The 2018 Bluegrass Festival will be held Friday through Sunday, May 25-27, at the Venango County Fairgrounds. Campers will start setting up at noon May 25. The music will start at 7 p.m.
The schedule calls for entertainment from 1 to 11 p.m. May 26 and 10 to 11 a.m. May 27.
The event has a long history that started in 1980 as a small jam session with three sets of couples who liked to camp out and sing by the fireside.
Charles and Hazel Guiler, Jim and Audrey Dick and Bill and Millie Adams enjoyed making bluegrass music together, and soon they found others bluegrass lovers who joined their group. The group kept growing in numbers so the trio of couples decided they should put together a festival each year.
This year’s event will feature music by Backwoods Bluegrass. This group consists of Doug Waterman, Rick Rossi, Nora Cole and David Fay. Backwoods Bluegrass was formed in 2002, by Waterman and Rossi. Waterman sings lead vocals and plays the rhythm guitar. Rossi plays a sixstring resonator guitar. Also in the group are Nora Cole, who plays the upright bass, and David Fay, who plays a five-string banjo.
There is no admission fee for the festival. More information is available by calling Hazel Guiler at (724) 662-0292, Jim Dick Jr. at (814) 425-7599 or Chris Nicklin at 671-2387 for camping information.
