Year 5
2025 Event Memories & Accomplishments
Free event for all!
Featured on NPR Affiliate WEKU’s Kentucky Arts and Culture segment
Featured on Lexington, KY News Podcast Wick’s Picks
Featured on Appalachian Echoes Podcast
13 Live Female-led musical acts plus the 1st ever Mountain Man Jam
13 Creative Workshops offered with 325 attendee participants creating new art
Over 250 attendees at Front Porch Panel: The Power of the Appalachian Woman, featuring 5 prominent East Kentucky panelists
10 Information Booths including University of Kentucky Ovarian Cancer Screening Program & Pike County Health Department’s “Mama Van”
10 Appalachian Artisan Vendors, Crafters & Makers and Food & Beverage Trucks
Over 30 Juried Art Exhibition Participants and 30 Art Awards given
Funds raised and donated to our 2025 charitable entity, Pike County Health Department Domestic Violence Coalition
Received Kentucky Foundation for Women 2025 Radical, Timely & Urgent Grant
Hosted Kentucky Foundation for Women Regional Gathering at the Pikeville Welcome Center
Sincere Community Involvement
Volunteered with Can’d Aid and University of Pikeville at Healing Appalachia Festival in 2024 and 2025 to help festival goers build and decorate 70 Ukuleles that were donated to the 150 Academy, a free after-school youth music education program in East Kentucky.
Volunteered with Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour Flood Relief Instrument Giveaway in Pikeville, KY
Partnered with Americana Music Honors and Awards artist Stef Ratliff to assist with the Appalachian Chapter of NEST Makers United
Awarded Kentucky Foundation for Women Artist Career Development Mini-Grant to host KFW Regional Gathering at the Pikeville Welcome Center
Represented MGE at the 26th Big Sandy Small Business Symposium-Women in Leadership Panel in Paintsville, KY
Presented “Women Creating Change: A Deep Dive into the Mountain Grrl Experience” at the 2025 BRIGHT Leadership Conference at the Mountain Arts Center in Prestonsburg, KY
Presented ”Women Creating Change: The Mountain Grrl Experience” for the Pike County Domestic Violence Coalition
Many thanks to our media friends Larry Epling (UPike), Dusty Layne, Jeremy Justice (Jeremy Justice Films), Nik Lee (Appalashop), Andrew Tussey (Tussey Media Group) and Austin Shuck (What the Shuck)
MUSIC!
ART!
2025 Women in the Arts Exhibition
WORKSHOPS!
FUN!
Front Porch Panel: The Power of the Appalachian Woman
(Sponsored by the University of Pikeville)
“ WOW I just attended one of the most powerful events I’ve ever listened to as a woman.
The Front Porch Panel of the Mountain Grrl Experience brought together a group of talented, passionate, intelligent, STRONG women from Eastern KY. They discussed a wide range of topics dealing with mountain women: our strength and our potential and our talents.
Several high schools had brought young women to listen and I was so proud of those teachers. I would love to see every teen girl in our area in the audience next year to be inspired by these women.”:
Mountain Grrls helping Mountain Grrls
Mountain Grrls helping Mountain Grrls
We are SO PROUD to announce a charitable donation will be made to the Pike County Domestic Violence Coalition
This group collects and creates resources, using Turning Point Kentucky’s helpline for local people in domestic violence situations.
You can reach the Turning Point helpline 24/7 at (800)649-6605, or by texting (606)792-2291.
What People Are Saying
“It is really one of the coolest events ever. ”
“You all inspired me…because you've been proving how NOT HARD it is to get high-quality acts onstage and also include and even feature women!”-Carla Gover
”Today I learned how to play the ukulele, the dulcimer, how to flatfoot dance and hambone. I tacked my first pieces of a quilt and I met some of the most precious people on this planet.”
“It’s not females only, we’re just celebrating women.”
“I really, really, REALLY enjoyed myself. Thank you all for all the hard work you put into this.”
“Well it’s official now… I’m one of the cool kids. Thank you, Jessica Salyer, for the t-shirt cutting class at the Mountain Grrl Experience! I love learning new things!”
“Grrrrrrrrrrrrrl! If you were not in Pikeville, KY for the Mountain Grrl Experience this weekend, you truly missed a blessing!
Our calves got a work out from all of the A-MAZ-ING toe tapping music! We shopped, talked about our Mamaws and our Grannies, ate good stuff, made new friends, shared recipes, and then there were all the free workshops!
We cut up t-shirts like we did at camp when we were kids, learned some flat footing dance steps, learned to play a dulcimer, made quilt squares, tie dyed, screen printed, assembled some jewelry for our flower pots, ... and I kid you not, we learned to play spoons, got on the stage with Coaltown Dixie for our first jam session, and earned a Certificate of Completion from Coaltown College!
We will be thinking about all of the wonderful women who came together this past weekend to raise money for survivors of domestic violence, and all of the women in our own lives who passed down their traditions through music, crafts, story telling, art, and food to all of us, until we get to gather again for the next Mountain Grrl Experience next year.”
“Thank ya’ll so much for what you do. Thank you for making space for women to create this kind of magic together. Thank you for your hearts and all you do for this community. You are such a precious, precious treasure. It’s an honor to be a Mountain Grrl.”
“You have done so much to address the issue of giving women a stage. We will keep on fighting!”
“So grateful for this event! Me & my son love it. You ladies are incredible.”
“Appalachian Women have super powers: Our voice | Storytelling | The ability to take what’s handed to us and make it grow | Grit | Determination.
We can fix anything -We can do anything -We make hard things look easy- We are strong”
“Some of the big name festivals could learn some lessons from The Mountain Grrl Experience”
“Thank you, Kris Preston and Bek Smallwood, for following your dreams and passion for empowering and celebrating Appalachian women. If you have never visited the Mountain Grrl Experience, make plans to in 2026!”
