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 Aug. 23, 2025, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m., 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 St. gazebo. Music performers include Willard Gayheart and Ricky Cox, Virginia Hollow, Ash Devine, American Roots, MJAM, Kathie and 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 a.m. and Kathie and John Hollandsworth who will be presenting the process of creating autoharps at 1 p.m. Concurrent with Heritage Day, the Montgomery Museum will feature a new exhibit beginning in August honoring the contributions of Appalachian luthiers and 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 four tickets to the Virginia Tech vs. Louisville home game on Nov. 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 Monday, Sept. 1.
Along with all the festival activities, visitors can also explore the Montgomery Museum Garden at 300 S. Pepper St. and learn about gardening with native plants.
This event is 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.
Montgomery Museum of Art & History
