RADFORD – Celebrate America’s 250th founding at the Mary Draper Ingles Festival July 24-26 in Radford and at nearby sites this weekend.
Visitors will hear outstanding writers, historians and musicians who bring Virginia’s early frontier to life. At the center of the festival is the story of Ingles’ capture and escape during the French and Indian War and her journey made famous by the New York Times bestseller, “Follow the River.”
Two art shows, an award-winning brewery, historical interpreters, dancers and tours of a riverside tavern that attracted America’s early leaders give festival-goers opportunities to learn about the past in fun ways. Kids’ activities, including a petting zoo and inflatables, round out the weekend. Sponsors this year include Long Way Brewing, the Wilderness Road Regional Museum, Radford University’s Art Museum on Tyler, Radford’s Farmers Market and Glencoe Museum, which features a variety of exhibits on the beginnings of America, the pioneer heroine Ingles and the Civil War.
The Saturday portion of the festival will open at 10 a.m. with a Festival Dedication Service in memory of Col. Bud Jeffries.
The 2026 event welcomes back Sharyn McCrumb, an award-winning Southern writer and “New York Times” bestseller. She will discuss her book, “King’s Mountain,” that is set in the same era as the Mary Draper Ingles story. The ballad novel tells the story of how a militia of men from southwest Virginia and western North and South Carolina came to fight one of the important battles of the Revolutionary War.
Joining McCrumb are two Radford University professors. Sharon Roger-Hepburn will present a talk about an African American Union soldier, who left behind some 60 letters, which eventually evolved into the book, “Private No More: The Civil War Letters of John Lovejoy Murray, 102nd United States Colored Infantry.” His letters are considered significant because they are ordinary in some respects yet extraordinary in others. Geoff Pollick, chair of the Philosophy and Religious Studies department at Radford University, will discuss “Captivity Narratives and Religious Logics of Settlement Along the Appalachian Eastern Divide, 1740-1770.”
In addition to interpretations by colonial living historians of the Fincastle Company, will be a special performance by Garrett Channell, executive director of the Salem Museum, as patriotic leader Andrew Lewis. Hear about how Lewis established his estate, which once stretched all the way to Kentucky; what role he played in the French and Indian War; and how his actions during the Revolutionary War helped secure the colonies’ independence.
There will be an opening reception Saturday, July 25, from 1:30 to 3 p,m. for “Homecoming,” a multi-artist exhibit featuring local artists’ reflections the importance of home.
For this multi-artist, juried show, art work was chosen that reflects the importance of home, Mary Draper Ingles’ homecoming journey, native agriculture or geological locations along her route, and also the universal importance of home. The 16 artists participating are: Mary Barksdale, Jake Conner, Virginia Dale, Cheng Fen, Matt Gentry, Rebecca Harris, Angela Martin, Mary Moore, Marietta Nester, Martha Olson, Melissa Pilkington, Roberta Sallee, Logan Singo, Sharon Taylor, and Susan Trulove. This year’s collection of works features a diverse array of painting, paper, fabric and photographic mediums that are both realistic and abstract in styles, highlighting the creativity of both emerging and established local artists.
For the full festival schedule and more event information, log onto www.glencoemansion.org/mary-draper-ingles-festival-2026, visit the Glencoe Mansion and Mary Draper Ingles Festival pages on Facebook, or call at 540-731-5031.
Scott Gardner
