Did You Know?
The highest elevations on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina and Virginia are 6,053 feet and 3,950 feet respectively. Photo by Mike Booher
Galax Moose Lodge Old Fiddler’s Convention
Galax, VA • Near Milepost 215
Dates
Sun, Aug 8-Sun, Aug 14, 2010
5:30 p.m. until Mon-Fri
Cost
Prices vary. For more information, visit http://oldfiddlersconvention.com/tickets.htm.
Contact
Galax Moose Lodge #733
Tom Jones
276.236.8541
http://www.oldfiddlersconvention.com
Location
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Felts Park
601 South Main Street
Galax, VA
The Galax Fiddler’s Convention will be celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2010! Before the second week of August each year, lovers of country and mountain music leave their homes in time to be in Galax, VA, for the annual Old Fiddler’s Convention. For some, this means hundreds of miles of travel, while for others it will be a short trip from their nearby homes. Most of these people don’t play music and come just for the listening and renewing old acquaintances.
However, a few hundred come with their instruments to show their skill and compete for the cash prizes, which total thousands of dollars. But most of them would come without the prizes being offered. They want to see and be seen, hear and be heard. The instruments vary from mouth harps in pockets to bull fiddles strapped on top of cars. Many of these musicians have played in most of these conventions since 1935, but this group is growing smaller by the year.
A unique aspect of this convention is the camping area where the musicians rehearse and try to get in tune. Some listeners and onlookers follow these bands around and lose contact with what’s happening on the stage. Often dancers and players try out their abilities in the parking lot when they would not dare to go on the stage.
Contestants must register in advance of the convention and there is no charge for registration. Some of these come from distant states and at times from foreign countries, but when they play, the tunes are usually the same that have been heard at the convention down through the years.
In the early years, the contestants came chiefly from Carroll, Grayson, and adjoining counties in Virginia and North Carolina. Now bands and individual performers come from the big cities, college campuses, and every place where old music is loved and played.
