The 2026 Appalachian Heritage Festival, scheduled for September 24 through 27 features events on the Shepherd University campus as well as multiple venues around Shepherdstown.
Jake Blount has played Carnegie Hall, Newport Folk Festival, and NPR’s Tiny Desk — and this year, he’s playing Shepherdstown. The Smithsonian Folkways recording artist headlines this year’s Appalachian Heritage Festival in Shepherdstown, running September 24 to 27. He’s joined by master musician Dave Bing and percussive dancer Becky Hill.
In addition to main-stage performances by these and other performers, Festival-goers will have close-up opportunities to learn about and enjoy the region’s music, dance, and storytelling traditions.
Festival events will take place across Shepherdstown: an old-fashioned square dance is scheduled for Friday, September 25, and a showcase concert for Saturday, September 26, both on an outdoor stage on King Street.
Additional events will take place at the Shepherdstown Opera House, Alma Bea Restaurant, the Byrd Center Auditorium, and Reynolds Hall on campus. These include a film screening, demonstrations, community singing, and jam sessions. The University’s much loved “Little House” (a child-sized house built in the late 1920s by a Shepherd College teacher and her students) will be open Saturday, September 26, 11am-1pm, with Appalachian children’s activities.
As Shepherd University’s Rachael Meads shared with The Observer a few years ago, the Festival traces back to 1996, when she and English professor Dr. Linda Tate hatched the idea during a car ride home from an Appalachian Studies Association conference. Meads has organized the Festival ever since. Tate, now retired from teaching, returns this year to headline a session with a reading from her family memoir, Power in the Blood.
Admission is free to all Festival events, with donations welcomed.
>>>Full 2026 schedule & event details…
A 30 Year History
Shepherd University has hosted the festival every year since 1996 except for 2020 (when it was cancelled due to pandemic restrictions) and 2024 (when it was cancelled due to funding constraints). The links below connect with stories about past events and the history of the festival:
- 2025 Festival (September 12-14)
- ObserverWV (Aug 13)
- Shepherdstown Chronicle (Sep 19)
- Shepherdstown Chronicle (Aug 29) [Editor’s note: The Chronicle story incorrectly states that the festival did not take place between 2020 and 2024].
- 2024 Festival (no event)
- 2023 Festival (September 23)
- 2022 Festival (September 24)
- 2021 Festival (September 25)
- 2020 Festival (no event)
- 2019 Festival (September 20 – 28)
- 2018 Festival (September 22)
Published in the Observer Weekly 2026 Aug 13. Updated 2026 Sep 11 (links to coverage of prior festivals).
By Steve Pearson