LEAF Festival

Banjos, dulcimers, fiddles, guitar and upright bass, even spoons, jugs and washboards are the instruments of southern Appalachia, where the old-time folk ballads of the region’s early Scots-Irish immigrants have evolved into today’s more familiar bluegrass and Americana sounds. It’s the soundtrack for this pocket of the planet, where some of the world’s oldest mountains recede in misty shades of blue, though it is far from the only music to be heard here.

Amid these Blue Ridge Mountains, in the artsy little metropolis of Asheville, North Carolina, music of all shades and stripes by local, national and international artists plays out on stages large and small.

Nowhere in this region – or arguably the south-eastern US – is there a greater show of cultural diversity in music than at the LEAF Festival, an intimate biannual gathering where some 12,000 attendees and artists from countries around the globe converge on the idyllic mountain-rimmed grounds surrounding Lake Eden in nearby Black Mountain.

From Afrobeat and Saharan blues to Colombian hip-hop, Tyvan throat singers, steel pan drummers or New Orleans jazz, the gamut of genres is considerable. Around 40 to 50 different cultures (including that of southern Appalachia) are represented at each festival, which takes place in May and October, as well as some big-name headliners.

Afro-pop maven Zap Mama, Eddie Palmieri’s Salsa Orchestra, R&B and roots artist Fantastic Negrito, The Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart, and soul queen Mavis Staples are but a small sampling of the world-class artists who have performed at LEAF since it started in 1995.

LEAF is multicultural in other ways, too, incorporating healing and culinary arts, a juried crafts fair and one of the world’s longest‑running poetry slams. It’s also multigenerational, welcoming families and people of all ages, many who come every spring and fall to camp, swim and paddle on the lake (or zipline into it), partake in a workshop or yoga class, and discover music and cultures not likely to be experienced locally otherwise – and definitely not all in one place.

And, it’s absolutely festive. Cue the glitter, costumes, glow-in-the-dark paint – anything goes and everyone gets into the fun. Though at the core of it all is enrichment.

“It’s an educational tool,” says Jennifer Pickering, executive director of LEAF Global Arts, the organising non-profit and beneficiary that puts on the festival, as well as LEAF Downtown, a free two-day event that happens every August in downtown Asheville. “It’s at the core of our mission. By creating a place where people can feel safe and explore beyond their own boundaries in such a fun, creative way allows them to build curiosity and an understanding of people and places. That’s what it is to be a global citizen. And to create that connection leads to joy, unity and the best of life.”

Pickering grew up on the grounds of Lake Eden, but it was through world travels and studying documentary photography at Brooks Institute in California that she developed a yearning for impactful cultural interactions. “I’d always loved to travel, but photography allowed me to step into churches and homes; it allowed me to see things from the inside,” she says.

(photo by Hunter McRae)

After moving back to the Asheville area, Pickering was offered the chance to buy a festival that had been taking place at Lake Eden. Though she didn’t bite, she did realise her passion for global cultures could easily translate into the festival format. Despite admonitions that a multicultural showcase wouldn’t work in this small rural community, Pickering launched the Lake Eden Arts Festival in October 1995. 

By 2003 she launched LEAF Schools & Streets, a programme that employs local musicians, actors, poets and dancers to teach in schools and community centres throughout the region. She took the initiative worldwide starting in 2006 with LEAF International, which was spurred after a visit to the small Caribbean island of Bequia, where to Pickering’s dismay, she learned that on the entire island, only one singular student was learning the tradition of steel pan drumming. So she created a steel pan music programme at the local school to help preserve a piece of Bequia’s cultural heritage.

The programme now employs artists in ten countries who teach their own music and cultural arts traditions to the youth in those communities. It’s reached over 4,100 youngsters around the world, while also building cultural exchanges by bringing those students to LEAF Festival to perform alongside all the other global acts. Students from at least one international programme are invited to each festival, which proves eye-opening for both the visitors and attendees.

Rising Appalachia will be turning over a new LEAF again this fall (photo by Savannah Lauren)

While the non-profit and festival have grown in ways that are soul-filling for everyone involved, the organisers have been forced to pivot and reshape under the pandemic, first cancelling and eventually reverting to smaller, 1,500-person LEAF Retreats, which Pickering says people actually love.

“It’s kind of like an old-school LEAF reunion,” she says. But unless unforeseen circumstances get in the way this fall, LEAF is going to come roaring back for October 20-23, as the organisation celebrates its Solid Gold 50th LEAF Festival.

Themes were implemented about a decade ago as a way to help shape and deepen the festival experience and connections, so this year the milestone anniversary event celebrates Legends of Africa. A slew of artists from that continent’s nations are on the bill, including Angélique Kidjo from Benin, Rocky Dawuni from Ghana, Chinobay from Uganda, local djembé master and LEAF Schools & Streets instructor Adama Dembele from Ivory Coast, and a LEAF International junior troop from Rwanda, to name but a few. Other performers include roots artists Donna the Buffalo and Rising Appalachia, Ukrainian theatrical ‘ethnic chaos’ act DakhaBrakha and Ethno USA, a collaborative exchange of 30 young musicians from around the world. 

Everyone performing has played LEAF in years past, Pickering assures, so in that way, this 50th anniversary event is also a bit of a reunion. But you don’t have to have been a prior attendee to feel welcome. The enriching exchanges among musicians and even between artists and attendees cultivates an environment of joy, creativity and what festival goers like to call ‘LEAF love.’   

The Solid Gold 50th edition of LEAF Festival takes place in Lake Eden, North Carolina, US on October 20-23. For more details visit theleaf.org