Maison Fauna is building an ark for Durham's dance animals. BY BRIAN HOWE

DANCE LIKE

Left to right: Sarah Damsky, Nick DeNitto, Joe Bell, and Simon Briggs at Maison Fauna PHOTO BY JADE WILSON

EVERYBODY’S WATCHING

With its new record label and weekly dance party, Maison Fauna wants to hold down the middle of Durham’s growing but scattered electronic club-music scene BY BRIAN HOWE bhowe@indyweek.com

UNRIVALED GROOVE Friday, March 6, 10 p.m., $10 The Fruit, Durham

DECIDUUS Friday, March 13, 10 p.m., $10 The Fruit, Durham

Sarah Damsky, who deejays and makes electronic music as Kir, deleted her Facebook page several years ago. She prefers to hear about events by word of mouth.

“I sniff out people at coffee shops,” she says, laughing. “Anyone who smells like patchouli, I’m like, ‘What are you doing tonight?’”

This sensibility is reflected in Fauna, an underground dance party that last popped up at The Fruit on February 8. It updates an old-school rave experience—to get in, you have to know the hosts, who’ll text you the location a couple of hours before it starts—with new-school Durham’s distinct art-and-magic vibe.

Today Damsky is gathered with her three Fauna cofounders at Manufactur, a creative agency on Ramseur Street. It’s a very Durham space, with high windows pouring creamy natural light onto exposed rafters, tall brick walls, and raw concrete floors. A new decal is affixed next to Manufactur’s on the glass door. It’s the logo of Maison Fauna, the Fauna party founders’ new record label, which they are launching in tandem with DECIDUUS, a new weekly party that will bring national house and techno DJs to The Fruit’s basement every Friday starting on March 13.

Though all four principals stress their hive-minded collaboration, it’s expedient to meet them in pairs.

First, there’s Damsky and Simon Briggs, art-school kids and hardware-heads who moved to Durham together after studying electronic music at the Art Institute of Chicago, and who deejay together as Kir & Swung. They’re a contrasting couple: She—short, short-haired, with expressive gestures—is Maison Fauna’s de facto mouthpiece, timepiece, art director, and UK garage zealot. He—tall, long-haired, all but silent, with a penetrating gaze—is the technical light-and-sound whiz who holds it down for ambient music.

Then there’s Nick DeNitto and Joe Bell, who bring the deep music-industry background. Though not a couple, they, too, make a contrasting pair, with Bell’s man ner as muted as DeNitto’s is extroverted. Born a day apart, DeNitto favors European techno, while Bell is a former rock musician who doesn’t shy away from booking bigtent trance music. But they share a certain club-kid polish, which you can glimpse in DeNitto’s fitted black T-shirt and thin gold chain, or the elegant way Bell crosses his legs and drapes his hands when he sits.

It almost takes a flowchart to map the relationships of all the enterprises brewing in these bright, unfinished rooms. Manufactur is DeNitto’s thing, an agency he cofounded in Los Angeles, where it’s still headquartered. Ephemeral is Bell’s, a yearold effort to bring music-nerd-famous DJs to The Fruit; he books them through his event-production company, Morning Choir. But Fauna, Maison Fauna, and DECIDUUS are the group’s thing.

OK, fine: DECIDUUS is technically a co-production of Morning Choir and Maison Fauna, but this is about to break our flow chart, and you get the gist: lots of brave little brands with fluid borders. What matters is that maison is French for house, which refers to both the music of choice and the ambition to build an ark for Durham’s gentle dance animals. “DECIDUUS” is a Latinization of deciduous, filling in the flora around the fauna to emphasize warmth, beauty, and invitingness in the organizational persona.

To strengthen both their internal commit ment and their pitch to partygoers, DeNitto and Bell went in on a world-class sound system, on par with—indeed, designed by the same guy as—those at clubs like DC10 in Ibiza and Fabrik in Madrid.

“I play UK garage, which has super high highs and super low lows, and the mids are like, plink, a stab every 10 seconds,”

Damsky says. “It often gets completely lost. You want every range to be well-represent ed, and this system has that. You can have a conversation right in front of it.”

You might think of the group’s parties similarly. Fauna has the bass covered— super underground, with local DJs and pro ducers—while Ephemeral covers the treble with international names like Darude and Paul van Dyk. (Next up: Dom Dolla on March 27.)

