Here's another summer music festival for your calendar - and this time, it's homegrown. The inaugural Gnarnia music festival will take place at the Beech Mountain Resort near Boone on August 9-11.
Gnarnia also offers alternative performances like immersive theater, cirque performers, aerialists, bhangra dancers, stilt walkers, fire dancers, poets, fashion designers, b-boy battles, mud wrestling tournaments and bicycle jousting. There will also be more health-conscious opportunities like guided movement, yoga, meditation and massage along with instructional workshops on activities from urban farming to performance techniques.
The festival follows in the footsteps of an ever-growing number of North Carolina music festivals like MOOGFest, Hopscotch and Bele Chere - although this is certainly the first one where you can both bicycle joust and listen to electronic world music fusion. To take a look at the full lineup and get more information, go to www.gnarniathefestival.com.