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The Blue Ridge Music Center preserves, interprets, and presents the evolving musical traditions of the Blue Ridge Mountains, highlighting the influence of American Roots music on all kinds of music.
Each spring, summer, and fall, the Music Center welcomes thousands of visitors who enjoy some of the region’s finest traditional music, including bluegrass, old-time, folk, Americana, country blues, and gospel. Guests are invited to delight in performances, exhibits, and additional experiences.
Located near Galax, Virginia, at milepost 213 on the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Visitor Center and Museum are open May through October. Admission to the Visitor Center and Museum is free. The grounds are home to an outdoor amphitheater and an indoor interpretive center. The indoor center features a theater, gift shop, and museum that highlights the American musical culture still thriving in the region. Guests are welcome to dance to and learn about the music we are proud to support.
Summer Concert Series
Each year, the Blue Ridge Music Center hosts a summer concert series in the outdoor amphitheater with concerts on Saturday evenings from Memorial Day through Labor Day. The amphitheater sits at the base of Fisher Peak, offering a magical backdrop for performances. Tickets can be purchased in advance or at the gates, and season passes are also available.
Midday Mountain Music
Free live music is presented on the covered breezeway from 12-3 p.m. every day the Music Center is open. Midday Mountain Music features local musicians who play, sing, and tell stories about the songs, people, and traditions of the area. Come sit a spell to listen, learn, and enjoy.
Milepost Music
Milepost Music is a traveling concert held at several iconic locations along the Parkway on a rotating basis. These free concerts are held on Sunday afternoons, 2-4 p.m., June-September at the following locations:
- Humpback Rocks (MP 5.8)
- Peaks of Otter (MP 85.6)
- Mabry Mill (MP 176.1)
- Doughton Park/The Bluffs (MP 241)
- Parkway Visitor Center Asheville (MP 384)
The Roots of American Music Museum
The Roots of American Music Museum features an interactive exhibition highlighting the historical significance of the region’s music. Through the stories of local artists, learn how the history of Blue Ridge Mountain music reaches back for generations. Starting from musical forms from Europe and West Africa, the exhibition traces how traditional music continues to influence folk, rock, and popular music made today.
Visitor Center
At the Visitor Center, you’ll find a gift shop and information about the Blue Ridge Parkway. National Park Service rangers can give you directions and insights for your Parkway journey. The America’s National Park store sells souvenirs, T-shirts, books, and more, with a portion of proceeds benefiting the national park.
Kids of any age can become a Junior Ranger. First, pick up activity sheets specific to the local area at the Blue Ridge Music Center or any Parkway visitor center. Next, complete the activities and promise to help care for and learn about our national parks to earn stickers, badges, and patches. Finally, complete all 10 activity sheets for the Parkway and you will receive a special badge designed just for Blue Ridge Parkway Junior Rangers. Ask for details at the information desk.
Hiking Trails
Guests are welcome to explore the natural beauty of our region on our hiking trails! There is one easy and one moderate hiking trail at the Blue Ridge Music Center, including a Kids in Parks TRACK Trail which features an activity brochure for children.
On The Road
The Blue Ridge Music Center also hosts off-site concerts, exhibits, and additional events during the off-season in partnership with other organizations, including the annual Sounds of the Mountains concerts held in January in partnership with the Yadkin Arts Council.
Strategic Action Plan
The continued growth of the Music Center relies on understanding the interests of its visitors and changing trends in music consumption. To accomplish this, the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation developed a comprehensive strategic action plan to identify opportunities for enhancing, leveraging, and marketing the Music Center’s existing facilities. The plan also informs the development of programs to better serve its visitors and nearby Parkway communities. Through data analysis, extensive engagement with regional stakeholders, and a guided process to co-create solutions, this strategic action plan sets forth 10 strategies across five key themes that accomplish four goals.
Partnership
The Blue Ridge Music Center is operated by the National Park Service, and musical programming is coordinated through a partnership with the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation.
