By Pruett Norris & Elliott Klappenbach
First, on campus, the lineup for the 2023 Appalachian Summer Festival has been announced at the Schaefer Center! According to its website, the arts festival, featuring shows across the music, dance, theatre, film, and visual arts disciplines, will run from June 24th to July 29th, beginning with a big name: An Evening with Leslie Odom Jr., of Hamilton and last year’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Other features include the musician John Oates, on July 14th, and country music artist Darius Rucker will close out the festival on July 29th. Tickets go on sale April 12th at 10am, and more information can be found on the Appalachian Summer Festival website, appsummer.org.
Locally, the Watauga Democrat reports that Grandfather Mountain, beginning on April 1st, is set to spring back to life in the community with “Dollar Days,” a promotion for residents of Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Mitchell, Watauga and Wilkes counties, as well as students of local universities, that admits entrance to Grandfather Mountain for only $5 a person. The discount works by vehicle: local residents should reserve their space online, and then will be asked to present a driver’s license or student ID at the gate in order to ensure their Dollar Days status for themselves and passengers in their vehicle. This is the perfect time for Grandfather Mountain to begin this promotion, as daily nature programming begins again on April 1st as well. This includes “Keeper Talks,” where park educators teach about and interact with habitat animals like black bears, bald eagles, river otters, and elk. For all my locals, see y’all up the mountain!
At last, in national news, the New York Times reports that Adnan Syed, subject of the popular true crime podcast Serial, has been thrust back into the spotlight after he was freed from prison last September. A Maryland appeals court has ruled that the overthrow of Syed’s conviction did not give fair representation to the murder victim’s brother, who appeared in court over Zoom, and that a retrial must be done in order to allow the relative to appear in person. A University of Maryland law professor called the decision “stunning and surprising.” The appeal could mean major things for legal precedent for victims moving forward.
Now, sports!
Good luck to our App State women's track team who is in Texas today competing in the Texas relays meet. The men's track team has back-to-back meets tomorrow and Friday. Tomorrow in Virginia and Friday the men's and women's track team will be at ECU in Greenville NC.
The softball team is in the middle of a doubleheader today, both games against NC Central. The first game started at 2 and the second at 430. The softball team is coming off their first-ever ranked win as they just beat number 23-ranked Louisiana by a score of 5-3.
The App State baseball team just came off a thrilling walk-off single to beat Georgia state and to win the three-game series against them. Appstate trailed by 8 early on before rallying to a 15-14 victory. The 13-9 Mountaineers play tonight at 6pm in uptown charlotte. The game is at Truist park against Queens University.
The final four tips off this Saturday. The 9 seeded underdogs of FAU plays 5th seeded san diego st at 6pm, and 5 seeded miami plays the favorites by way of seeding, number 4 Uconn at 850.
Finally, the weather as ever from Boone Weather dot com. It’s a high of 54 degrees and a low of 33 today in the High Country, which is down from the warmth of earlier this week, but still indicates spring is on the rise.