The Blimp, the band emerged with a sold out show at the former Empanada Parlour in Austin...

Holy Ghost Tent Revival

HuDost

Jesse Chong Band

The Jugbusters

Kill-basa Bill's Roadshow

Kings of Belmont

The Mantras

Mariana Bell

My Radio

Nathan Moore

Nathan Moore

Nathan Moore is an English singer and manager.-Career:First coming to prominence by joining the boyband Brother Beyond as their lead singer, in 1987 , Moore was...

 

New Ballard Branch Bogtrotters

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals is an American rock band from Waitsfield, Vermont.-Career:Grace Potter and the Nocturnals' lead vocalist is multi-instrumentalist Grace Potter, who attended St. Lawrence University for two years before pursuing music professionally...

The New Familiars

Toubab Krewe

Toubab Krewe

Toubab Krewe is an American instrumental band which fuses the music of Mali with American musical styles . The group's instrumentation includes kora , kamelengoni , soku , two electric guitars, electric bass guitar, drum set, and African percussion...

Donna the Buffalo

Donna the Buffalo

Donna the Buffalo is a band from Trumansburg, New York. They play both originals and covers....

No Strings Attached

Onside

Ouros

R.I.S.E

Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band

Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar

Railroad Earth

Railroad Earth

Railroad Earth is a roots and Americana-based newgrass band from Stillwater, New Jersey. Their name was borrowed from the Jack Kerouac short story "October in the Railroad Earth," to which the band also has a song by the same name...

Yard Dogs Road Show

Yard Dogs Road Show

Yard Dogs Road Show is a thirteen-member traveling cabaret that features a unique blend of performances, including vaudeville, burlesque, stage magic, sideshow oddities, and beatnik "hobo poetry." Performances include musical interludes, song and dance numbers, and background music from the Yard...

The Felice Brothers

The Felice Brothers

The Felice Brothers are a folk rock/country rock band from Upstate New York founded in 2006.-History:The Felice Brothers got their start as a band playing in the New York City subway,. The sons of a carpenter, they would play together on Sundays at their father's afternoon barbecues...

The Dynamites featuring Charles Walker

Panjea with Chris Berry & Michael Kang

Emmitt-Nershi Band

The Duhks

The Duhks

The Duhks is a band from Winnipeg, Canada.The members play a blend of Canadian soul, gospel, North American folk, Brazilian samba, old time country string band, zydeco, and Irish dance music. Hailing from Winnipeg, Manitoba, their music draws heavily on all of the North American musical traditions,...

EOTO

EOTO

-Description:The band's music is created live and without prerecorded loops.The band formed in 2006 as a side project of The String Cheese Incident incorporating looper pedals, like Echoplex and the DJ program Ableton. According to one reviewer, the duo sets their live instruments free and take on...

Forro in the Dark

Forro in the Dark

Forro in the Dark is a New York-based collective of Brazilian expatriates that formed in 2002. The group combines the musical style of forró , “the percussion-heavy, rhythmic dance music” of their native Brazil, with elements of rock, folk, jazz, and country....

Lee Boys

Hot 8 Brass Band

Hot 8 Brass Band

The Hot 8 Brass Band is a New Orleans based brass band that blends hip-hop, jazz and funk styles with traditional New Orleans brass sounds. It was formed by Bennie Pete, Jerome Jones, and Harry Cook in 1995, the merging of two earlier bands, the Looney Tunes Brass Band and the High Steppers Brass...

The Horse Flies

The Horse Flies

The Horse Flies are an American alternative rock/folk band, founded in the late 1970s under the name 'Tompkins County Horseflies' by husband and wife Jeff Claus and Judy Hyman, along with Richie Stearns and John Hayward.- Background :...

Pete Francis featuring Barefoot Truth

The Belleville Outfit

The Belleville Outfit

The Belleville Outfit is a cross-genre American folk band based out of Austin, Texas. Their sound has been described as "a mix of gypsy swing, big band jazz and cross-genre Americana music". In April 2007, after three days of practice, they performed their first gig at MerleFest in North...

Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas

Ollabelle

Ollabelle

Ollabelle is a New York based folk music group named after the influential Appalachian songwriter Ola Belle Reed. The group is composed of five singing multi-instrumentalists hailing from disparate parts of the United States, Canada and Australia.-History:...

The Sadies

The Sadies

The Sadies are a Canadian indie rock and alternative country band from Toronto, Ontario.-Background:The band consists of Dallas Good , Travis Good, Sean Dean and Mike Belitsky...

Raw Dawg

The Rogan Brothers

Rooster Blues

Rooster Blues

Rooster Blues is an American independent record label founded in 1980. The label is dedicated to blues music from the Mississippi Delta. Rooster Blues was co-founded by Jim O'Neal in Chicago, and initially released 14 albums by South Side blues musicians. In 1986, O'Neal moved the label to...

Rose's Pawn Shop

Rose's Pawn Shop

Rose's Pawn Shop is an Americana, bluegrass, rock, rockabilly and country band from Los Angeles, California. Their debut album The Arsonist was released in May 2006...

Samantha Crain & the Midnight Shivers

The Steve Johnson Band

Sol Driven Train

Stop, Drop & Roll

Mad Tea Party

Mad Tea Party

Mad Tea Party is a spinning tea cup ride at all five Disneyland-style theme parks around the world. The ride theme is inspired by the Unbirthday Party scene in Disney's Alice In Wonderland...

Luminescent Orchestrii

Sxip Shirey

Sxip Shirey

Gene "Sxip" Shirey is an American composer, performer, and story-teller. He grew up in Athens, Ohio and currently resides in New York City. Sxip started experimenting with found sound composition and extended instrument techniques when asked to compose music for Ohio University’s modern dance...

Boulder Acoustic Society

William Walter & Co.

The Old Ceremony

The Old Ceremony

The Old Ćeremony is a Chapel Hill, North Carolina pop-noir musical group fronted by Django Haskins. Formed in 2004, the group has released four full-length albums, Our One Mistake, on sonaBLAST! Records; and The Old Ceremony, Walk On Thin Air, and Tender Age on the Durham, NC label, Alyosha Records...

Spiral Hoop Dance

Morwenna Lasko & Jay Pun

Barcelona Institute of Gospel

The Whitetop Mountain Band

Blue Mule

Kat Mills

Ananda Bellydance

3 Minute Lovin'

The Smart Brothers

Soulhound

Stephanie Rooker

The Transmitters

Trees On Fire

The Wave

The Wave

The Wave may refer to:* The Third Wave, a 1967 high school experiment inspired by Nazism* The Wave , a made-for-TV movie based on the experiment* The Wave , a 1981 young adult novel by Todd Strasser...

 

Thousands of One

Yarn

Yarn

Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, suitable for use in the production of textiles, sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery and ropemaking. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufactured sewing threads may be finished with wax or...

Reviews for Floydfest World Music Festival

Floydfest '04

"Some larger festivals boast a similar peace, love and music philosophy, but Floyd actually lives it, not just for one weekend, but throughout the entire year." ~Glide Magazine

Floydfest '05

"Floyd sits in a timeless, beautiful section of Virginia, far enough from bigger cities like Roanoke and Danville to feel like it's truly in the middle of nowhere" ~Musictoday Live Review

"The only thing constant on the festival grounds was the flow of culturally powerful music and mud covered feet." ~MSN Music Review

Floydfest '08

"Floydfest is an epicenter of culture for Southwest Virginia" - VA Senator, Mark Warner

External links

• FloydFest X ~ the eXperience Official Site.
• Jambase Review for Floydfest 2003, A Midsummer's Dream.
• Dreaming Creek, Photo Gallery of the FloydFest stage
• Review of Floyd Fest 2008 From HonestTune.com