2024 Laurel Cove Music Festival delivers

The 2024 Laurel Cove Music Festival is in the books and it was a weekend filled with what organizers called “had-to-be-there-type moments.”

Nearly 1,700 tickets for the festival at Pine Mountain State Resort Park were all sold within minutes and the capacity crowd was not disappointed. They were treated to a 30-band lineup on two stages with music in the air from 2 p.m. Friday to well past midnight Saturday night.

“Thanks to everyone for making 2024 our best #LCMF yet,” Bell County Tourism Director Jon Grace shared on a Facebook post.

The highlights included a special appearance by Prestonsburg native Nicholas Jamerson with Friday headliner Wyatt Flores. Flores and his band closed their show with an unplugged acoustic version of Tyler Childers’ “Shake the Frost.” Flores and the band sat along the front of the stage as they played and the crowd sang right along with him.

“I am not lying to you when I say I’m shaking like a leaf. This honestly feels like I’m playing Red Rocks all over again,” Flores told the crowd. “One thing that I enjoy more than anything about getting to come here and play is because this is the only place that actually appreciates music and I mean that.”
Grace said that acoustic encore was a perfect illustration of what the Laurel Cove Music Festival is all about.
“Whether you came from thousands of miles away or the next holler over, it’s you all that make this festival what it is. No other festival I’ve ever attended could have a packed house all sing along in such respect when an artist goes completely unplugged,” Grace said. “That moment with Wyatt Flores Music shows why y’all are the best festival community out there and it’s not even freaking close.”
Saturday night’s headliner was the Alabama country-rock band The Red Clay Strays. Their show made festival history as fans took to the pond in front of the stage for the first time ever as the group was transitioning into their encore.
“(I was) wondering when someone would take the pond. . ., it was breathtaking,” Laurel Cove volunteer Jerome Comer said. “This place is pure magic, and I’d like to give thanks to all who made this event unforgettable.”
During the weekend the crowds were treated to performances by Grayson Jenkins, Drayton Farley, Pony Bradshaw, Kat Hasty, John R. Miller, Taylor Hunnicutt, Tim Goodin, Luna and the Mountain Jets, Jonathan Peyton, Kindred Valley, Eric Bolander, Miles Miller, Emily Jamerson,  and so many others.
“Thanks to all the incredible artists who attend this festival. Whether they’re on the bill or if they just came down as fans and relaxed,” Grace said. “We strive to make this a fun, easy, and memorable trip for them. Their incredible art is what makes this festival what it is.”
Grace also thanked all of the volunteers who helped to make the event possible, Main Street Pineville, Rita Edmonson and all the staff at Pine Mountain State Park, and the Pineville Police Department for helping with traffic control.
He shared his last thank you for the music fans who travel to Pineville every year.
“Living in southeast Kentucky, we always hear how this or that can never happen here and y’all are helping us show that tourism can happen here with record month after record month,” Grace said.” This year was by far our biggest and best year yet, with so many incredible, had-to-be-there-type moments. Every ounce of blood, sweat, and tears that we put into this thing for an entire year, we do because we want more than anything for you all to have the best weekend of your year.”

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