Festival Dedication
IN MEMORIAM:
This year’s festival is dedicated to Norman Adams and John Kelley
Norman Adams
Dedicated Bear and bluegrass music supporter Norman Adams passed away in July 2025 at the age of 90.
Norman was a longtime supporter of the festival, and his insurance agency, Adams & Logan has remained a Bear sponsor in the many years since he retired. In addition to his support of Bear on the Square, Norman promoted and produced a large number of Bluegrass festivals over many decades.
He and his wife, Judy, were promoters of family-oriented bluegrass festivals for 45 years, presenting the biggest names in the industry throughout the southeast until their retirement in 2019. From Myrtle Beach to Jekyll Island, Cherokee, Palatka and beyond, Adams nurtured the genre by providing venues for musicians to perform and fans to enjoy.
Norman and Judy Adams received the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Distinguished Achievement Award in 2020. Norman had already received the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America’s Bluegrass Promoter of the Year numerous times, earning the Grand Marshal Gold Award in 2004 for being a ten-year recipient in the category. Read more about Norman’s dedication to bluegrass music here.
John Kelley
Long-time festival supporter John Kelley passed away unexpectedly on August 18, 2025, at the age of 74. Festival-goers will remember him as a remarkable and friendly banjo player in Hawaiian shirts and overalls, with his beloved little papillon Toby on his shoulders. John was a gifted musician who played both bluegrass and old-time, but he was also an accomplished ukulele player, as well as a stellar keyboard player.
During Bear, John was always jamming around the square. Also, for many years he organized his friends into the “Beary Good String Band” to play for the street dances which he called with great joy and skill. Besides being a major benefactor of Dahlonega’s Georgia Pick & Bow Traditional Music School, he volunteered his time to teach banjo and ukulele and to run recess for their annual summer camps at the Baptist Church.
What might surprise folks is that John was an orthopedic surgeon who until his retirement kept a well-respected orthopedic practice going in the Atlanta area. As a mission from his humble heart, for many years he took teams of surgeons and nurses and supplies to St. Benedict of Joseph Medical Center to do orthopedic surgery for people in poverty near Comayagua in the heart of Honduras. John had a loving and joyful heart and is deeply missed.