The sixth annual Healing Appalachia music festival kicks off on Thursday. The event celebrating those recovering from substance abuse has moved from Greenbrier County to eastern Kentucky.Healing Appalachia founder and host Tyler Childers is going close to his Lawrence County, Kentucky home as the three day festival sets up this year on the Boyd County, Kentucky fairgrounds.

Approximately 20,000 ticket holders will hear music from Childers, Appalachian bred superstar Chris Stapleton, Molly Tuttle, Blackberry Smoke and many more.

Dave Lavender is board president for Hope in the Hills, the non-profit that stages Healing Appalachia. Lavender said in its six year run, more than one million dollars in support has gone out to more than 100 Appalachian recovery organizations.

“Those are folks, boots on the ground that are doing the work,” Lavender said. “Everything from needle exchange and harm reduction to camps for kids – all the way through to recovery and re entry to work. We are really working on that workforce piece of that.”

Lavender said the two headliners, Childers and Stapleton, who hails from nearby Johnson County, Kentucky, consistently give back to their Appalachian neighbors in need.

“Chris and Tyler had their muck boots on when Whitesburg, Kentucky, our beloved Appalachian mothership there got hit by severe flooding a few years ago,” Lavender said, “They were some of the first people down there with boots on the ground cleaning up. Tyler, even though he was just getting started, when that coal sludge pond broke in Martin County, he went down there and did a big show, and just had a real show of force for the people.”

Lavender said that while many look at those in recovery as an albatross in the community, Healing Appalachia will put 400 recovery volunteers to work on all aspects of the festival.

“We ignite them and empower them to build the stages with some of the best rigging companies in the world,” he said. “Something like you’d like to see at the Super Bowl. Folks are going to be in from Recovery Point in Charleston with all the ladies working backstage hospitality. We’re going to have them work in security, and also work in our green team. We zero waste the festival with zero waste event management.”

More than 100 recovery service providers will be set up at Healing Appalachia so people can see recovery in action. Lavender said the stage is not just reserved for music, but the overall message as well.

“People go up and tell their stories in between the artists,” he said. “We think that hope is something that emanates and kind of spreads all through the festival. Even if you’re just there for the music, it is hard not hard to not get uplifted by everything they see and anybody that you have interaction with.”

For details on Healing Appalachia and Hope in the Hills, click here.