Monthlong Wintergreen Music Fest offers smorgasbord of activities

It's called the Wintergreen Summer Music Festival and music still is its strongest ingredient.

But in the past couple of years, the nearly monthlong festival at Wintergreen Resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains has expanded its number of acts and diversity of choices.

Larry Alan Smith, artistic and executive director of Wintergreen Performing Arts, which produces the festival, was brought in for the 2007 event, specifically to develop its scope.

"The goal was for it to become a regional festival and eventually a national one. I thought one of the ways to do that was to broaden things," he said. "This year, we have two plays; we have the Martha Graham Ensemble; we have cooking classes and tastings. The idea is that there's really something for everyone."

To illustrate how much the Wintergreen festival has grown, in 2007, there were 75 events. In 2008, 175. And this year? More than 200.

The event, which runs from Monday until Aug. 2, takes about 18 months to plan and is always built around a theme.

This summer, it's Appalachian Roots.

"Someone actually said the phrase to me, and it sort of stuck. The theme helps us figure out what to put in the program," Smith said.

Some highlights this year include the opening-night performance by soprano Caroline Worra, a performance by Mike Seeger, a seminar with Christy Coleman, president of the American Civil War Center, and wine and beer tastings.

Each week of the festival, attendees will symbolically follow the Appalachian Trail from south to north, which means the music and the demonstrations will tie in to the respective states being celebrated.

Next week's kickoff travels from Springer Mountain in Georgia through North Carolina and Tennessee.

Scheduled experiences include "Moonshine" weekend, with whiskey and Scotch tastings, music from the Academy Chamber Ensemble and an Appalachian Amble.

Individual tickets are available -- prices range from $10 per wine-tasting event, to $15 for a series of Academy Concerts and Coffee Concerts to $50 for the opening-night performance and reception.

A festival season pass can be purchased for $350, and a "flexpack," which provides six tickets for admission to any concert or event (except the openingnight reception and performance, the lap dulcimer workshop and the eight cooking classes), is $180.

While Smith didn't cite specific attendance figures, he said that there has been a "huge increase" in the number of festivalgoers the past couple of years.

"We're attracting a lot of people from further away," he said. "They'll come and spend the weekend or a week. We have some people who come for the entire month and can literally come to any event."

Contact Melissa Ruggieri at (804) 649-6120 or .