The Spring Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance will be held Thursday, April 16, through Sunday, April 19, at 1439 Henderson Tanyard Road, Silk Hope, just down the road from Pittsboro, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Raleigh, Durham, and Greensboro.

The festival will feature more than 40 bands and performers on two big outdoor stages, a large dance tent, and an intimate cabaret tent.

Featured performers are Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys; Donna the Buffalo; Jim Lauderdale; Keith Frank and The Soileau Zydeco Band; Rachid Taha; The Old Ceremony; Jose Conde y Ola Fresca; Todd Snider; The Horse Flies; and Justin Townes Earle.

Some great local bands included are Hobex; Orquesta GarDel; Midtown Dickens; Lost in the Trees; Birds and Arrows; Sweet By and By; Butterflies; Des Ark (solo); Lafcadio; Big Fat Gap; Colors of Flying; Howie DeWitt Band; Lonesome Heart; Old 86; Sarah Shook; Scatterbones; Rootzie; The Beast, and Woodwork Roadshow.

Other performers include Mamadou Diabate; Ray Abshire; Steep Canyon Rangers; Samantha Crain and The Midnight Shivers; Amy LaVere; Christabel and The Jons; Eilen Jewel; Shannon Whitworth; Boulder Acoustic Society; stephaniesid; The New Familiars; Town Mountain; Apple Chill Cloggers; Billy Two Rivers with David Reavis, Cane Creek Cloggers; Elikem African Dance; Eric Ginsburg; Firehouse Rhythm Kings; Holy Ghost Tent Revival; Kelley and The Cowboys; Lunch Money; Michael Hurley; Music Maker Review; Paperhand Puppet Intervention; Preston Frank; Pura Fe and The Deer Clan Singers; Songs of Water, and The Red Hots.

Other activities include the Shakori Hills Sustainability Fair; local craft vendors; on-site and quiet family camping area; delicious food; children's activities including storytelling, crafts, older kids' outpost, workshops; instrument and craft workshops; band contest; poetry slam; healing arts including yoga, Paperhand Puppet Intervention Parade, and more.

Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance is sponsored by Shakori Hills, Inc., a nonprofit formed in order to provide an environment for community building through arts and education for Chatham County and beyond.

For more information visit www.shakorihills.org or by calling (919) 542-8142. Information is always being updated.