MerleFest began in the spring of 1988 and has grown from two flat-bed trailers and 4,000 attendees to 13 stages with more than 81,500 festival participants and an annual economic impact for the region in excess of twelve million dollars. According to MerleFest Executive Director B Townes, however, the Eddy Merle Watson Memorial Festival was intended to be a “one time, one night, one man show.”

Townes had the idea of the concert in the fall of 1987 and recruited Ala Sue Wyke, a Wilkes Community College Gardens Board member, and Bill Young, then a banker at Northwestern Bank as well as a first class guitar picker and friend of Doc Watson. The group met with Watson in October of that year. “In his generous way he said… he would be happy to do the concert and he called back and said he could do it on November 14th,” said Townes. “That was less than a month away. I naively said, ‘Great,’ and then learned the next morning from Bud Mayes that you do not simply decide to have a concert today and fill up all of those 1,100 seats tomorrow!

“It was RosaLee and Nancy [Doc Watson’s wife and daughter respectively] who suggested a festival… held at the end of April. From that day forward we began planning a two-day, multiple artist event for Saturday, April 30 and Sunday, May 1, 1988. The proceeds would go to the Eddy Merle Watson Memorial Garden for the Senses.”

While Townes worried about festival logistics, the list of Doc and Merle’s musician friends committed to play the festival began to grow until the concert was a sellout. “We began to feel frustration… because we had all these people… wanting to attend the concert,” said Townes. “I spoke to Cliff Miller… and he suggested moving the concert outside.

“On Friday before the show on Saturday, the first schedule was hand typed by Ralph Rinzler [founder of the Smithsonian’s Festival of American Folklife] and college staff. Mule Ferguson and his team developed promotional materials, and the first festival was held over two days on two stages with a schedule that was written literally hours before the artists performed.”

Beside Watson, the two-day event brought to the stage Earl Scruggs and fiddler Jim Shumate, Tony Rice, Chet Atkins, Grandpa Jones and daughter Alisa, Marty Stuart, Mike Cross, New Grass Revival, David Holt, Jack Lawrence, the Smith Sisters, John Hartford, Mark O’ Connor, Jerry Douglas, George Hamilton IV, and others. “Since it hadn’t been that long since Merle had passed away,” Sam Bush told the Wilkes Journal-Patriot in January 2001, “our thoughts that first year were… centered on wanting to be with the Watson family to celebrate Merle’s life.”

The Merle Watson Memorial Festival Becomes MerleFest

From its two-stage beginning, MerleFest evolved to thirteen stages spread across the Wilkes campus. The second event in 1989, the most bluegrass heavy lineup in its history, witnessed the debut of the Doc & Merle Watson Theatre, its backstage dining area, and the innovative use of the adjacent Cabin Stage as a “tweener” to cover set changes on its larger neighbor. As the festival grew it added the Pit Stage in Thompson Hall, the popular Midnight Jam in the Walker Center, the workshop oriented Creekside Stage, and the Little Pickers family area. A traditional music stage presented by Old-Time Herald Magazine became a popular feature spawning a separate Dance Stage in 1996.

Jamming, or collaborations, among often-unusual combinations of the diverse musical talents at the festival became a defining feature of MerleFest. As award-winning artist Laurie Lewis puts it, “you never know what’s going to happen, what questions people will ask. And you get the chance to play with people you don’t usually perform with.”

In 1992, North Carolina Public Television in collaboration with the community college staff taped all four days of the festival. Edited down into two-hour and eight-hour versions, the series “Pickin’ for Merle” was shown on public television stations nationwide over a three year period. This exposure drove rapid annual growth. Total participation reached 38,433 at MerleFest 1995 marking an increase of almost 12,000 in just two years. The festival made a large contribution to Wilkes Community College’s boast of 63,000 visitors to campus for special events in 1994.

MerleFest also came to touch every student in the Wilkes County schools. On Wednesday and Thursday of festival week the MerleFest Outreach Program, sponsored by Sprint, still reaches out to more than 12,000 public school students, in addition to facilities for the elderly, bringing fiddle tunes and ballads to many who have never been exposed to this genre of music. Additionally, Fridays at MerleFest are designated for certain grade levels in the Wilkes County Public School System to attend MerleFest on “student day.” This gives more than 3,000 students each year firsthand experiences and many, the only opportunity they have to attend.

