This Years Sponsors Include:
Corperate Sponsor - Jim Ellis Audi of Atlanta,
Main Stage Sponsor - The Fudge Factory,
Main Stage Sponsor - The Crimson Moon,
Marketplace Sponsor - Hummingbird Lane,
Founding Sponsor - The Pender Family,
Heritage Sponsor - Billy Roper,
On an early spring morning in 1996, merchants on the square in Historic Dahlonega, Georgia were visited by an unlikely "tourist". A baby bear had managed to climb a sycamore tree on a busy corner of the square and refused to come down. After a prolonged effort, the bear was eventually rescued safely. But not before creating quite a stir in the community.
Dahlonega residents Nick and Glenda Pender, both respected musical and environmental activists, joined forces with a group of local merchants and used the incident as inspiration to create the annual event known as The Bear on the Square Mountain Festival. 11 years later, "Bear on the Square" has become an annual rite of spring in the North Georgia Mountains as it kicks off the festival season every spring in April.
The Festival, whose purpose is to celebrate, preserve, and promote the tradition of bluegrass and old-time mountain music, crafts, and folkways, is held every third weekend in April on and around Dahlonega's quaint Historic Town Square and in Hancock Park, adjacent to the square. The park is the focal point for concerts and other festival activities. Dozens of vendors descend each year upon the town to market wares that are hand made and are representative of the Southern Appalachian Mountain Region. They are accompanied by a multitude of both amateur and professional acoustic musicians who gather from miles around for impromptu jam sessions that create the soundtrack to the old time atmosphere.
Also featured at Bear on the Square are concerts by nationally renowned recording artists. Past performances have included such talents as Jim Hurst, Chris and Sally Jones, The James Leva Band, Ginny Hawker and Tracy Schwarz, Hazel Dickens and The Lynn Morris Band, Bobby Hicks and Hazel Creek, Dry Branch Fire Squad, and the Dismembered Tennesseeans.
In addition, numerous workshops are put on for both music and crafts. Plus there is great food, square dancing, a children's "musical instrument petting zoo", story telling and more. That's not to mention all the wonderful shops and restaurants around the square.
So bring your guitar, or banjo or just your own singing voice and appetite for good food and old time fun to The Bear on the Square Mountain Festival.
