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Festival History
The Walnut Valley Festival
30 Years As Pickers Paradise
1972 - 2001
The Walnut Valley Association was formed in 1972,with its sole purpose
to produce the Walnut Valley National Guitar Flat-Picking Championships
Festival, also known as the Flat-Picking Championships, currently known
as the "Walnut Valley Festival" or simply "Winfield"
to the long time attendees.
Evolving from 2 days in 1972 to its current 4-days the 3rd weekend of
September annually, it endeavors to produce "family fare" entertainment
on 4 stages simultaneously, a large quality, juried arts and crafts fair,
workshops, and acoustic instrument contests. What began with 10 acts and
2 contests now boasts over 40 acts and 8 contests, including one international
contest, 5 national contests and 2 Walnut Valley contests.
The contests are a major part of the festival. Along with the National
Flat Pick Championships and the National Finger Pick Championships, the
Walnut Valley Festival hosts the International Autoharp, National Mountain
Dulcimer, National Hammered Dulcimer, National Bluegrass Banjo, Walnut Valley
Old Time Fiddle, and Walnut Valley Mandolin Championships. Over the course
of years, the contests at Winfield have attracted more than 3,000 contestants
from all 50 states as well as many foreign countries including Australia,
Canada, Denmark, Sweden, England, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Caledonia,
Switzerland, and Wales. Well-known Winfield winners include Mark O'Connor
of Nashville, Tennessee, who has won or placed in more Walnut Valley Festival
contests than any other contestant. Mark won the National Guitar Flat-Picking
Championship in 1975 and 1977, and also won the Walnut Valley Fiddle Championship
in 1974 and 1977. Alison Krauss of Nashville, won the Walnut Valley Fiddle
Championship in 1984 and Steve Kaufman of Alcoa, Tennessee, is the only
three-time winner of the National Guitar Flat-Picking Contest, having won
in the years 1978, 1984, and 1986 respectively. (Tennessee has consistently
produced the most winners over the years.) Other Winfield winners include
Mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile, the Mandolin Champion in 1993 and Dixie Chick
fiddler Martie Erwin Seidel in 1987 and 89.
Festival attendance has been between 11,000 and 15,000 annually. It is
a "participation" event in that most people who attend play an
instrument of some kind, and a good portion of them bring their instruments
and participate in the campsite picking. Hired artists who appear on stage
also go into the campgrounds and join around campfires to pick with everyone
else. In 1991, our 20th Anniversary year, an attempt was made to host the
world's largest acoustic string band. When the time came, 770 musicians
held their instruments skyward and played "Will the Circle Be Unbroken."
Lots of family reunions happen there, and many weddings have taken place
at the Festival. The Walnut Valley Festival has always been a place to make
new friends and renew old acquaintances.
Though the festival is called "bluegrass", it has never been
JUST bluegrass. It now is a blend of all kinds of acoustic music: bluegrass,
folk, old-time country, a little bit cowboy, some Irish, blues, Cajun, and
more. And the bluegrass is both traditional and progressive.
Among those who have appeared on stage at the Walnut Valley Festival
are: Lester Flatt, Doc & Merle Watson, Mark O'Connor, Alison Krauss, Mike
Snider, Byron Berline, Dan Crary, Norman Blake, John Hartford, Tom Chapin,
David Grisman, Merle Travis, Mike Cross, New Grass Revival, Hot Rize, Nickel
Creek, David Holt, DeDannan (Irish), Tony Rice, Jim & Jesse, Jimmy Driftwood,
Don Reno, Buck White, Red Clay Ramblers, Gamble Rogers, Joel Mabus, Bryan
Bowers, Front Porch String Band, Robin & Linda Williams, The Dixie Chicks,
Doug Dillard, Tom Paxton, John McCutcheon, and many more.
The Walnut Valley Festival was honored in 1999 by the International Bluegrass
Music Association. Being selected to receive the first ever "IBMA Bluegrass
Event Of The Year" award was a proud moment for everyone who has worked
to make the Walnut Valley Festival a success.
Still the third week-end in September, in Winfield, Kansas, at the Cowley
County Fairgrounds, the Walnut Valley Festival has long prided itself on
being educational as well as enjoyable, but most of all, the Festival is
a homecoming. And a homecoming not just because of the music and how folks
act, but a coming home to a place in the soul and the heart with a spirit
of celebration.
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