Organizers of the 11th annual Rooster Walk Music & Arts Festival released their “sneak preview” music lineup today, with Shovels & Rope at the top of the early band list.
The Charleston, S.C., roots/rock duo were joined on the bill by progressive bluegrass acts Billy Strings and Mountain Heart, festival mainstays Yarn, Charlottesville jam/rock band Kendall Street Company and rising rock act C2 & The Brothers Reed.
Tickets to Rooster Walk 11 (RW11) go on sale at noon EST on Wednesday (Nov. 21st) through the festival’s website, www.roosterwalk.com
RW11 will take place Thursday-Sunday, May 23-26, 2019 at Pop's Farm, located in the rolling countryside surrounding Martinsville, Va. Rooster Walk is a 4-day festival celebrating music, art, and the great outdoors at the idyllic Pop's Farm venue. With roughly 50 bands performing on 5 different stages, an eclectic roster of great music guides the Rooster Walk experience.
“This is a great start to our lineup, and just a taste of the 50-or-so bands that will perform at the festival this year,” said Johnny Buck, a Rooster Walk organizer. “We’ve wanted to host Shovels & Rope for a while now, so it’s very exciting to have them on board. And then there are some major fan-favorites already on the bill, like Mountain Heart and Yarn, that our fans request each year. We’ve got a lot more bands to come, including the top two headliners.”
In addition to four days of amazing music, the family-friendly Rooster Walk will offer a wide variety of kids' activities, craft beer, great food, arts and numerous opportunities to enjoy Virginia's great outdoors with kayak tours, bike rides, yoga, a disc golf course and beautiful on-site camping.
Rooster Walk has been named one of the Top 5 festivals in the state by the Richmond-Times Dispatch. It also has been voted the region’s Most Creative Charitable Event by readers of Virginia Living Magazine. The festival was created in memory of late Martinsville natives Edwin “The Rooster” Penn and Walker Shank, who graduated from Martinsville High School in 2000 along with Buck and fellow festival co-founder William Baptist.
A portion of proceeds from the festival will be donated to local and regional charities, including Rooster Walk’s own Penn-Shank Memorial Endowment Scholarship Fund for students at Martinsville High School, and the Rooster Walk Music Instrument Program for public band programs in the local city and county school systems. In 2018, Rooster Walk, Inc. donated more than $30,000 to local and regional charities.
The festival is produced by Rooster Walk Inc., a 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to promoting music, arts and education in its home of Martinsville-Henry County. Since 2009, Rooster Walk Inc. has donated more than $175,000 to local and regional charities
