Virginia Highlands Festival

The Virginia Highlands Festival founded in 1949 by Robert Porterfield, founder of the famed Barter Theatre, the State Theater of Virginia, was held on the front porch of the Martha Washington Inn. His purpose was to preserve and celebrate the cultural heritage of this area. His first demonstrators were early members of the Southern Highlands Handicraft Guild. The Festival, over the past seven decades, has grown in scope to represent all Southwest Virginia. Now it not only preserves the arts, crafts, skills and music that developed in this region, but it also imports talented artists and performers from around the world for creative exchange and the enjoyment of area residents and visitors.