The number of banjos, mandolins and fiddles has skyrocketed in Raleigh this week as the IBMA bluegrass conference and musical event comes to town.

The "World of Bluegrass" is an annual business conference, awards show, and multi-day concert series put on by the International Bluegrass Music Association. Raleigh hosts this year's event, and will be the host city through 2015. Last year's gathering in Nashville drew more than 13,000 attendees.

WUNC Updates During IBMA

WUNC will be covering the IBMA in Raleigh with updates on Morning Edition, special broadcasts from Raleigh on The State of Things and with a special live radio concert co-hosted with WAMU's Bluegrass Country.

Wednesday through Friday on Morning Edition Eric Hodge will be checking in daily with Craig Havighurst, a Durham native, producer of the show Music City Roots and IBMA Board Member.

The State of Things will broadcast live from Raleigh at the end of the week. It will feature music and conversation with the Haywood County band Balsam Range on Thursday. The band is nominated in seven categories for the International Bluegrass Music Awards including Entertainer of the Year and Song of the Year. Then on Friday the show will feature the music of Greensky Bluegrass, a band Rolling Stone described as "hardly strictly bluegrass and, yet, they're representing the genre for a whole new generation."

Wednesday night at 8 p.m. WUNC presents a special live music broadcast with Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Big Medicine, and, The Grass Cats. Full details about that broadcast can be found on this page.

The IBMA was established in Kentucky in 1985 with the first "World of Bluegrass" event being held in 1990 in Owensboro, KY. Between 2005 and 2012 the event was held in Nashville, Tennessee. The conference includes daytime business advice sessions, networking, and speakers, while the evenings are generally given over to music showcases at various venues. As the name implies performers and people from the music industry travel internationally to attend the conference.

In these broadcasts noted above we'll highlight the role North Carolina and NC artists play in the world of bluegrass music in addition to talking about the bluegrass music industry.