Raw States
Whitetop Mountain Sorghum Molasses Festival
Whitetop, VA · Food & Drink
- When
- October 10, 2026
- Where
- Mount Rogers Fire Hall, 51 Firehouse Rd · Whitetop · VA
- Cost
- Not confirmed
- Status
- Approximate: based on past editions, not announced yet
The Whitetop Mountain Sorghum Molasses Festival at the Mount Rogers Fire Hall celebrates the old Appalachian tradition of pressing sorghum cane into molasses, with old time and bluegrass music, apple butter, and craft vendors. It is a fundraiser for the volunteer Mt. Rogers Fire and Rescue Squad in this small Grayson County community near the Virginia Creeper Trail. The festival is held annually in mid October, though the exact 2026 date had not been posted at verification time.
The history within reach
The Whitetop Mountain Sorghum Molasses Festival at the Mount Rogers Fire Hall celebrates the old Appalachian tradition of pressing sorghum cane into molasses, with old time and bluegrass music, apple butter, and craft vendors.
Above five thousand feet the trees give out and Virginia turns into open grassland, kept that way by a herd of small wild ponies introduced in the 1970s to graze the balds rather than pay for mowing.
Grayson Highlands State Park hosts a weekend of Appalachian mountain traditions each September, with sorghum molasses making, apple butter stirred in copper kettles, and live old-time and bluegrass music.
Grayson Highlands State Park hosts a one day old time and bluegrass festival each June built around a guitar building and flatpicking competition named for luthier Wayne C.
A logging railroad so slow uphill that crews named it the Creeper became thirty four miles of rail trail, most of it downhill from Whitetop if you take the shuttle, which almost everyone does.