This paper examines the gathering spaces of string band music as sites where questions of legitimacy, sustainability, and cultural authority are negotiated amid shifting practices of formality and institutional affiliation. As traditional American folk musics increasingly intersect with institutional frameworks, particularly within higher education, new modes of convening have emerged alongside longstanding practices such as fiddlers’ conventions, jam sessions, and regional and national festivals. I analyze multiple institutionalized gatherings across this spectrum, from large, industry-centered bluegrass events such as IBMA to subgroups within existing academic conferences, as well as independently organized meetings including the String Band Summit and the Black Banjo Gathering. These meeting spaces provide a lens through which to analyze the evolving relationship between traditional music communities and the academic and professional institutions that both support and study them.

Through ethnographic inquiry and my ongoing practices of being-in-community as both scholar and participant, I examine how these spaces balance accessibility with tradition, expansion with preservation, and institutional support with grassroots values. While conferences and summits may provide resources and scholarly legitimacy, they also introduce hierarchical structures that can challenge the participatory and intergenerational dynamics central to string band practice. This work builds on and contributes to an ongoing body of scholarship on old-time, bluegrass, and related string band traditions that has reflexively examined the bidirectional impacts of institutionalization on community-based music making.