Soon, DECIDUUS will fill out the mids that get lost in the mix, bringing in DJs who have rising clout but still play smaller rooms, and who usually have little econom ic incentive to play here, to mix it up with locals every Friday night.

It’s an all-in attempt to give Durham’s talent-filled yet embryonic club-music scene the only thing it lacks: consistency.

“Y ou’ve got to meet this guy Nick,” Joe Bell remembers the manager of American Underground telling him a few years ago. “He worked with Skrillex.”

After moving here from Salt Lake City, Bell was using his sociology degree to recruit research participants for UNC and doing social media for local venues. But he’d played in a touring rock band in high school and wanted to get back into music, so he struck out on his own. After traveling around the country meeting people in the concert industry—which led to working on electron ic music festivals with Insomniac Events—he cofounded a marketing agency, Cult Enter tainment, at American Underground.

DeNitto has a similarly career-shifty story. He’s originally from Charleston, where he started throwing parties.

“We were trying to do it like we saw it done in bigger cities,” he says. “We were successful in that we brought electronic music to Charleston, for better or worse. Some people were happy, but some were not, because it was traditionally an indie rock area, like this.”

DeNitto moved to LA at the urging of high-school friend Aziz Ansari. In 2010, he cofounded Manufactur, which does brands and websites for celebrities, consumer goods, and hospitality services. Five years ago, he found himself burned out on LA and thought about moving into wine. His part ner convinced him to stay with the agency but switch cities.

“Moogfest had just moved here, which was a big selling point, and your average wine bar in LA is not as good as Bar Brunel lo,” DeNitto says.

The Maison Fauna crew PHOTO BY JADE WILSON

Like DeNitto, Damsky and Briggs were burned out on a big city and felt the tug of Moogfest. After they graduated from art school in Chicago, they thought about moving to Baltimore but decided on Durham after a visit. Their entrée into the local scene came courtesy of Nick Wallhauser of Raund Haus, the Durham-based collective whose instrumental hip-hop core has been expanding into house and techno.

Briggs went to a Raund Haus event where Wallhauser mentioned to him that Quarter Horse had turntables. So Briggs went by the Durham bar and arcade one evening. The turntables were set up, but no one was playing, and the bartender told him to go get some records.

“Simon texted me while I was working at Gocciolina, ‘I’m DJing at Quarter Horse right now lol,’” Damsky says. “I was like, ‘What? We don’t do that.”

They were brainy hardware producers, not vinyl DJs. But they got to learn in public every Monday night at Quarter Horse after that, as Kir & Swung. Now they’ve spun at The Fruit, Bowbarr, Arcana, with Raund Haus at Motorco, and many other places. “Raund Haus is their own collective, but they’re still so open to everyone else, and we want the same thing,” Damsky says. “We want to work together with everyone to not overbook weekends and to make sure that everyone is successful, that there’s healthy competition but not aggressive competition.”

The first Fauna was an impromptu Moogfest 2019 after-party at Manufactur, thereafter informally dubbed Maison Fauna. There have been three more since. One had a Wild West theme; another was a masquerade. Exclusivity can hold a certain snobbish appeal, but Fauna parties are $20 for an open bar with craft cocktails, thoughtful environmental and lighting design, and a long night of local heat. So it’s accessible for what it is, and the benefits of exclusivity are safety and community. DECIDUUS will open a similar vibe to a broader audience.

“When we first moved here, there would be weekends where nothing was happening and weekends when everything was happening, and there would be 10 people at every event,” Damsky says. “We should

THE ONLY WEAKNESS OF THE HYDRA IS THAT YOU HAD TO MAKE IT ATTACK ITSELF. AS LONG AS WE’RE NOT FIGHTING AND AS LONG AS WE HAVE THE TRUST, I THINK IT CAN BE A LOVE HYDRA. “

be throwing events that help foster a com munity where people show up because they know what to expect.”

Let’s be clear: There’s no shortage of good electronic dance parties in Durham. On any given Friday night, chances are decent that you’ll find something to move with from Raund Haus or The Floor or Party Illegal or The Conjure or many others. If not, maybe NO VISA or Shallow Cuts or Disco Sweat is popping off at Nightlight in Chapel Hill, or a cool underground-techno producer is visiting The Wicked Witch or Ruby Deluxe in Raleigh.

