For the past 11 years, Pittsboro has been home to one of the most unconventional festivals in North Carolina.
Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance has been providing the community with a hallowed ground of sorts, a four-day excursion deep into Chatham County suitable for folks of all ages. Though the festival has always been filled with good times and good vibes, there was always one thought looming over attendees and organizers alike: What happens if someone purchases this 75-acre farm? Thankfully, when festivalgoers make the trek out to Pittsboro this April for the spring installment, that problem will be a distant memory.
Last month, the Shakori Hills Community Arts Center, the festival’s non-profit organization, and the Finger Lakes Grassroots Organization, the original Grassroots festival, teamed up to purchase the land that has long been owned by an “angel investor.”
Jordan Puryear, one of Shakori’s co-founders, said the festival grounds have been owned by a close friend since the festival’s inception and for the past decade, the festival and community members alike have been raising money to help make Shakori Hills a permanent staple for the region.
Attendees have graciously been making donations throughout the years to help the organization purchase the land. In addition to those donations, various events around the Triangle and Triad like the NC Stars in the Round, Shakori Prom and special shows at Haw River Ballroom have helped raise enough money to make the longtime dream a reality. According to their press release, a local community financing entity played a big part in the gathering of these funds.
Community members have offered a low-interest loan to the organization, further solidifying the strong backing that our community offers for events like Shakori Hills. Not only do the near 10,000 fans in attendance help make for an unforgettable weekend, but they’ve also joined together to help make these weekends continue indefinitely. However, this $695,000 land purchase is much more than just a community- funded business acquisition; it serves as the beginning of a new era for the grassroots festivals.
“We want to move into the whole site becoming a place where the community can learn and share within the realm of art, music, dance, environmental sustainability and community-minded activities,” Shakori Hills festival coordinator Sara Waters said.
Waters claims that the land purchase will result in many structural changes for the festival, resulting in improvements for both the festival and the Community Arts Center. Additions to the festival grounds will include an indoor dance hall, allowing festivalgoers to retreat from the cold and the rain, potential improvements to the community garden and nature trails, and increased indoor plumbing to allow for larger groups to come throughout the year.
“We’ll keep our fingers crossed that both organizations continue to grow as healthily as they have in the past,” Waters says. “Then more resources can go to bigger budgets and thus, both organizations can do more for the community.”
The land purchase ultimately results in improvements for everyone involved. The ever-supportive local community will now be able to hold even more events on the farmlands while the festival’s organizers can breathe a sigh of relief over their long awaited acquisition. As the years pass, community members will be able to reap the countless benefits from this deal.
“We encourage organizations to look into having fundraisers and events on the site, as well as people in the community who might be interested in having public or private events here,” Waters said.
Whether it be the beloved biannual festival, the NC Stars in the Round shows or the other fantastic assorted events that are sure to pop up in the future, Shakori Hills is now solidified as one of the area’s greatest cultural landmarks for the foreseeable future.
