ELKINS – Augusta Heritage Center’s summer activities will take on a new look this year with its annual workshops and concerts moving to the downtown Elkins area.

For years Davis & Elkins College has been the home for Augusta’s festivities in the past, but the move to downtown was inevitable after the Augusta purchased the Wilt Building on the corner of Davis Avenue and Third Street back in 2023.

“We are excited for this new era of Augusta and are happy to be bringing some programs to downtown Elkins,” said Augusta Heritage Executive Director Seth Young. “We are especially excited about the collaboration between the Augusta community and our immediate Elkins community. I think integrating Augusta with our community is going to open up doors for opportunities on both sides.”

This summer’s themed workshops, which will begin on July 6 with Cajun, Creole and Country Week, will culminate in a public concert held on every Thursday of the workshops. All of the Thursday concerts will be held at the Rotary Amphitheater and will begin at 7:30 p.m.

“All of the concerts will be open to the public on Thursday evenings of our programming,” Young said. “We feel that this is a wonderful way to showcase the best of what Augusta brings to the Elkins community. Our hope is that this music reaches a wide audience from all over the region.”

In the event of rain, concerts will move indoors to the Arts Center. Due to limited seating capacity, priority seating will be reserved for registered workshop participants, with remaining seats available to the public as space permits.

The Augusta Heritage Center workshops and the annual festival, which will be held on July 25, are in their 53rd year of existence. Week 2 of the workshops is Blues Week and will begin on July 13 (concert July 16), while Week 3 will be Old-Time Week and will start on July 20 (concert July 23). The fourth week of this year’s workshops will be Vocal Week and will begin on July 27 (concert July 30). The workshop schedule will conclude with Bluegrass Week, which gets underway on Aug. 3 (Aug. 6 concert).

“The concerts are aligned with the classes that we are having that week,” Young said. “So for our first one on July 9, which is during Cajun & Creole Week, it will feature all of the instructing artists that are coming here…Megacorp, 7 Performance, Seneca Mall, and Tygart Valley Distributing are directly sponsoring the concerts and proving a great service to this community by affording us the ability to put these (concerts) on for donations only.”

With renovations to the Wilt Building still ongoing, workshops and other activities will be scattered around the downtown area.

“The classes are primarily going to be located in the Manos Theater while the Wilt Building is under construction,” Young said. “We have a dance tent going up in the Citizens Bank Parking Lot. We are hosting events right after each concert there and we have partners all over Elkins who will be hosting some of our programming.”

Young said he is happy that Augusta is going back to its roots and being a five-week program again. In its most recent years, Augusta was held over a three-week span.

“Going back to five weeks allows us to slow the pace down and really do deep dives into the content,” Young said. “Augusta was traditionally, when I came to know it, a five-week program. So I view it as going back to our roots.”

Young encourages those who have never taken in any of Augusta’s events to come out and experience the energy that has made it a treasured West Virginia tradition for more than fifty years.

“You are really going to notice the best of Elkins when we are off and running,” Young said. “With the dance tent, the concerts downtown and having 80 or 90 people walking around downtown with instrument cases and their name tags on, it is going to be a great experience. Elkins is going to be a real destination for traditional arts learning in the new future.”

For additional information, visit the Augusta Heritage Center website or call 304-637-1209.