Known as “the largest recovery-focused festival,” this year’s show will be moving from West Virginia to Kentucky — the home state of Stapleton and Childers
Healing Appalachia, a music festival that raises awareness for and celebrates recovery from opioid addiction, is moving from West Virginia to eastern Kentucky this September with the fest’s co-founder Tyler Childers headlining alongside Chris Stapleton. The benefit concert will take place on Sept. 19th and 20th in Ashland, Kentucky, on “a mountaintop near the Boyd County Fairgrounds.”
Both Childers and Stapleton are Kentucky natives, so the festival is being billed as a bit of a hometown show for both this year. According to a release, more artists will be announced soon.
The nonprofit behind Healing Appalachia, Hope in the Hills, began in 2016 after the small town of Huntington, West Virginia, made headlines for 26 people dying of overdoses in a single day. The goal of the organization and festival is “spreading addiction and recovery awareness, fostering empathy, and inspiring life-saving action throughout communities worldwide.” The first festival took place in 2018 at the West Virginia State Fairgrounds. Childers has headlined all five of the Healing Appalachia fests, and was joined by My Morning Jacket, Sierra Ferrell, and Shooter Jennings last year.
Fighting the opioid crisis has become of increasing importance to the country music scene, as the communities at the heart of the genre and connected to so many performers has been ravaged by fentanyl, pills, and other hard drugs. Artists like Jelly Roll and Elvie Shane have spoken out about the need to offer more addiction recovery and support in small communities, with Jelly Roll testifying before Congress in support of anti-fentanyl legislation last year.
Childers himself wrote about the crisis in his ballad “Nose on the Grindstone.” He co-founded the festival with his manager Ian Thornton. “People looked to Tyler and Ian as change makers, as if they could do something,” Dave Lavender, board president of Hope in the Hills, told Rolling Stone. “And I think they were tired of seeing a lot of our friends die.”
Tickets for Healing Appalachia are on sale now.
