Appearing on the Bear on the Square Mountain Festival’s MainStage for the fifth consecutive year are students from the Georgia Pick & Bow Traditional Music School Program, an after school program for Lumpkin County students. Georgia Pick & Bow is a bluegrass and old-time mountain music school for young people grades 4 through 12. Students are taught by top music instructors who are skilled in playing traditional string instruments. Performing at Bear on the Square are the Pick & Bow All Stars, a group of advanced students from the program, which is currently serving around 85 young people.

The Georgia Pick & Bow Traditional Music Program seeks to preserve the traditional “roots” music of North Georgia with classes at Lumpkin County Middle School, Blackburn Elementary School, and Long Branch Elementary School, as well as a summer camp. Each semester series ends with a recital featuring the students. In addition to appearing at the recital, students from the program have appeared onstage at the Mountain Music and Medicine Show at the Historic Holly Theatre in Dahlonega. Groups of Pick & Bow student musicians have been featured  at numerous other public gatherings, including the National Conference of Chief Judges; the Student Showcase at East Tennessee State University; the farewell party for Kathy Cox, former Georgia Superintendent of Schools; the Georgia Supreme Court; the Appalachian Regional Commission; visiting university leaders from Liaocheng, China, and the recent Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition about roots music of Georgia, "New Harmonies." In October of 2009, the program’s band received a standing ovation following their performance at the SouthEastern Bluegrass Association (SEBA) Silver Anniversary Super Star Concert at the Gwinnett Performing Arts Center.

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