Appearing on the Bear on the Square Mountain Festival’s MainStage for the fourth consecutive year are students from the Georgia Pick & Bow Traditional Music School Program, an after school program for Lumpkin County students. Georgia Pick and Bow is a bluegrass and old-time mountain music school for kids grades 4 through 12. Students are taught by top music instructors who are skilled in playing traditional string instruments.

The Georgia Pick & Bow Traditional Music Program seeks to preserve the traditional “roots” music of North Georgia with a series of 10 lessons for participating students each semester at Lumpkin County Middle School. Each semester series ends with a recital featuring the students. In addition to appearing at the recital, several individual 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; and visiting university leaders from Liaocheng, China. In October of 2009, the program’s representatives received a standing ovation following their performance at the SouthEastern Bluegrass Association (SEBA) Silver Anniversary Super Star Concert at the Gwinnett Performing Arts Center.