Tyler Childers, Chris Stapleton To Co-Headline Healing Appalachia In September
LEXINGTON and ASHLAND, Ky. (April 21, 2025) — Following Tyler Childers sold-out concert this past weekend at Kroger Field in Lexington (read my review for the Herald-Leader here), it’s been announced that the Eastern Kentucky born singer will return to the region to headline the sixth edition of Healing Appalachia this September with the only other person to ever headline a concert at the University of Kentucky’s football stadium, Chris Stapleton.
Taking place in Ashland, Ky. for the first time ever at the Boyd County Fairground Sept. 19 and 20 following five years in Lewisburg, WV, the gathering that combats and raises awareness for the ongoing opioid epidemic that is ravaging Appalachia is poised for its biggest year yet. It’s a prospect that excites Dave Lavender, board president for the event’s nonprofit host, Hope in the Hills.
“Moving the festival to Eastern Kentucky and to the heart of The Country Music Highway, we could not be more excited or humbled to have two of the Commonwealth’s greatest songwriters and voices for their people — Chris Stapleton and Tyler Childers,” said Lavender in a press release. “Not only have they both urgently and boldly shared their journeys and songs of home with the world, but both are first in line to roll up their sleeves and help folks in need. We can’t wait to leave the porch light on for them here in the hills of home at Healing Appalachia.”
The change in location places the festival directly along U.S. Route 23 in Eastern Kentucky, known locally as the Country Music Highway due to singers like Childers, Stapleton, The Judds, Dwight Yoakam, Billy Ray Cyrus, Patty Loveless and countless others all calling the corridor home.
“We are thrilled to host Healing Appalachia in Kentucky for 2025,” said Andrew Steele, executive director of Boyd County Tourism. “We are beyond excited to show off the Country Music Highway with a few of our very own! The mission behind this festival is so important to our region, and we can’t wait to help the event grow.”
In addition to music, Healing Appalachia also features over 500 volunteers going through active recovery, Naloxone education and training, and more. Since 2018 it’s distributed over $1 million in funds to other local nonprofits and in 2023 even set the record with over 20,000 people participating in a stage training by world-renowned opioid expert Jan Radar.
According to Ian Thornton — founder of WhizzbangBAM! who co-organizes the event — the move to Kentucky aims to expand that already mountainous impact even further.
“Moving Healing Appalachia to Kentucky is special for a lot of reasons. It exemplifies the growth of something that started as an idea on how we could create change in a world that we were watching destroy our friends and families first hand,” said Thornton. “Watching it start at home in WV with 1500 people, to becoming the movement that it is today and being able to start traveling through Appalachia, it’s an honor to have Tyler and Chris headline this inaugural trip across the Big Sandy as a couple of local boys who did it right.”
For more information and to order your tickets visit HealingAppalachia.org.
Best,
Matt
Matt Wickstrom
