Dear SERFA folk,

This is a letter to update ya’ll regarding our 2025 SERFA Conference.

Over the past two weeks, since Hurricane Helene hit Western North Carolina and East Tennessee areas of our region, the board has been conversing about what to do. As you know the area suffered significant damage and their road to recovery is going to be long. We have decided to move the location of our next conference based on the uncertainty of the areas’ recovery timeline. We have been in contact with the good people at the YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly and they are very understanding about our decision.

We are working with an agency that specializes in finding conference locations and they came as a recommendation from both the leaders of the FARM region and Folk Alliance International. Think of them as a realtor, we give them what we want, need and desire and they cast a net to some cities that will match up. They look at highways, airports, local music support systems and other various factors needed to host a group like ours. We hope to keep it in May, have the same structure with workshops, official and private showcases and of course lodging.

We are waiting for the results so we can go visit them as a possible location, which will happen over the course of the next few weeks. We should be able to get something finalized by the end of the year. Folk Alliance International has been very helpful to us and we feel confident that we can lean on them as work through the process.

In the meantime, we are starting to look at program ideas, workshops and official showcase set ups, so please keep your eyes open for newsletters, social media posts and news items on our website.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we try to find the best way to serve the SERFA community.

Thank you,
The SERFA Board