35th Annual Dulcimer Festival - August 7, 2026

The Fort New Salem Dulcimer Festival is a celebration of Appalachian Music held over three days. Fort New Salem is an Appalachian Living History Museum located in North Central West Virginia. Our past workshop leaders included Cynthia Brissey, Marge Diamond, Jeff Fedan, Jerry Rockwell, Bill Schilling, Linda Sigismondi, Steven K. Smith and Tish Westman. Workshops will be held on mountain and hammered dulcimers, as well as other folk instruments such as autoharp, spoons, bowed psaltery and Native American flute. There will be concerts both Friday and Saturday evenings. Music lovers have gathered at Fort New Salem for the Dulcimer Festival for over three decades. We feature music, concerts, Appalachian artisans and hands-on music workshops during the day for all levels of players. The workshops primarily focus on the mountain and hammered dulcimer, with additional ones on other folk instruments and voice. Daily general admission is $8. Children 10 & under are free. Additional workshop fees apply for those who also want to attend classes. We feature concerts on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 PM. Each concert is a “coffee house” style concert featuring short sets by several of the workshop leaders. The concerts are included in the daily general admission. We also close on Sunday with a one-hour music jam concert finale at 2 PM. FRIDAY 5 – 9:30 PM SATURDAY 9 – 9:30 PM SUNDAY 9:30 – 3 PM. On Saturday & Sunday, various heritage artisans will also be on site