Wow…what a weekend! For the second year, Spark Media Collective had the privilege of providing official social media promotion and photography for the 2016 White Squirrel Festival. In it’s 13th year, the White Squirrel Festival is a free 3 day music festival held in downtown Brevard, NC during Memorial Day weekend. With over 30,000 attendees over the course of the weekend, this festival has truly become a “must do” event each Spring.

There are a lot of music festivals going on almost every weekend in Western North Carolina. What makes the White Squirrel Festival so unique is its family-friendly atmosphere alongside food trucks, beer garden and great live music. One of the big events for the weekend was the return of the Squirrel Box Derby. Kids and adults racing their handmade cars down the notorious ‘Courthouse Hill’. After a short hiatus, the students of Transylvania County Schools picked up the event and did a great job managing and running this classic event.

As the White Squirrel Festival is held on Memorial Day, Saturday starts off with the Memorial Day Parade and Presentation of Wreath Ceremony. Complete with fly overs, high school marching bands and inspiring speeches, the Memorial Day Ceremony was a reminder to honor all those that have sacrificed and fallen for our country.

At the eastern side of town, a music stage was set up that stretched the width of the 3 lane street. The view from the stage is about as good as it gets. A full length view of the festival with Bracken Mountain as the back drop. It’s hard to imagine a downtown with a view as picturesque as Brevard.

The music lineup this year was a great mix of bluegrass (or ‘new-grass’), Appalachian, singer-songwriter and folk rock. With headliners along the likes of Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors, Jon Stickley Trio, Town Mountain and Sarah Siskind, it was hard to say that there was a day that you could have skipped.

The White Squirrel Festival is always a treat for us here at Spark Media Collective. We kept Facebook and Instagram up to date with a constant stream of photos and video from the entire festival. With the added feature of event photography, we created Facebook albums for each day of high quality images, capturing the full experience of the festival.

So, another great White Squirrel Festival is in the books and we’re already excited for next year! If you haven’t made it yet, definitely put this one on your calendar…you won’t regret it. A big thanks to the Heart of Brevard for having us back again this year and to all of you for coming out and being a part of such a great event. See you next year! #WhiteSquirrelFestival