A FESTIVAL ON A HILL

NC Brewers & Music Festival returns to Huntersville

BY PAT MORAN

On May 12, the North Carolina Brewers & Music Festival returns to Historic Rural Hill nature preserve in Huntersville. The two-day family-friendly event offers a curated lineup of over 40 breweries, allowing festivalgoers to camp out amid a landscape graced with hiking trails and Colonial-era farm buildings. Tying into the outdoor, rain-or-shine activities is a carefully coordinated soundtrack for the beer fest; a lineup of nine artists and bands, many with North Carolina connections, are artfully chosen to complement and enhance the bucolic setting and the craft beers that festivalgoers will find on tap.

That means the bands chosen for the event fall into a loosely defined genre that Micah Davidson calls “grass roots-oriented indie-Americana.”

“I think we’ve stayed consistent with that genre,” says Davidson, founder and owner of Charlotte-based agency Midwood Entertainment, which curates and consults on venues, festivals and events. The 45-year-old former booking agent has been programming the North Carolina Brewers & Music Festival since it launched in 2010.

“Certainly, it’s a team effort,” Davidson says. “We all get together and discuss ideas.”

At the end of the day, however, it’s Davidson who makes the decisions and picks the bands.

“For the North Carolina Brewers & Music Festival, the marketing is about the overall experience,” Davidson says. “So, the lineup … must be something that falls in line with the overall brand. It’s on a farm. It’s camping. So, bluegrass and indie Americana is really where I’d like to stay.”

This year marks the 11th iteration of the festival — the event was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s also a watershed for the festival — the year the NC Brewers & Music Fest decided to go bigger.

“This is the year we probably spent the most money,” Davidson says. May 12 marks the largest Friday night headliner the festival has ever booked: North Carolina-based Grammy

Award-winning progressive bluegrass group The Steep Canyon Rangers. Filling out the bill is a mix of local and regional favorites and Americana up-andcomers including Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, 49 Winchester, SUSTO, Lilly Hiatt, Kaitlin Butts, Time Sawyer, Kiely Connell and Paleface.

“For the people that aren’t super happy with the lineup, it’s my fault,” Davidson says. “For the people who absolutely love the lineup, it’s also my fault.”

The business of entertainment

Born in Roanoke, Virginia, Davidson went to the College of Charleston before “politely being asked to leave,” Davidson says. Instead of going to class, he was throwing large parties and concerts at frat houses.

“I guess I was born to do events,” he says, laughing. After moving to Charlotte in 1999, Davidson started working as the general manager of The Double Door Inn, the storied but since demolished venue in Charlotte’s Elizabeth neighborhood. He also became a booking agent. In 2009, Davidson met Jeff Fissel, who was then the executive director for Historic Rural Hill. Fissel was considering launching a beer festival and had some interest in booking The New Familiars, a Charlotte band that Davidson was managing, to play it. But Davidson got more involved than just booking his band; he and Fissel launched the North Carolina Brewers & Music Festival together in 2010.

In September 2015, Davidson started Midwood Entertainment with nine artists and two festivals. As the business grew, Davidson moved away from being an agent and hired other agents. In the wake of the COVID pandemic, Midwood Entertainment shut down its talent agency division in 2021, now just focusing on event production and talent buying.

Davidson runs the company and organizes both events: the NC Brewers & Music Festival as well as Tennessee’s Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion in September. Meanwhile, Monica Smith oversees the agency’s venue division, which programs for seven venues on the East Coast, as well as one in Colorado. One venue, The Harvester Performance Center in Rocky Mount, Virginia, is an exception. There Davidson is the director of operations.

In the meantime, Davidson partnered with John Crawford of Codex Sound in Hickory. Amid the pandemic, Codex Sound famously launched the No Contact Concert Series, an online streaming concert experience. Codex Sound currently handles production for all Midwood Entertainment’s events in the southeast.

Crawford has been handling the production component of the NC Brewers & Music Festival since its founding. Davidson also partnered with Charles Willett, controller of NoDa Brewing Company. Willett handles the beer component of the festival, including alcohol sales and coordinating with brewers for the festival’s beer tasting on Saturday.

In 2019, Davidson, Fissel, Crawford and Willett launched Five String Productions LLC, which bought 50% of the festival from Rural Hill. Five String Productions produces the event, while the farm, which owns half, helps produce it. Profits from the festival are split 50/50, with Rural Hill’s cut benefiting the historic property.

Making a festival sing

Davidson remembers the very first NC Brewers & Music Fest only lasted one day on one single stage. It didn’t become a two-day event until three years later. This year, the festival’s music performances are spread out over Friday and Saturday, and camping runs Thursday through Sunday. The beer tasting still takes place on Saturday afternoon, with this year boasting more than 40 brewers, including NoDa Brewing Company, Cavendish Brewing Company, Protagonist Beer, Legion Brewing, Royal Bliss Brewing and more.

When it comes to booking the festival, Davidson begins looking for likely performers a few weeks after the previous year’s fest has wrapped.

“Starting around June 1, I start working on headliners for the following year,” Davidson says.

Starting with a blank slate, Davidson looks at other festivals’ lineups, as well as other lineups Midwood Entertainment puts together for other events and venues. While