Editing Wilkes County, North Carolina (section)

==Events and festivals==
Wilkes County has strong musical roots, and those roots are displayed at:

It hosts the annual ''Shine to Wine Festival'', in downtown North Wilkesboro. Held on the first Saturday of May, the Shine to Wine festival pays tribute to the county's heritage of growing from the Moonshine Capital of the World to what is now recognized as a strong viticultural industry.

Wilkes County is also home to the annual [[Brushy Mountain Apple Festival]], which is held in downtown North Wilkesboro the first weekend in October. The festival, which attracts over 160,000 visitors each year, is one of the largest single-day arts and crafts fairs in the Southern United States.

Carolina in the Fall is another music festival each September in the Historic Downtown Wilkesboro and is hosted by the Heart of Folk and the Kruger Brothers. The festival and venue won an award at the IBMA and features music, wine and beer garden and food truck competition. It continues to grow in popularity.

The Carolina West Wireless Community Commons and Wilkes Communications Pavilion has "Concerts on the Commons," a live music concert series held from May through October annually. {{main|MerleFest}}
In 1988 legendary, [[Grammy]]-winning folk music guitarist [[Doc Watson]] and Bill Young started the Doc Watson Festival (later renamed the [[MerleFest]] music festival) in Wilkesboro. Held on the campus of Wilkes Community College, and named in honor of Doc's late son Merle Watson, MerleFest has grown into one of the largest folk and bluegrass music festivals in the United States, drawing an average of over 75,000 music fans each year.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.journalnow.com/relishnow/merlefest/merlefest-sees-bump-in-attendance/article_3aef09b0-ed2f-11e4-8366-db4c85d53b34.html|title=MerleFest sees bump in attendance|last=Journal|first=Lynn Felder/Winston-Salem|work=Winston-Salem Journal|access-date=March 18, 2018|language=en}}</ref> The festival has become the main fundraiser for the college, and brings over $10 million in estimated business and tourist revenues to Wilkes County and surrounding areas each year.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.journalpatriot.com/news/edc-hears-statistics-on-merlefest/article_ad6b910a-a28f-11e5-84fb-a78e02ab632a.html|title=EDC hears statistics on MerleFest|work=journalpatriot|access-date=March 18, 2018}}</ref>