It Takes a Community

Television exposure brought the Merle Watson Festival to the attention of the general public. As it grew rapidly into a phenomenon, it demanded extensive volunteer resources. The event responded by partnering with non-profit school and civic groups, giving the entire community a stake in the festival.

“Ask MerleFest visitors what drew them here and they'll say the music. Ask what keeps them comingback and they might mention the community they've joined,” wrote Jim Sparks in the April 26, 2003, Winston-Salem Journal.

MerleFest 2006 involved 4072 volunteers donating 40,931 hours of work. Many of the volunteers serve as part of non-profit groups that either provide services for fees or operate food booths or other income-earning activities during MerleFest. By 2005 these groups were earning well more than $300,000 each festival. “We could not survive if it wasn’t for MerleFest. It really is essential for the operation of our programs in Wilkes County,” explained Gary Jordan, Scout Master Troop 335, and shuttle bus coordinator.

MerleFest Takes Wilkes Community College Worldwide

With participants coming from around the world, Wilkes County natives take pride in “their” festival becoming a celebrated event. Doc & Merle Watson’s musical style and heritage have been cited many times as the primary reason why musical diversity has become a hallmark of MerleFest. The eclectic blending of style and tradition remains evident in the selection of artists who have performed at the festival.

“Over the years, [MerleFest] has grown into one of the country's premier showcases of American roots music,” proclaimed an Associated Press wire report on May 1, 2003. The Wall Street Journal for September 18, 2002 announced that “Festivals of Americana music have exploded in popularity, with the largest, North Carolina's MerleFest, attracting 81,000 fans and participants this year.”

By 1996 the vernacular “MerleFest” had become the official name of the highly visible event. As MerleFest gross income exceeded $1,000,000 for the first time in 1998, the festival debuted the Lounge Stage in the Wilkes Community College Student Learning Resources Center. Participation for 1999 climbed to 66,436 from 1998’s 51,065.

Despite its success, MerleFest has continuously made improvements and risked experiments. The Hillside Stage moved to its fourth location in 1998 with enthusiastic audiences making it MerleFest’s largest daytime venue. Over the years, the once flood-prone grounds of the Watson Stage area have been built up, the festival entrance scenario changed more than once, and infrastructure painstakingly improved. In 1998 extensive renovations to the Watson Stage raised its elevation to more than six feet, which significantly improved visibility for all, and the festival provided reserved seats for patrons and four-day ticket holders who purchase this option.

MerleFest 2000 brought a permanent, covered Creekside Stage, a paved road from Hillside Stage to the on-campus RV campground, and the debut of the R&R tent. Following the crowding of its largest single day ever on “Dolly Parton Saturday” of MerleFest 2002, MerleFest 2003 witnessed major improvements in the festival infrastructure that permitted more general admission space. MerleFest 2006 established new records for total participation with 82,640. Through MerleFest 2006, the festival has contributed $7,280,000 to Wilkes Community College.

During its first nineteen years, hundreds of media outlets covered MerleFest. Between July 1, 2005, and June 30, 2006 alone, MerleFest was mentioned in publications read by more than 256,000,000 readers. Local television stations have joined cable outlets TNN, CMT, CNN’s “Aaron Brown Show,” and the Sundance Channel in airing footage from MerleFest. More than eighty radio stations in the USA and Canada partner with MerleFest each year to promote the event. XM Satellite Radio began broadcasting MerleFest live across the United States in 2001. The Voice of America, BBC-Radio 2, West Deutsche Rundfunk, and BBC Scotland have carried the MerleFest story around the globe.

“A lot of people think it’s my festival,” Doc Watson told the Macon (GA) Telegraph, for May 14, 2004. “It’s Merle’s festival, and I respect my son. I’m proud of the success of the festival. I’ve been told it’s the best festival in the world. I don’t doubt it.”