Maison Fauna’s housekeepers aren’t here to compete with existing efforts. They’re here to bump your Friday-night prospects from decent to definite, and to build momentum for the whole local club culture in the process.

“Just to get more DJs from out of town coming here—this is, in a lot of ways, like virgin snow,” DeNitto says. “We want to bring the best, and they’re going to enjoy it, too, because playing in LA or New York is a nightmare for a lot of these people.”

“ANYONE WHO SMELLS LIKE PATCHOULI, I’M LIKE, ‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING TONIGHT?’

On March 6, a week before DECIDUUS debuts, Maison Fauna and Morning Choir are throwing a one-off party at The Fruit called Unrivaled Groove. It’s a chance for Damsky to flaunt her love of UK garage alongside locals like Murad, Monsieur, and Treee City.

UK garage, a descendent of house and an ancestor of dubstep, is an English subgenre full of shuffling breakbeats, staggering kick drums, and time-and-pitch shifted vocals; it formed the basis of Kir’s hardware mix tape, which was Maison Fauna’s first online release in January.

“As a lover of UKG, I get really frustrated with the amount of music released that’s not at my fingertips,” Damsky says. She describes setting her alarm for 3:55 a.m. in the hopes of paying £35 to get a new single shipped overseas before it sells out. Maison Fauna’s second release will be out June 20, a date these rather druidic dance heads chose advisedly, as it’s the solstice. It’s an online compilation mixing locals with producers from LA and elsewhere that will also serve as an aesthetic mission state ment. DeNitto says the group is finalizing a distribution deal with Red Eye, though this wasn’t confirmed at press time. Maison Fauna hopes to keep up a steady stream of monthly releases—singles, EPs, albums, live sets—after that.

There are more places for locals to play electronic music than to release it. You might do an online record with Raund Haus if you’re hip-hop-based, or a limited-edition vinyl or tape release with Hot Releases or Tone Log if you’re in the noise-adjacent techno realm, but options are scarce. Mai son Fauna is trying to calibrate giving locals more bandwidth with hooking them into national circuits. They view DECIDUUS as a pipeline for the label, and they have the set-up to release high-quality audio of visiting DJs’ sets.

“The things that we’ve received from people locally have been so inspiring,” Damsky says. “It’s really exciting to hear that Treee City had put together this wild dance track with metal claps that you never heard in his hip-hop music. He actually has a pretty large following in Durham and outside of it, but he’s in that tier where so many more people would be into him if they just knew.”

But if a label that, for now, is only doing online releases is low-overhead, a weekly party shipping DJs from New York, LA, and Chicago is not. The first DECIDUUS features Baltra, followed in subsequent weeks by Garrett David and Masha. Even if you’re selling out and have the technical chops to produce everything yourself, at $10 a head in The Fruit’s 250-capacity basement, the math is tricky.

“Speaking ex cathedra, the economics of the event don’t make sense,” Bell says. “This is the big reason it hasn’t been done. Initially, they won’t be profitable, but we look at it as a marketing expense for building the series. We’re willing to take on the risk and the work to do the thing we want to see. Our thing is, how do we maintain authenticity while not losing all of the money that we’re putting into the events, in a way where it’s well-produced and people like Sarah, who doesn’t have a Facebook, can find out about it?”

“I’ve never been a part of something that had four founders,” DeNitto adds. “If you think back to mythology, the only weakness of the Hydra is that you had to make it attack itself. As long as we’re not fighting, and as long as we have the trust, I think it can be a love Hydra.” W

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2020 FESTIVAL GUIDE FESTIVAL GUIDE

MARCH 7 & 8, 2020 Durham Art Walk Spring Market Sites throughout downtown Durham durhamartwalk.com

