A Murfreesboro tradition returns to Hop Springs this September as Uncle Dave Macon Days: A Roots Rendezvous celebrates its 2026 festival with three days of bluegrass, old-time, Americana and gospel music, contests, dancing and family-friendly entertainment. This year the festival will be bringing back its long-running instrument competitions.
The next chapter of Uncle Dave Macon Days is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 11 through Sunday, Sept. 13 at Hop Springs, 6790 John Bragg Hwy. Organizers describe the event as a continuation of Uncle Dave Macon Days’ longstanding mission of preserving and promoting American roots music while introducing those traditions to new generations.
The festival has come a long way since its beginnings on the Rutherford County Courthouse square in 1978. What began as a small banjo-picking contest grew into a much larger annual celebration at Cannonsburgh Village for decades, before moving in recent years to Hop Springs.
This year brings back one of the event’s signature attractions: the National Old-Time Banjo Championship Contest, scheduled for Saturday morning, along with competitions in bluegrass banjo, traditional fiddle, beginner musician, old-time singing, Dobro, mandolin, flat-pick guitar and shade tree pickin’ band. The National Old-Time Banjo Contest, recognized by Congress in 1986, is returning as part of the event’s continuing effort to preserve the clawhammer-style banjo tradition associated with Uncle Dave Macon…