The Montgomery Museum of Art and History to Host Street Festival Celebrating Heritage and Communities of Montgomery County; Experience Living History During the 2025 Heritage Day Festival

Celebrate the region’s history and culture by taking a journey back in time at the Heritage Day Festival, hosted by the Montgomery Museum of Art & History on August 23, 2025, from 10 AM to 3 PM, in downtown Christiansburg. The event will be located along Main and Pepper Streets and includes live traditional music, dozens of local vendors, historical demonstrators, a variety of food trucks and fun children’s activities. Visitors can enjoy local musicians playing at the Main Street stage or at the 300 S. Pepper Street Gazebo! Music performers include: Willard Gayheart & Ricky Cox, Virginia Hollow, Ash Devine, American Roots, MJAM, Kathie & John Hollandsworth, Mac Traynham, and Mike Mitchell.

Presentations by local luthiers will include Mike Mears, a craftsman of guitars, violins, ukuleles, and banjos at 11 AM, and Kathie & John Hollandsworth who will be presenting the process of creating autoharps at 1 PM. Concurrent with Heritage Day, the Montgomery Museum will feature a new exhibit beginning in August honoring the contributions of Appalachian luthiers & their music. The work of these master craftspeople will be displayed in the museum.

While enjoying the exhibit and presentations, visitors can also participate in the silent auction, held in the Museum lobby. As a special Heritage Day offer, the Montgomery Museum is also holding a raffle for a chance to win 4 tickets to the Virginia Tech v. Louisville home game on November 1! Raffle tickets will be for sale all month online as well as on site during Heritage Day. The drawing for this raffle will be on Monday, September 1.

Along with all the festival activities, visitors can also explore the Montgomery Museum Garden at 300 S. Pepper Street and learn about gardening with native plants.

This event is generously sponsored by: Atlantic Union Bank, Floored, Carter Bank & Trust, Burke and Herbert Bank, VT Center for the Arts, Blacksburg Moog, Rice Realty, Pizza Inn, Brown Insurance, Electrical Supply, Inc., and Corning. The music performances, exhibit, and instrument presentations are made possible by a grant from Virginia Humanities.