The West Virginia Division of Culture and History’s 20th Appalachian String Band Music Festival will be held July 29 - Aug. 2, at Camp Washington-Carver in Clifftop, Fayette County. The popular annual festival draws thousands of string band musicians and fans from across the country and around the world for its contests, concerts, dancing and workshops.
Music contests include banjo and fiddle on Thursday, July 30, neo-traditional string band on Friday, July 31, and traditional string band on Saturday, Aug. 1. The top five winners in each category will receive prizes ranging from $100 to $700 for bands, and $50 to $400 for fiddle and banjo. Senior (age 60 and over) and youth (age 15 and under) categories in fiddle and banjo also are available, with the top three winners in each category receiving awards.
In addition, the festival presents an old-time dance contest on Saturday, Aug. 1, which emphasizes the flatfoot style, and awards three prizes ranging from $25 to $75 in four age categories.
Workshops, which include beginning flatfoot dancing, beginning square dancing and gospel singing, are included with festival admission. Nightly square dances in the Great Chestnut Lodge and outdoor concerts on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening are additional festival attractions. Highlights for children and families include arts and crafts, storytelling, bingo, making baskets and split-bottom woven stools, Allegheny Echoes’ Please Touch the Instruments, slow jams, cowboy fun, Three Rivers Avian Center demonstrations, daily yoga sessions and more. Craft, food and instrument vendors will be set up on the grounds and in the Great Chestnut Lodge. In addition, there will be three masters showcases featuring prominent old-time musicians.
The neo-traditional band contest also will award ribbons for the best new original composition for both a tune and a song. The ribbons will be given based upon the composition’s mastery of the old-time aesthetic, artistic merit, originality and innovation.
Daily admission is $15 for adults and $10 for seniors (age 60 and over) and youth (ages 6 - 17). Children aged five and under may attend the festival for free. Rough camping for the five-day festival is available on a first-come, first-served basis for $45 for adults, $40 for seniors and youth, $90 per family (two adults and any number of children under the age of 18), and $80 per senior family. The rough camping rate and daily admission fee includes admission to all activities.
A beautiful retreat listed in the National Register of Historic Places and operated by the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, Camp Washington-Carver serves as the state’s mountain cultural arts center. The facility nurtures the cultural heritage embodied in the site since its dedication in 1942 as a 4-H and agricultural extension camp for West Virginia’s African Americans. The camp is located in Fayette County adjacent to Babcock State Park, just off Route 60 (Midland Trail) on Route 41 South.
For more information about the Appalachian String Band Music Festival and a complete schedule of events, call the Division at (304) 558-0220, or visit the Division’s Web site at www.wvculture.org/stringband/index.html. Camp Washington-Carver can be reached at (304) 438-3005 after July 20.
The West Virginia Division of Culture and History, an agency of the West Virginia Department of Education and the Arts, brings together the state’s past, present and future through programs and services in the areas of archives and history, the arts, historic preservation and museums. Its administrative offices are located at the Culture Center in the State Capitol Complex in Charleston, which also houses the state archives and state museum. The Culture Center is West Virginia’s official showcase for the arts. The agency also operates a network of museums and historic sites across the state. For more information about the Division’s programs, visit www.wvculture.org. The Division of Culture and History is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.
- 30 -