MARCH 28, 2020 Tacos ‘N Taps Cary www.tacosntaps.com

APRIL

Good news: It’s spring. Well, almost. It was pretty chilly last weekend, and it’s pretty gross outside as I write this, but even so, you can feel it in the air. And, friends, let me tell you, spring in North Carolina is the absolute best. So is fall. (Summer sucks, but let’s cross that bridge when we come to it.) It’s not just that the weather is gorgeous and that the world seems alive. It’s also that, because the weather is gorgeous and the world seems alive, there are events upon events upon festivals upon festivals. Looking to drink all the beer? We’ve got you covered. What about music? More than you could keep up with. Food truck rodeos and other celebrations of gluttony? For sure. Want to buy some art or do some civic good? Heck yeah, man. If you can think of it (and it doesn’t involve snow), chances are it will happen somewhere around here sometime in the next few months. We’re here to help you keep track of it all. Start marking your calendars. —Jeffrey C. Billman

14 March 4, 2020 INDYweek.com MARCH 13, 2020 St. Patrick’s Amusement Ride Armband Night Emerald Isle – NC at the Emerald Plantation www.facebook.com/officialemeraldislestpatricksfestival

MARCH 14, 2020 St. Patrick’s Festival Emerald Isle - NC at the Emerald Plantation www.facebook.com/officialemeraldislestpatricksfestival

MARCH 14, 2020 Raleigh St. Patrick’s Day Parade & Festival Downtown Raleigh raleighstpats.org

MARCH 21, 2020 Love Graham Festival Graham www.iamnorthcarolina.com/lovegraham

MARCH 21, 2020 Children’s Festival at Northgate Mall Durham www.facebook.com/events/2502749580042492

MARCH 22, 2020 Rural Hill presents a Brunch Food Truck Rally Historic Rural Hill – Huntersville www.ruralhill.net

MARCH 26-29, 2020 2020 Outer Banks Taste of The Beach From Corolla to Manteo www.obxtasteofthebeach.com

MARCH 28, 2020 Feed Durham Festival Durham www.feeddurham.com

MARCH 28, 2020 Plastic-Free Eggstravaganza Chapel Hill www.chapelhillarts.org/calendar/plastic-free-eggstravaganza

APRIL 4, 2020 Pride Life Expo, Raleigh’s first LGBTQ+ expo Raleigh - McKimmon Center at NC State (1101 Gorman St.) www.pridelifeexpo.org

APRIL 4, 2020 Ring in Spring at Gateway Park Salisbury www.downtownsalisburync.com/events/ring-spring-bell-tower

APRIL 4 & 5, 2020 Tarheel Antiques Festival Efland www.tarheelantiquesfestival.com

APRIL 11, 2020 Dandelion Day & Defi Wines Release Cedar Grove shop.botanistandbarrel.com/event-archives/dandelion-daycommunity-foraging-project-w-tastes-and-winemaking

APRIL 17, 2020 Arts NC State Student Art Sale Raleigh go.ncsu.edu/studentart

APRIL 17-19, 2020 BOOM Charlotte Charlotte –Plaza-Midwood neighborhood www.BOOMCharlotte.org

APRIL 18, 2020 Craft Cider Tasting Experience Durham www.facebook.com/events/2396219064042125

APRIL 18, 2020 Children’s Day Festival of Cary Cary kids.ata-nc.org

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APRIL 18, 2020 Cary Wine & Food Festival Cary www.uncorkthefun.com

APRIL 18TH & 19TH, 2020 The 9th Annual Festival of Legends: Mystic Circus Apex www.festivaloflegends.com

APRIL 18 & 19, 2020 27th Annual Loch Norman Highland Games Historic Rural Hill Huntersville www.lochnorman.com

APRIL 19, 2020 Near & Far Festival Chapel Hill chapelhillarts.org/nearandfar

APR 19, 2020 Carrboro Open Streets Carrboro - East and West Weaver Street www.carrbororec.org

APRIL 23, 2020 AMP Music Fest Durham ampmusicfest.com

APRIL 23-26, 2020 MerleFest Wilkesboro merlefest.org/purchase

APRIL 24 & 25, 2020 Brewgaloo Craft Beer Festival Downtown Raleigh shoplocalraleigh.org/brewgaloo

APRIL 25, 2020 The Chatham Arts Council’s 18th annual ClydeFEST Bynum - Bynum Ballfield www.chathamartscouncil.org/clydefest

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March 4, 2020 INDYweek.com APRIL 25, 2020 MINDURO: a Raleigh adventure bicycle race festival Raleigh - Crank Arm Brewing www.manduro.rocks/minduro.phpminduro2020. eventbrite.com

