With social distancing still at the forefront of people’s daily lives, the organizers of the first ever Bear Shadow spring music festival are making changes to ensure the event can happen safely in 2021.
On Thursday, organizers announced that the Bear Shadow will move from Kelsey-Hutchinson Founders Park to a new venue at Oakleaf Home Farm in Horse Cove. The farm is less than four miles from Main Street and offers more room for spectators to spread out.
The Bear Shadow is scheduled for April 23-25.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with Oakleaf Home Farm in order to safely bring the community together for our first-ever spring event in the Highlands area, with new safety protocols in place in light of the pandemic,” said Casey Reid, partner of Eleven Events and Festival Director. “By moving to a larger outdoor space we can continue to share in this one-of-a-kind celebration of the culture of the Blue Ridge Mountains in a manner that is safe for our ticket holders, artists and staff, and we will continue to update our safety protocols according to the guidelines outlined by government officials as we move closer to the event date.”
Bear Shadow, a music festival named in honor of the bear-like shadow that appears behind the region’s Whiteside Mountain, is a weekend-long event that will feature a variety of live musical acts for nearly any musical taste, from bluegrass and blues to folk and soul, including Devon Gilfillian, Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors, Jamestown Revival, Mandolin Orange, Shelly Colvin, St. Paul & The Broken Bones and The War And Treaty.
Moving the event to Oakleaf Home Farm will allow for 6-8 person COVE seating. COVE is short for contained open-air viewing environments. Each cove will be at least six feet in distance from all other coves and separated by barriers.
Additional protocols, such as mask requirements, temperature pre-screening and increased hand sanitizer stations, have also been implemented for the Bear Shadow event. For more information, visit bearshadownc.com/information/.
“To our knowledge, Bear Shadow will be the first event on the Highlands-Cashiers Plateau to use the COVE seating system,” Wendy Henry, associate with Jeff Dezen Public Relations, said. “We are really excited about the festival and the new venue. We think the farm will be perfect to meet our needs by providing increased social distancing.”
A tickets “on sale” date will be announced in the next few weeks and tickets will be available at bearshadownc.com/. Current ticket holders with “rollover” tickets from the previously scheduled 2020 Highlands Food and Wine Festival event will be contacted directly by Eleven Events within the next two weeks to coordinate cove groups.
Bear Shadow is a production of Highlands Festivals Inc., a nonprofit organization that also produces the annual Highlands Food and Wine Festival.