Crowne Plaza Resort, Asheville. Three days, two stages, and jams until dawn.
Get Tickets →In 1995 there was no bluegrass festival in Asheville. Milton Harkey decided there ought to be one — and that if he was going to do it, it would be built on a rule he has never bent since.
Milton was sitting in his house in Asheville when the idea arrived. As he tells it, he walked out onto his back porch, looked over the city, and said there ought to be a way to have bluegrass here. There wasn’t any back then.
From that, Bluegrass First Class was born. It was conceived as an exclusive event featuring the world’s best bluegrass musicians, and it hit the ground running in 1996. He sat down in his den, picked up the phone, and called enough people to fill the Crowne Plaza that first year.
The idea was to have no filler bands. We’d just have the national acts, the biggest and the best. That way, if someone wanted to see a tremendous show, you would come to Asheville for Bluegrass First Class.Milton Harkey
That guiding principle has not changed. The lineup is as full of talent as it has ever been, with some of the biggest names in bluegrass — young and old — on the bill each February. Not much else has changed either, aside from taking over a larger portion of the Crowne Plaza Resort a few years back.
As Milton puts it: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Different bands every year, a showcase stage with different bands, and always incredible pickers.
The Main Stage runs from late morning until around midnight through the weekend with top-tier national bands. The smaller Showcase Stage features regional up-and-comers who have already proven themselves in smaller venues. Milton organizes a band workshop himself, offering pointers to aspiring pickers and to players who have already put in time on the bluegrass circuit.
The stages are only part of it. Most bluegrass festivals happen in summer, spread across farmland or a park. Doing it in winter, indoors, means close quarters — hotel room doors flung open to fellow festival-goers, and jam sessions spilling out of hallways, stairwells and even the elevators.
The idea is for people to be able to pick in the rooms, up and down the halls, in every crevice and corner. If people want to listen to a jam, they can just walk down from the stages and listen.Milton Harkey
What sets First Class apart, Milton says, is a refusal to blur the edges. Plenty of acoustic groups reach for the bluegrass label. He books the ones who eat, sleep and breathe the music as it was meant to be played.
Bluegrass is its own genre — it’s not just somebody playing acoustic somewhere. There’s a lot of that. Bluegrass is beautiful music, and if you want to hear what it really sounds like within the pillars of bluegrass, this is the show to come to.Milton Harkey
A native of Western North Carolina, Milton’s lifelong love of bluegrass keeps him on the road — promoting, producing, or just listening to the music he loves. He has developed a good ear for it, and as a producer of several bluegrass events, his audiences get the benefit of hearing exactly what he likes to listen to.
He grew up in Asheville — the town where Bill Monroe began his radio career on WWNC. His earliest influences were Flatt & Scruggs, Porter Wagoner and the Wilburn Brothers, every Saturday afternoon on television. He and his mother sang gospel together at home, him sitting on the piano bench while she played. He got hooked, and those roots set the stage for the rest of us.
Beyond his own events, Milton has helped build other forums for the preservation and support of bluegrass music.
One of the founding fathers of the IBMA, and Chairman of the Board for three years.
Originator, founder and producer of the Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver Family Style Bluegrass Festival in Denton, NC.
Founder and host of the Pizza Hut International Bluegrass Showdown, a search for bluegrass and acoustic bands across the US and Canada.
Founding member of the South Carolina Bluegrass Society, and Chairman of the Board for three years.
Producer of the Fox on the Run Bluegrass Festival in Lexington and Little Mountain, SC.
Co-founder of the Kinston Winter Bluegrass Festival, with the Eastern NC Bluegrass Association and the Kinston Chamber of Commerce.
A three-hour weekly show for a year on WCOS-FM, a 100,000-watt station in Columbia, SC.
Event producer at the Quarter Moon Listening Parlor.
Milton continues to spend his spare time working with young bluegrass artists, giving them the chance to showcase their talents and earn the recognition of seasoned bluegrass audiences nationwide.
The concert series runs several times a year at venues including the J.E. Broyhill Civic Center in Lenoir, NC and the Paramount Center for the Arts in Bristol, TN, alongside other collaborations featuring major artists.
As the administrative cornerstone of MRH Productions, Vicky Hutchens is entrusted with both the responsibility and the authority to make critical company decisions. She oversees the full administrative scope of MRH Productions, Inc., Bluegrass First Class, and every event that we produce, from the largest festivals to the smallest shows.
From negotiating operations and managing band contracts to coordinating logistics, Vicky ensures every detail is handled with precision. At Bluegrass First Class, our flagship event, and at every production throughout the year, she attends all pre-con meetings alongside Milton Harkey and department heads to align every moving part. Once on site, she takes total operational control to guarantee seamless execution.
Vicky’s impact extends far beyond administration. She directs our social media advertising, designs promotional flyers, and collaborates directly with Milton on all aspects and functionality of the industry. Her knowledge, built over 30 years, spans every facet of the business. She works closely with our volunteer team and staff to coordinate parking and merchandise sales, manages band load-in and load-out with professionalism, and provides first-class hospitality for our artists. She also coordinates directly with the venues where we produce our events.
Many companies call themselves promoters; at MRH Productions, we are producers, and Vicky is the epitome of that distinction. Her leadership, expertise, and dedication make her a vital force behind our success.
Reach her at 828-275-8650.