Bear Shadow spring music festival adds famed keyboardist Chuck Leavell, exclusive music and nature excursions to weekend lineup

Issue: Whats News

An intimate Earth Day evening with keyboardist Chuck Leavell, whose music has been part of songs by The Allman Brothers Band, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, and more, has been added as a kickoff to the weekend of the Bear Shadow spring music festival near Highlands, North Carolina. The event will take place on Thursday, April 22^nd, Earth Day, and will be a fundraiser for the Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust.  The main festival takes place April 23-25, 2021. In addition to the three-day lineup of musical headliners, exclusive excursion activities have been added to the list of weekend activities, including acoustic performances on top of Satulah Mountain, a guitar clinic and a drive-in film festival.

Pre-sale tickets for Bear Shadow are available for newsletter subscribers beginning today at 10 a.m., and general on-sale begins Wednesday, Feb. 3 at 10 a.m. Tickets will be available at bearshadownc.com/.

Bear Shadow, produced by Highlands Festivals, Inc. and Eleven Events, is a music festival named in honor of the bear-like shadow that appears behind the region’s Whiteside Mountain and will feature a variety of live musical acts for nearly any musical taste, from bluegrass and blues to folk and soul, including Mandolin Orange, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors, The War & Treaty, Jamestown Revival, Devon Gilfillian, Love Canon, Shelly Colvin, and Robert Ellis.

The Bear Shadow music main stage, called “Base Camp,” will be held at Oakleaf Home Farm in Horse Cove, less than four miles from Main Street in Highlands. Ticket holders will view headlining acts at Base Camp from inside of 6- to 8-person COVEs, or Contained Open-Air Viewing Environments, spaced at least six feet in distance from other coves, per social distancing guidelines. Additional protocols, such as mask requirements, temperature pre-screening and increased hand sanitizer stations will also be in place at the Bear Shadow event.  FAQ’s and information on the Base Camp experience can be viewed at www.bearshadownc.com/information/.

“The Highlands community and fans of our annual fall event, the Highlands Food & Wine Festival, have shown a fierce appetite for this quality of live music, and we are thrilled to answer their demand by adding A-list talent like Chuck Leavell to our star-studded lineup for our first spring music festival in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Bear Shadow,” said Casey Reid, partner of Eleven Events and Festival Director.

The Chuck Leavell event will include a viewing of a portion of the rockumentary, Chuck Leavell: Tree Man a Q&A session and musical surprises. In addition to his impressive musical repertoire, Leavell is a conservationist and sustainable development advocate whose commitment to the environment has been recognized worldwide, including being named Honorary Ranger by the U.S. Forest Service.

Other events recently added to the weekend’s festivities include:

·       Hike & Mic: In partnership with the Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust for excursions that celebrate the partnership of music and nature, the Hike & Mic event will feature an exclusive, small group hike to Satulah Mountain led by experts from the Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust, live acoustic music performance by Bear Shadow artists at the mountain summit, and post hike refreshments.

·       Guitar Clinic with Robert Ellis: Bring your guitar and settle in for an afternoon of great music, stories, tips and tricks from guitar great and Bear Shadow artist, Robert Ellis, known as the “Texas Piano Man,” Ellis is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in Houston who blends country, pop and jazz.

·       Rock in Film Fest: Those looking for a relaxing evening during the festival weekend can enjoy outdoor showings of the iconic rock-inspired films The Last Waltz, Almost Famous and I’m Not There, at the Performing Arts Center.

·       Barefoot in the Park: Bear Shadow is proud to partner with The Works for a Soulful Fitness Experience that blends vinyasa yoga, meditation, cardio, breath work, plyometrics, core and strength work for a high-energy yoga session Bear Shadow-style set to tunes of the festival DJ. This event will be held at Kelsey-Hutchinson.

For more information, including COVID safety protocols, visit bearshadownc.com/information/.