Everyone is welcome to join the crowd on Friday evenings four times each summer for the annual Friday Night Street Dances on Main Street in Downtown Waynesville. Enjoy the area’s finest bluegrass musicians, bands and clogging teams. It’s where the travelers get to interact with the locals! The dance always starts with a circle – joining of hands is the symbol of community. The first movement of the Appalachian American big round dance is the Grand Right and Left. The dancers turn and greet their partners with a “How do you do?” and “Fine, thank you,” and the circle continues. Main Street in front of the historic Haywood County Courthouse is closed and sprinkled with cornmeal to facilitate the shuffling movement of dancing feet. Bleachers are available but you might want to bring a chair or blanket. At the caller’s first yell, the asphalt becomes crowded with many dancers as they kick it up to the mountain music. You will be invited to participate. The Downtown Waynesville Association sponsors the street dances.
The late evening dance has been going on for nearly a century. In the 1930’s Haywood County resident Sam Queen, known as “the dancing-est man in the land” organized the Soco Gap Dance Team, which was among the very first practiced mountain square dance and clogging demonstration teams in the country. Today his grandson, Joe Sam Queen, carries on the tradition.
