Carrboro Music Festival

Join us throughout Downtown Carrboro on Sunday, October 1st, 2023 for the Carrboro Music Festival!

CARRBORO, N.C. -- The 26th Annual Carrboro Music Festival is scheduled to take place at venues all over the Downtown Carrboro area on Sunday, Oct. 1.  The daylong festival starts at 1:00pm with a 2:00pm hip-hop show at the Cat's Cradle backroom featuring 14 acts. We have a free ticketed kick-off event at the Cat's Cradle on September 30th featuring Truth Club. For the full line-up, please click the tab on the top left or download our app.

We have all new free educational workshops starting at 10:00am at the Century Center, Town Hall, and the Civic Club. 

Synthesizer Workshop: The Synth 101 lecture will take the casual electronic music fan through the basics of synthesis, then delve into a few more advanced techniques, as well as touch on some of the presenter's approaches performance. You must register for this program. This will be held at the Civic Club behind Town Hall at 11:30am.

Accordion Workshop: In this workshop, we will open several different accordions and show you how the magic happens. Inside are hundreds of steel reeds that vibrate to make sounds like a clarinet, a bassoon, an oboe, or a pipe organ. Also hidden inside are two different analog computers! No kidding! (You’ll learn what an analog computer is, too.) Please register online at the link below. This will be in the Century Center at 10:00am. 

Find Your Own Voice Singers: Come join a sing along with the Find Your Own Voice singers as they present familiar, family-friendly pop and folk tunes for your own voice. They will lead songs from 3pm to 4pm on the front lawn of Town Hall. This program does not need registration. 

Recording Workshop: With Kenneth Stewart. The workshop is an overview of the recording process, software/hardware and resources. Skills covered here are useful for live recording, podcasting, audition tapes, demos, video editing etc. Explore some useful DIY situations with DAWs, microphones and plugins. Workshop is Mac or PC - please come with questions. Please register online at the link below class will start at 10:00am.

Drum Workshop:  Join us at 10:00am in front of Town Hall for a group drum session with Cindy Jones. This program does not need registration. 

For more information and to register, please go to https://register1.vermontsystems.com/wbwsc/nccarrboro.wsc/splash.html and look under "Special Events". If you don't have an account, you will need to create one before registering. If you are having trouble registering online, please go to our front office at the recreation department and register in-person.

Big thanks to our Carrboro Music Festival 2023 Platinum Sponsors:

LOGAN A. CARTER. FM REALTY and DWELL REAL ESTATE.

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Established in 1998, the Festival was originally held on June 21st as an official affiliate of the Fête de la Musique, which is also known as 'Make Music Day'.  The purpose of the event was to make all genres of music more accessible to the public through free concerts where all performers donated their time.  As the Carrboro Music Festival was eventually moved to a cooler Fall date, the official relationship with 'Make Music Day' came to an end.

More recently, the Carrboro Music Festival has been an effort to host a free one-day event (plus a kickoff show) that showcases Triangle-area performers and the varied musical styles they represent.  While performers in prior years received t-shirts and food vouchers in appreciation for volunteering their time in the same spirit as the Fête de la Musique, groups who are officially selected will now receive paid compensation in the form of an honorarium. 

The event is a product of a coordinated effort by the Carrboro Recreation, Parks, & Cultural Resources Department and the Carrboro Music Festival Planning Committee.

This program is supported by the Town of Carrboro and the Carrboro Tourism Development Authority.  Generous support is also provided by the local business community.  Please visit the sponsorship page for a complete list of sponsors.