Advanced Discount Tickets For Ola Belle Reed Festival Available During May By Fawn Roark Advanced tickets for the Ola Belle Reed Homecoming Festival scheduled the weekend of August 18th - 20th in Lansing are now on sale and are available at Lowe’s Food in West Jefferson. This month only, the price for a three-day pass is $15. On Friday night, a Banjo Competition will begin at 6 p.m. at the Old Lansing School followed by a Jam Session. On Saturday, the festival and workshops will be held as well as Children’s Hour and an Evening Jam. Sunday’s events will focus on gospel including an 11 a.m. non-denominational service followed by gospel music from noon to 5 p.m. The Festival’s Mission Statement reads: Ola Belle Campbell Reed, a legendary country singer, was a strong force for good who touched countless lives. The Ola Belle Campbell Reed Homecoming Festival is an opportunity to celebrate the life and music of this remarkable woman in the locale where her life’s journey began, the small community of Lansing, along the New River in the mountains of North Carolina. The Festival will feature the music of Ola Belle’s husband and sons, musicians who played with her over the years, newer groups that are carrying on her tradition, and local talent. It will also celebrate the life and philosophy of a woman who spent a lifetime “tearing down the fences that fence us all in.” Bands already confirmed to perform at the Ola Belle Reed Homecoming Festival include: Bud, Ralph, David Reed and Andy McKean; Mike Seeger; Kevin Roth, Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, Mark Brine, Molly Andrews, Hugh and Zane Campbell, Demolition String Band, Grayson Highlands, New River Boys and Girls, Clark Jones, Rock Bottom Bluegrass, White Top Mountain Band, Rita Scott and the All Girls Band and DJ and Randy Sheets. According to a website home.comcast.net/~tompolis/, Reed was born in Grassy Creek and was one of 13 children who was born on August 17, 1916 to a musical family. In 1936, Ola Belle began performing professionally as a member of the North Carolina Ridge Runners, one of the first hillbilly bands of the Delaware-Maryland area. She played old-time banjo and guitar and sang for the Appalachian area audiences from 1936 to 1948. In 1945, Ola Belle was offered more than $100 per week, quite a good sum in those days, to join country music legend Roy Acuff‘s band and backup group. Ola Belle declined the offer. In 1948, Ola Belle and her brother, Alex, became a musical team and formed their own country music band, named The New River Boys. Through the years, Ola Belle wrote many, many songs about her Appalachian past and her commitment to family traditions, religious values, and social justice. In 1978, the University of Maryland awarded her with an honorary doctorate of letters for her contributions to the arts and culture.