APRIL 25, 2020 North Carolina Pickle Festival Mount Olive www.ncpicklefest.org

APRIL 25, 2020 Spring Daze Arts & Crafts Festival Cary www.townofcary.org/Springdaze

APRIL 25, 2020 NC Gravity Games & Street Fest Downtown Lenoir www.ncgravitygames.com

APRIL 25, 2020 BloomFest 2020 Downtown Roseboro www.roseboronc.com/events www.facebook.com/roseboronc

MAY 2, 2020 Spring into the Arts Walk Wendell www.townofwendell.com

MAY 2, 2020 2nd Annual Spring Chicken Festival Downtown Siler City www.silercity.org

MAY 2, 2020 Multicultural Festival Lexington www.facebook.com/events/631807910980283

MAY 2, 2020 Hops & Blues Festival Durham www.eventbrite.com/e/hops-blues-festival-2020- tickets-85290539299

MAY 2, 2020 Haw River Festival Saxapahaw hawriver.org/events/haw-river-festival

MAY 2, 2020 Fest in the West Cary festinthewest.com

MAY 2, 2020 Write Now! 2020 Raleigh - The McKimmon Center tafnc.com/WriteNow

MAY 2 & 3, 2020 10th Kings Drive Art Walk Charlotte - Little Sugar Creek Greenway on Kings Drive www.FESTIVALinthePARK.org

MAY 3, 2020 Nashville VegFest Nashville, TN www.nashvillevegfest.com

MAY 3, 2020 Carrboro Day Carrboro - Carrboro Town Commons www.carrboroday.com

MAY 7-10, 2020 Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music & Dance Pittsboro shakorihillsgrassroots.org

MAY 8 & 9, 2020 10th Annual NC Brewers & Music Festival Historic Rural Hill – Huntersville www.ruralhill.net

MAY 14-17, 2020 Spring LEAF Festival Black Mountain theLEAF.org/music

MAY 15 & 16, 2020 Beaufort Music Festival Beaufort beaufortmusicfestival.com

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MAY 15, 22, & 29, 2020 JUN 5, 12, & 19, 2020 Freight Train Blues Concert Series Carrboro Town Commons www.freighttrainblues.com

MAY 16, 2020 Hook, Line & Drinker Sylva www.hooklinedrinkerfest.com/trout-fishing-vendors

MAY 16, 2020 2020 Cheerwine Festival Salisbury www.downtownsalisburync.com/events/2019-cheerwinefestival

MAY 16, 2020 Durham Blues & Brews Festival Durham www.durhambluesandbrewsfestival.com

MAY 16 & 17, 2020 Mustang Spring Jam 9 Corolla www.mustangmusicfestival.com/mustang-spring-jam-9

MAY 17, 2020 Rodeo on Rosemary Chapel Hill www.chapelhillarts.org/calendar/rodeo-on-rosemary

MAY 29-31, 2020 Special Olympics North Carolina Summer Games Raleigh and Cary sonc.net/sports-competitions/summergames/#1463683254026-88f52cf2-d912

MAY 30, 2020 OUT! Raleigh Pride Festival Raleigh www.outraleighpride.org

JUNE

JUNE 6, 2020 Funk Down on the Farm Cedar Grove shop.botanistandbarrel.com/event-archives/funk-downon-the-farm-2

JUNE 6, 2020 Pimento Cheese Festival Downtown Cary www.townofcary.org/recreation-enjoyment/events/ special-events/pimento-cheese-festival

JUNE 6, 2020 16th Annual Beaver Queen Pageant Durham - Duke Park www.beaverqueen.org

JUNE 6, 2020 Raleigh’s International Food Festival sponsored by NC Vibes Downtown Raleigh www.eventbrite.com/e/raleighs-international-foodfestival-2020-on-fayetteville-st-tickets-88572866829

JUNE 11-14, 2020 BEYOND: The Cary Film Festival Cary www.beyondthefilmfestival.com

JUNE 13, 2020 North Carolina Cigar Box Guitar Festival Greensboro Northcarolinacigarboxguitarfestival.org

JUNE 14, 2020 Asheville VegFest Asheville www.asheville.ncvegfests.com

JUNE 18 & 19, 2020 Cherry Bounce Festival Forest City www.townofforestcity.com/cherry-bounce-festival

