by MEGAN NORTHCOTE
Intern Lifestyles Reporter

When Jimmy Hunt transferred to Appalachian State University a few years ago, he immediately headed for the Blue Ridge Parkway to explore the great outdoors.

This 2008 Appalachian alumnus never dreamed that just a few months after graduation he would be managing the first large-scale music festival Boone had ever seen.

Premiering in August 2008, Music on the Mountaintop will rock the Appalachian community once again Saturday, Aug. 29 at the Old Fair Grounds in Boone.

Tickets can be purchased online at musiconthemountaintop.com. Musical performances start at 11 a.m. and end around midnight, making for over half a day of mountaintop music jamming.

For Hunt, this event is his way of giving back to the outdoors and the Appalachian community.

“I try to be outside every day. It’s like my church,” Hunt said. “Appalachian is such a progressive school, so there’s definitely a niche for the music part of [the event].”

But there’s far more to Music on the Mountaintop than just the music.

According to the Music on the Mountaintop Web site, the event is “a one of a kind, ecologically driven large-scale music festival, offering first class entertainment as well as educational awareness on current environmental issues.”

This year, Music on the Mountaintop is partnering with two main beneficiaries, Appalachian Institute for Renewable Energy (AIRE) and Appalachian’s Energy Center to help all participants become more environmentally aware of sustainability efforts in the Appalachian region.

“We are here as informational resources about being green and being sustainable,” Quint David, an outreach center representative of Appalachian’s Energy Center on campus, said.  This year, the Energy Center will be bringing Daisy, a portable solar and wind turbine that will power the music stage.

With the budget crisis, David hopes the proceeds from the event will “get more outreach and more educational opportunities out there, especially for people who need to be re-trained [in green energy technology advancements].”

Hunt also decided to partner with AIRE this year after being impressed by how well the company’s far-reaching plans for sustainability in the area coincided with his own.

“AIRE wants to make the town sustainable in that they want to provide Boone’s wind energy,” Hunt said. “If we break even, we’ll give [AIRE] around 30 percent.”

Hunt, who formed the Blackpaw Entertainment LLC a year ago after submitting a music festival business plan for a class assignment at Appalachian, has since made some changes to his management style.

Now called the Yellow Dog Entertainment LLC, Hunt relies primarily on his business partner and volunteer coordinator, Talia L. Freeman, as well as community sponsors and local artists to make this event a reality.

Freeman first heard of the Festival when she was looking online for an internship dealing with event planning and marketing. “I really like putting together events and functions and I’m a music lover,” Freeman said.

When she’s not working at Beech Mountain Ski Resort, Freeman tries to recruit as many volunteers as possible for Music on the Mountaintop.

“Last year, the most challenging thing was really getting people to believe in it,” Freeman said. “This year, it’s been a lot easier to get the word out there and we’ve had a lot of support from the community.”

This year, Freeman hopes to recruit at least 130 volunteers who are responsible for everything from parking to taking tickets to security patrol. 

These volunteers are crucial for assisting the large crowds Hunt expects. This year, Hunt hopes to double last year’s attendance of 2,500 people. 

Despite tough economic times, the community continues to play a tremendous role in sponsoring the event. The Green Village, a group of 15 non-profit, environmentally minded organizations, will return once again to set up vendors about environmental issues.

“Another way for us to really push forward is the environmental forum,” Hunt said. This forum allows participants to interact with featured musicians to answer their environmental questions.

“Music on the Mountaintop, apart from the green movement that they do, it’s the community that we really love,” Ryan O’Keefe, lead singer and guitarist for the band Do It To Julia, said.

O’Keefe, whose local band was featured at last year’s festival, hopes to do something a little bit different this year. The “powerful-folk rock” band will take a week-long retreat to craft an original, fresh set of music just for the festival.

“We are a college town, so we’re trying to make sure kids like the music style,” Hunt said. “All of it is definitely family friendly and very eclectic.”

But Hunt’s vision for this festival extends far beyond the music.

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