You have to love FestivALL. “A City Becomes a Work of Art.” What makes this a great example of West Virginia’s cultural scene is the mix of world-class artists (Savion Glover, Shemekia Copeland, Jakob Dylan) combined with neighborhoody events such as wiener dog races.
In some ways, our cultural scene reflects one of our other stereotypical traits about not taking ourselves too seriously, but we do in fact enjoy great talent in all shapes and sizes. We’re a state of fairs and festivals, we’re a state of amazing dive-bar and underground live music, we’re a state of informal jam sessions. WV is the spiritual home of the amazing NewSong Festival, and most of its owners reside here. We’re the home of FOOTMAD.
Surprising to some, but we have some classy cultural joints that can stack up against anyone’s. The Clay Center. WVU’s Creative Arts Center. Carnegie Hall in Lewisburg. The new Chuck Mathena Center in Princeton.
But to us, what really represents the eclectic, diverse cultural scene here in West Virginia is Mountain Stage. We’re not sure everyone in the state truly understands the quality and impact of this WV Public Radio-produced cultural export. Larry Groce, Andy Ridenour, the Mountain Stage Band, and the rest of the team have created something rare and special. They bring together the progressive and traditional in a way that only West Virginia can.
Show after show, world-class music artists comment on what a treasure this show is and how special it is for them to have appeared. The show itself sends a sense of community across the airwaves to over 200 radio stations, XM Radio and Voice of America. It is arguably the most positive image-buiding force (perhaps outside of WVU sports) that we have going for us today.
Our cultural offerings reflect the value we place on our sense of place, our community. And that’s a rich asset for us to enjoy and share with the world.
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