Music in the Valley Folk & Wine Festival pairs folk music, which emerged as a distinct genre in the 19th century, with the bucolic setting of Hale Farm & Village — a 19th-century living history museum. Among the reenactors and 32 historic structures that re-create the nearly 100-acre Western Reserve homestead of settler Jonathan Hale, hear musicians organically play folk music as they would in bygone days.
“They sit on our porches,” says Stephanie Lero, director of Hale Farm & Village. “They’ll be playing music either by themselves or bands could go all the way up to five, 10 people. Or they’ll wander like a village troubadour.”
Started in 1975 as a music festival, Music in the Valley celebrates 50 years in 2025. It has maintained a partnership with FolkNet, a Northeast Ohio-based show presenter specializing in folk, traditional music and dance. On July 12 and 13, listen to acts ranging from traditional folk musicians to modern folk bands — such as headliner Hunter Skeens and the Forerunners, playing the festival’s main stage both days. Combining bluegrass with rock, the group bills itself as “jamgrass” — members play the fiddle, banjo and upright bass, and its Stark County native frontman and singer, Hunter Skeens, plays mandolin and guitar.
Music in the Valley added the wine element in 2012. For an extra ticket, get a souvenir wine glass and enjoy five 5-ounce pours of wine, selected from 12 Ohio wine vendors. Nosh on eats from the gatehouse cafe and food trucks.
Attendees can also tour Hale’s historic structures, including an 1805 log cabin, an 1816 schoolhouse and an 1850 cottage. Encounter craftspeople demonstrating trades, including blacksmithing, natural dyeing and cheesemaking, while learning Western Reserve history. “[You’re] seeing our potter making pottery and understanding the significance of it in this area,” says Lero. “Jonathan Hale made all of his bricks for the Hale house that is here with the clay on the property.”
Kids can make crafts, see Hale Farm’s two oxen, six sheep and nine chickens or join a wool spinning demonstration. “You can help the carding of the wool and learn how to spin,” Lero says. “We try to be as interactive as we can.”
Experiencing olden art forms within a historic landscape takes you away. “It’s cool to walk around and see different pockets of people collaborating and forgetting about the outside world and making music together,” says Lero. “You are stepping back into time. It is an awing moment, and it’s very humbling too.”
2686 Oak Hill Road, Bath, 330-666-3711, halefarm.org
Nancy Balluck
Nancy Balluck