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JUNE 18-JULY 25, 2020 American Dance Festival’s 2020 Season Durham www.americandancefestival.org

JUNE 19 & 20, 2020 Cherry Bounce Festival Forest City TownOfForestCity.org

JUNE 20, 2020 BikeFest 2020 Hillsborough www.tarwheels.net/wp/bikefest

JUNE 28, 2020 Wilmington VegFest Wilmington www.wilmingtonvegfest.com

JULY

JULY 3-5, 2020 Ocean City Jazz Festival North Topsail Beach www.oceancityjazzfest.com

JULY 4, 2020 Fourth of July Fireworks Chapel Hill www.chapelhillarts.org/calendar/fourth-of-july-fireworks

JULY 4, 2020 Christmas in July Festival West Jefferson www.christmasinjuly.info

JULY 4, 2020 Sylva Fourth of July Celebration Sylva www.discoverjacksonnc.com/calendar-event/ sylva-fourth-of-july-fireworks

JULY 4, 2020 Carrboro July 4th Celebration Carrboro - Town Hall Grounds townofcarrboro.org/308/July-4th-Celebration

JULY 10 & 11, 2020 NC Blackberry Festival Downtown Lenoir www.ncblackberryfestival.com

JULY 18, 2020 Pick-A-Ton FUNdraiser Cedar Grove shop.botanistandbarrel.com/event-archives/6thannual-pick-a-ton-fundraiser

JULY 19, 2020 Greenville FunFest Greenville, SC www.greenvillefunfest.com

JULY 23-26, 2020 Love♡Shine♡Play Festival Asheville www.loveshineplay.com

JULY 25, 2020 SPARKconQuest the one-day adult treasure hunt Raleigh - HQ Raleigh Loft Terrace 311 S. Harrington Street www.originovel.com/sparkconquest.php

JULY 30-AUG 1, 2020 MANDURO: The Triangle’s Truly Unique Grueling Bicycle Adventure Raleigh - HQ Raleigh Warehouse District www.manduro.rocks manduro2020.eventbrite.com

JULY 30-AUG 2, 2020 GalaxyCon Raleigh Raleigh galaxycon.com/raleigh (beaver@superconventions.com)

JULY 31 & AUGUST 1, 2020 Reevestock Music Festival Elkin www.facebook.com/events/412828862987770/ www.reevestock.com

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AUGUST

AUGUST 6-8, 2020 Soulshine Farm Music Festival 7 Green Mountain www.soulshinefarmfest.com

AUGUST 22 & 23, 2020 Lazy Daze Arts & Crafts Festival Cary www.townofcary.org/Lazydaze

AUGUST 7, 2020 Kickoff Celebration & August 8, 2020 Festival Day Waldensian Festival – Valdese www.townofvaldese.com/community/what-to-do/ waldensian-festival

AUGUST 7 & 8, 2020 Beer, Bourbon & BBQ Festival Cary www.cary.beerandbourbon.com AUGUST 8, 2020 An Evening with Keller Williams at Tap Shack Duck bit.ly/KWOBXSat

AUGUST 9, 2020 A Second Evening with Keller Williams at Tap Shack Duck bit.ly/KWOBXSun

AUGUST 14 & 15, 2020 Hot Nights Cool Rides Car Show Forest City www.townofforestcity.com/car-show

AUGUST 16, 2020 Triangle VegFest Durham www.trianglevegfest.com

AUGUST 21 & 22, 2020 NC Art Book Fair Durham - 21c Museum Hotel ncartbookfair.org

AUGUST 21 & 22, 2020 SeaLeaf Music Festival Outer Banks, North Carolina www.eventbrite.com/e/sealeaf-music-festivaltickets-84737412883

SEPTEMBER

SEPTEMBER 4 & 5, 2020 Earl Scruggs Music Festival Mill Spring - Tryon International Equestrian Center earlscruggsmusicfestival.com

SEPTEMBER 11 & 12, 2020 Breakaway Music Festival - Carolina Charlotte BreakawayFestival.com

SEPTEMBER 12, 2020 Farmers Fall Festival Cary www.caryfarmersmarket.com/fff-2019

SEPTEMBER 18, 2020 Brewbury Fest Salisbury www.downtownsalisburync.com/events/first-downtownsalisbury-brewbury-fest

SEPTEMBER 19, 2020 The Glass Jug’s Oktoberfest & 6th Anniversary Durham Not yet posted. Follow The Glass Jug on social media for upcoming details!

