Louie Bluie Music & Arts Festival

Join us on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023 (10am to 6pm - Cove Lake State Park - Caryville, TN - Directions), for a celebration of roots music and folk art and crafts in Appalachia as the Campbell Culture Coalition's - "Louie Bluie: Music & Arts Festival" returns to Campbell County in East Tennessee! There are no admission fees but donations are appreciated (at the gate or Click Here!). 

To include everyone - Free and generous parking is available with designated accessibility parking areas close to the festival grounds. 

This year's festival features:

Three stages of music (Check out Performers here: https://louiebluie.org/lb-performers or follow us on Facebook)

The return of the massively popular Cumberland Trail Jam Tent (bring your own instrument, jam with Park Rangers, and others)!

LaFollette Old Fiddler’s Convention Tribute

Tennessee Arts Commission Folklife Program Traditional Artists Apprenticeship Program Folklife Demonstrators - Louie Bluie is the first-ever Tennessee Partner Festival for this TN Arts Commission program and you get to experience barrel-making, fiddle-making, gourd-making, and more - up close and one-on-one; only at Louie Bluie!

The NEW Family Nature-ing Area - an area dedicated to families and people of any age getting hands-on to learn and appreciate our TN State Parks and 48% of Campbell County Land being public!

Quilting Pavilion

Art Exhibit

Multiple Food Vendors (no two are the same)!

Arts & Crafts Village (with dozens of vendors)!

About the Festival

Inspired by Howard “Louie Bluie” Armstrong, the 501c3 non-profit Campbell Culture Coalition created the Louie Bluie: Music & Arts Festival in 2007. This music and arts festival brings together the strongest, most outstanding, musicians & artists across various genres on the upswing of their careers. Follow us on Facebook and other social media platforms, to learn who our headliner(s) and other performers will be. 

Music fills the air with two stages on the festival grounds and a third stage at a nearby restaurant (also on the festival grounds). There will also be the Cumberland Trail Jam Tent where you can bring your own instruments and demonstrators of generations of Appalachian Folklife on display near the Jam Tent area. 

The festival takes place at Cove Lake State Park in Caryville, a town in the heart of mountain music country. Historically, Campbell County is a place steeped in music, and today is no different. It’s the home of Howard Armstrong, the festival’s namesake, who grew up in LaFollette during the 1920s and was an incredibly talented man. Howard was an artist, a storyteller and a writer who played fiddle, mandolin and guitar.

His entire family was musically gifted. Armstrong was the recipient of the 1990 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts and played at Carnegie Hall.

This festival celebrates Armstrong’s contribution to the arts while encouraging musicians and artists to hone their own talents.

See you September 30, 2023!