TIMELINE OF THE BLUE RIDGE MUSIC CENTER
1977
The late Joe Wilson (Executive Director of the National Council for Traditional Arts) and Gary Everhardt (Superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway) came up with the idea to create a music center on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Site selected, 2,500 acres, largely donated by the city of Galax.
1988-93
Appropriation by U.S. Department of Interior for planning and development of Blue Ridge Music Center concept.
1998
Appropriation by U.S. Department of Interior for Blue Ridge Music Center roads, planning and building construction.
JUNE 2000
Groundbreaking for BRMC Phase 1 construction: outdoor amphitheater, restrooms, luthier shop. Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway volunteers begin work on the Fisher Peak Loop and High Meadow hiking trails.
MAY 2002
Completion of Blue Ridge Music Center Phase 1.
JUNE 2002
Regular programming begins in the outdoor amphitheater with a weekly concert series, June-September.
JUNE 2003
Groundbreaking for Phase 2: 17,000-square-foot Music Interpretive Center, including 2,300-square-foot exhibition space, 100-seat multipurpose theater, gift shop, lobby, classroom, and offices.
MAY 2004
Dedication of The Crooked Road: Virginia’s Music Heritage Trail. Blue Ridge Music Center is a “major venue.”
JULY 2005
Phase 2 completed. Music Interpretive Center is dedicated and temporary exhibits are installed in the museum.
JUNE 2006
Willard Gayheart and Bobby Patterson start the Midday Mountain Music program at the Blue Ridge Music Center.
AUGUST 2007
Virginia Congressman Rick Boucher dedicates the Blue Ridge Music Center trail system.
MAY 2011
Grand opening of Roots of American Music permanent exhibition at Blue Ridge Music Center.
JUNE 2011
Doc Watson plays the Blue Ridge Music Center amphitheater.
2012
The Blue Parkway Foundation assumes management of the music programs from National Council of Traditional Arts.
JULY 2013
Piedmont Land Conservancy acquires additional 550 acres at Fisher Peak, just south of Blue Ridge Music Center site in Surry County, N.C.
MAY 2015
On May 17, 2015, the nation lost a powerful advocate for folk and traditional arts with the passing of Joe Wilson. Among his many accomplishments, he was instrumental to the creation of the Blue Ridge Music Center.
SEPTEMBER 2016
On Friday, September 2, a slate of performers, including Ricky Skaggs, Alison Krauss, and many more performed for the first annual Show for Joe, in honor of the late Joe Wilson who led the effort to create the Blue Ridge Music Center.
SEPTEMBER 2017
Bobby Patterson, one of the co-founding musicians of Midday Mountain Music, passes on September 24, 2017. Patterson was a long-time promoter of local music, through records he made of local musicians on his Heritage Records label, his work with the Galax Old Fiddlers’ Convention and support of the Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM) program.
AUGUST 2017
On August 27, 2017, the Blue Ridge Music Center welcomed its largest crowd for a performance by Old Crow Medicine Show.
APRIL 2019
The Blue Ridge Music Center convened its first conference on the topic Mill Towns and the Birth of American Music.
JUNE 2019
Mandolin Orange and the Winston-Salem Symphony play a special concert at the Blue Ridge Music Center, the third-largest concert to date.
FEBRUARY 2020
Blue Ridge Music Center reveals a new logo and website.
JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2021
A Place in the Band series included Interviews with women in bluegrass and American Roots music, and an online conference. Videos of all interviews and conference are available on the BRMC YouTube channel. See the A Place in the Band page for links and more information.
JUNE 2021
BRMC conducts the Listen Up Step Up campaign to replace the aging speaker arrays, the first phase of the sound system upgrade. The speakers were in place for the June 12, 2021 concert featuring Hank Pattie and the Current with the Winston-Salem Symphony String Quartet.
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Have Questions? Contact us Today!
Hours of Operation:
Closed for the season
Reopens May 2025
Concert series announced early March
Reopens May 2025
Concert series announced early March