SEPTEMBER 19 & 20, 2020 46th Annual CenterFest Arts Festival Downtown Durham centerfest.durhamarts.org

SEPTEMBER 25-27, 2020 56th Festival in the Park Charlotte - Freedom Park www.FESTIVALinthePARK.org

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OCTOBER

OCTOBER 2020 Festifall Arts Festival Chapel Hill www.chapelhillfestifall.com

OCTOBER 2, 2020 Buskers Bash Salisbury www.downtownsalisburync.com/events/buskers-bash

OCTOBER 2-4, 2020 Ol’ Front Porch Music Festival Oriental olfrontporchmusicfestival.org

OCTOBER 3, 2020 32nd NASCAR Day Festival/Racin to Randleman Car Show Randleman www.randlemanchamber.com

OCTOBER 3 & 4, 2020 Autumn Jubilee Salisbury www.rowancountync.gov/autumnjubilee

OCTOBER 3 & 4, 2020 Carrboro Music Festival Many different venues in Carrboro www.carrboromusicfestival.com

OCTOBER 10, 2020 37th Annual Mountain Glory Festival Downtown Historic Marion www.mtngloryfestival.com

OCTOBER 14-18, 2020 Film Fest 919 Chapel Hill - Silverspot Cinema filmfest919.com

OCTOBER 15-17, 2020 West End Poetry Festival Various venues in Carrboro and Chapel Hill www.westendpoetryfestival.org

OCTOBER 16 & 17, 2020 Smoking in the Foothills BBQ Competition & Festival Downtown Lenoir www.smokinginthefoothills.com

OCTOBER 17, 2020 Falling for Local Downtown Raleigh shoplocalraleigh.org/slr-events/falling-for-local-dix-park

OCTOBER 17 & 18, 2020 Third Annual Mustang Rock & Roast Corolla www.mustangmusicfestival.com/mustangrockandroast

OCTOBER 22-25, 2020 Fall LEAF Festival Black Mountain theLEAF.org/festival-info

OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 1, 2020 The Clayton Chamber of Commerce 2020 Harvest Festival Clayton www.claytonharvestfestival.com

OCTOBER 31, 2020 Halloween FunFest Salisbury www.downtownsalisburync.com/events/halloween-fun-fest

NOVEMBER

NOVEMBER 7 & 8, 2020 NC Whirligig Festival Wilson www.whirligigfestivalnc.org

NOVEMBER 20-22, 2020 Carrboro Film Festival Carrboro - Carrboro Arts Center www.carrborofilmfestival.com

NOVEMBER 21, 2020 Holiday Fair at Emerson Waldorf School Chapel Hill www.emersonwaldorf.org

2020 FESTIVAL GUIDE FESTIVAL GUIDE

NOVEMBER 21, 2020 Raleigh Christmas Parade Downtown Raleigh grma.org/christmas-parade

NOVEMBER 21 & 22, 2020 Durham Art Walk Holiday Market Sites throughout downtown Durham durhamartwalk.com

NOVEMBER 26, 2020 - JANUARY 3, 2021 Hometown Holiday Festivities Forest City www.townofforestcity.com/forest-city-christmas

NOVEMBER 29, 2020 Hometown Holiday Parade Forest City www.townofforestcity.com/forest-city-christmas

DECEMBER

DECEMBER 1, 2020 CANornaments Food Drive for #GivingTuesday Raleigh - Raleigh Union Station Plaza www.originovel.com/TheGivingTreeCan.php

DECEMBER 4, 2020 Wendell Wonderland Wendell www.townofwendell.com

DECEMBER 7, 2020 Christmas with the Embers Randleman Music Series www.randlemanchamber.com

MUSIC SERIES

MAY 22, 29 JUNE 5, 12, 19, 26 JULY 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 AUGUST 7, 14, 21, 28 SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 Concerts on the Creek Sylva www.mountainlovers.com/concerts-on-the-creek