The Raleigh Wide Open Bluegrass Festival will debut in downtown Raleigh in 2025, following the departure of the popular IBMA World of Bluegrass festival to Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Why it matters: For a decade the International Bluegrass Music Association has held its annual conference and music festival in downtown Raleigh, becoming one of the city's most popular annual events.

• But after landing $25 million from the state of Tennessee, IBMA will take its event south to Chattanooga after this year's edition.

Driving the news: PineCone, the Raleigh music organization that has coordinated much of the free music at IBMA's event, will introduce Raleigh Wide Open, resurrecting the branding of a previous street festival.

• The city of Raleigh, the Greater Raleigh Convention & Visitors Bureau and the State Department of Natural and Cultural Resources have pledged their support to the new festival.
• Raleigh Wide Open is set for Oct. 3-4, 2025.

The intrigue: Its name is a tribute to a 2005 Raleigh festival that was launched to bring life to downtown at the time, PineCone says.

• It wasn't an annual event, but IBMA used the Wide Open name from 2014 to 2019 before rebranding to World of Bluegrass.

Zoom in: The goal is that festivalgoers won't feel like Raleigh Wide Open is a completely new festival, executive director of PineCone David Brower says.

• The plan includes a mix of performances along Fayetteville Street and other downtown areas, with sights on keeping it a primarily free event.
• The festival will focus on bluegrass but will also include genres like Americana, alt-country and other folk music, especially those with North Carolina ties, per Brower.

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In the days since Vice President Kamala Harris launched her presidential bid, more than 170,000 volunteers have joined her cause, her campaign said last week.

Why it matters: The numbers are yet another example of the momentum Harris has harnessed since President Biden's historic withdrawal from the race.

• The campaign has seen record-breaking fundraising and early polling bumps — a "honeymoon" phase that former President Trump's campaign hopes will soon end.
• The enthusiasm stretches down the ballot, as new donations and volunteers flock to Democratic congressional campaigns, the AP reports.

By the numbers: The campaign had recruited around 4,000 volunteers in North Carolina. As of Monday, that number had risen to 7,000, the campaign tells Axios.

• Florida had seen the largest volunteer totals of any battleground state with more than 7,000 as of Thursday, state director Jasmine Burney-Clark told Axios Tampa Bay in a statement.
• Elsewhere, the campaign had by Wednesday recruited about 5,700 volunteers in Pennsylvania, 4,300 in Georgia and 3,300 in Michigan, she added.

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🏠 Raleigh's most expensive ZIP code was 27608, home to the Five Points area, with median home prices just below $950,000. (Triangle Business Journal 🔒)

• The second most expensive ZIP code, 27607, had a median home price of $690,000.

🍬 Zach went on WUNC's "Due South" to talk about the growing expansion of Japanese companies in North Carolina, including most recently the maker of HI-CHEW candy. (WUNC)

🩺 The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved a plan by Gov. Roy Cooper to use Medicaid funds to erase medical debt for some North Carolinians. (News & Observer 🔒)

• Hospitals in the state still need to sign on to the deal.

Chapel Hill is struggling to determine a path for developing a park on top of an area contaminated with coal ash. (INDY Week)

🍷 Postino Wine Cafe, a Phoenix-based wine bar chain, opened its doors in Raleigh's Village District yesterday in the old Carolina Cafe & Bakery space. (Postino)

Trying to establish your career as a recent college grad? A new study suggests sending your resume to companies in the Raleigh area.

Why it matters: Raleigh has continued to be a hot spot for young, college graduates coming out of the pandemic — which has helped fuel the area's economy and lead developers to build thousands of new apartments.

Driving the news: Payroll software maker ADP named Raleigh the most promising job market for recent graduates in a new study.

• Austin, Baltimore, Charlotte and Atlanta rounded out the rest of the top five.

Zoom in: ADP said that Sun Belt metro areas currently have the highest hiring rate for recent graduates.

• But Raleigh stood out because its middle-of-the-road affordability comes with wages above the 80th percentile nationally.
• It also has the best hiring rate for likely new graduates of all the metros studied, according to ADP.

The intrigue: All of the top cities are in the South, boast strong science and technology employment and are home to several universities.

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