MerleFest is an annual "traditional plus" music festival held in Wilkesboro, North Carolina on the campus of Wilkes Community College.

The festival, which is held the last weekend in April, was hosted by Grammy Award winner Doc Watson prior to his death and is named in memory and honor of his son, Eddy Merle Watson,[1] who died in a farm tractor accident in 1985.

[3] It is estimated that the festival brings over $10 million in business and tourist revenue to Wilkes County and surrounding areas each year.

Artists can often be enjoyed in on-stage jam sessions featuring unusual combinations of musicians, such as Bob Weir, formerly of the Grateful Dead singing with Sam Bush and Gillian Welch with the Waybacks.

Other artists who have performed on MerleFest's 14 stages over the first 24 years have included Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Earl Scruggs, The Kruger Brothers, Carolina Chocolate Drops, John Prine, Alison Krauss and Union Station, Donna the Buffalo, Natalie MacMaster, Vassar Clements, Hot Tuna, Alan Jackson, Darius Rucker, David Grisman, Ricky Skaggs, Emmylou Harris, Jerry Douglas, Del McCoury, Billy Strings, Junior Brown, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Claire Lynch, Elvis Costello, Howard Armstrong, Randy Travis, Lyle Lovett, The Doobie Brothers, Robert Plant and the Band of Joy, Sharon Gilchrist, The Avett Brothers, Tony Rice, François Vola, Old Crow Medicine Show, Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers, Zac Brown Band, Dierks Bentley, Linda Ronstadt, Levon Helm, Taj Mahal, Bruce Hornsby, Cadillac Sky[6] and Vince Gill.