- Let's head to the campus of Appalachian State University in Boone, where another very special birthday is coming up, the 40th anniversary of the Appalachian Summer Festival.

[upbeat music] - Wow.

Trying to describe Appalachian Summer Fest is exciting because it's a little bit of everything.

- So an Appalachian Summer Festival is a summer celebration of the arts.

It's multidisciplinary.

- Great artists, great arts, great university.

That's what energizes me is seeing people engaged, jumping up and yelling after the end of a great concert.

Spend a few days in the high country, enjoy the cooler weather.

It's always cooler no matter how hot it is, and enjoy a range of things that can really expose you to some great art.

- My parents were the ones that actually started this festival.

Appalachian Summer Festival started in the early 80s when my father Arnold Rosen he met with the chancellor and vice chancellor and suggested maybe we had more culture going on in the summer, bring the community into the university.

- An Appalachian Summer is part of the longstanding tradition of Appalachian State University's mission for access.

We were founded in 1899 to provide access to what they called the Lost Provinces.

They needed educational opportunities for the folks who lived here in the mountains.

The arts are part of that access as well.

- It was very important to the founders of this festival that the entertainment be accessible.

- This is the 20th year for our art museum, the Turchin Center.

The opening of that the first year with everybody coming in, and wow, we have this here in Boone and the great concerts here.

- [Wright] The indoor venues are world class.

We've had several performers over the years that have commented on how spectacular the sound is in the Schaefer Center.

- We also love the idea of doing a large outdoor concert, even though the weather is always a challenge.

- [Hank] The high country is known for rain and thunderstorms in the summer, a little big town, it was 45 or an hour and 15 minutes we had to wait because of lightning.

And then, you know, when the show started, it was great.

- What a show!

- [Denise] We have film, we have dance, and we have theater too.

So there's a little bit of something for everybody.

- [Hank] We had Darius Rucker, and over the years we've had lots of outside artists.

- Everything from the Beach Boys to Willie Nelson, having the Doobie Brothers and Chicago, wow, probably 10, 11 years ago.

Theatrical performers, we had Leslie Odom Jr., Lea Salonga.

- We're able to present a series that features award-winning films from around the world, many of which are not available in theaters or even online.

And as well as our visual arts programming, outdoor sculpture is a real part of the festival.

- My aunt and uncle were responsible for starting an outdoor sculpture competition here.

It's a juried competition.

The students get to enjoy the art as well as the community.

- [Wright] I personally think what makes this festival so unique is it appeals to a wide range of audiences.

It appeals to a wide range of age groups.

- If you're doing chamber music one night and then you have Keb' Mo' the next night, and then you have Dance Theatre of Harlem.

Each of those nights, each of those performances attracted a different audience.

And we just love it when we look around the lobby, and we see that the audience is very, very different from night to night, which, of course, is what we hope to do with the festival.

We pride ourselves in knowing that the same artists that appear at an Appalachian Summer Festival are probably appearing in other venues across the country.

We're able to offer those same artists at much lower prices because we do so much fundraising from our philanthropic community that also shares our mission and our belief in the importance of access.

- Thank you for supporting all of these artists.

We'd also like to thank all of you.

- We have some dedicated people here that value the arts, value this program, and support it with their money so that other people can enjoy it.

- The best of the best that you would typically have to go to a very large city to experience.

- I would love to see this festival go another 40 years.

I don't think my parents ever thought it would last this long, but it's grown and we're really proud of it.

- To have a festival that has that kind of longevity and has continued to grow and prosper and get better every single year gives me comfort that it will be around for hopefully another 40 years.

- This mountain is gonna be home for the visual arts and performing arts, film, dance, music for many, many years to come.

And that it's gonna be part of who we are as a university, part of who we are as a community.

[upbeat music] - [Deborah] An Appalachian Summer Festival kicks off June 29th with a performance by Natalie Merchant and wraps up on July 27th with a show by Brad Paisley.

And, of course, there are events that entire month all over Appalachian State University campus.

To find out more, visit their website at appsummer.org.