Carlton Haney’s Roanoke Labor Day Bluegrass Festival is widely recognized as the first multiple day and band bluegrass festival. The event was held September 3–5, 1965, at Fincastle, Virginia, near Roanoke, VA.

In 1998, Haney was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Museum Hall of Honor.

The museum’s Web site’s description of Haney’s 1965 festival reads, “The event proved to be a prototype and precursor that initiated the festival movement in America and ultimately in other countries, bringing incalculable economic benefits to the industry and creating a larger and more diverse audience for the music.”Roanoke Times

Phil Zimmerman of Bluegrasstime.com was present at that first Bluegrass Festival. On his web site He shares some great memories of the weekend and also offers for sale some outstanding, classic Black and White photo’s he’s taken over the years of some of the biggest names in the business.

Below is an excerpt from his website. I highly encourage you take the time to read Mr. Zimmerman’s recollections of that weekend and sample his photos.

“We took the Fincastle exit and began looking for Carlton Haney’s First Annual Roanoke Bluegrass Festival. We found the turn-off and followed the dusty tire tracks across a pasture toward the tree line in the distance. Even before we reached the makeshift parking lot, we heard the thump of a stand-up bass wafting across the field on the hot late-summer breeze. Moments later we were navigating between small groups of musicians picking away. Back at school there were barely enough players to scrape together one band, but there we were, surrounded by bluegrass!”Phil Zimmerman

These historic videos from that festival, include footage of Bill Monroe, Mac Wisemen, Don Reno, Jimmy Martin along with a cameo of John Hartford.