41st annual bluegrass festival in Bean Blossom begins

The twang of a banjo, the pluck of the guitar and the experience of a lifetime is music to the ears of Bill Monroe Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival attendees. Campsites extend for miles, vendors are plentiful and music is always playing, while people from all over the country reconnect and reminisce during the annual meeting.\nJust north of Nashville, Ind., off State Road 135N is Bill Monroe’s Bean Blossom Memorial Music Park & Campground, a 55-acre tract of land that boasts the world’s longest-running bluegrass festival.\nThe festival, which began June 9 and will run through June 16, is celebrating its 41st year and offers events such as instrument workshops, a bluegrass boot camp for kids and performances from more than 50 bands.\n“Last year there were people from eight foreign countries and 48 states. It’s a cultural experience here. People come from everywhere to Bean Blossom every year,” Event Coordinator Becky Sanders said.\nWorkshops, various vendors, 38 performers and plenty of people to meet are in store for the rest of the week.\nIndianapolis resident Steve Johnson said he has been attending the festival for 30 years.\n“The most fun for me is being with people I’ve known for 30 years and jamming,” Johnson said. \nOne of the festival’s biggest and most well-known performers is Dr. Ralph Stanley, one of the only remaining first-generation bluegrass players, who according to his Web site, is the best banjo picker and tenor singer in bluegrass music and has performed on more than 170 records, CDs and tapes. Stanley is set to play Saturday, and many bluegrass fans have traveled to Bean Blossom solely to see him, according to the festival program.\nOne legend that has been with the festival since 1966 is a man festival goers know as “Chubby.” He has earned the title as the campground’s head of security, but Chubby once drove the tour bus of Jimmy Martin, the bluegrass player known as the “King of Bluegrass” and ambassador of the Bill Monroe Bluegrass Festival, prior to his death in 2005.\n“Lord have mercy – I feel for that man. He is out of this world, my buddy Ralph Stanley,” Chubby said. \nBluegrass fans of all ages and from all over the country have traveled to the Bill Monroe Memorial Campground this week. Diana Biddle, a campground employee, said not only have people come from all over the country, including Florida, Arizona and California, but from all over the world, with attendees from Scotland, England and France at this year’s festival.\n“There’s no typical demographic here. I have Mennonite families, I have parents with young children, I have older retired citizens. I have a sampling of every type of demographic you could imagine,” Biddle said. “It’s not typical to one group; everybody across the board likes bluegrass.”\nOne of the biggest differences between the event this year and previous years is that this year seems to have even more attendees than usual. During the course of the eight-day festival they will be expecting between 30,000 and 40,000 attendees, and last weekend proved to be the largest opening weekend the Bean Blossom Festival has experienced, Biddle said.\n“It’s more crowded this year, with the amount of time it’s been and the amount of people already here,” Johnson said. “If it holds true for the rest of the week, it will be the biggest it has ever been.”\nOne factor that allows the festival to boast its name as the “Mecca of Bluegrass Music” is the extensive lineup of more than 50 performers, chosen by campground owner Dwight Dillman. He said performers send in a pack with tapes, and the campground negotiates their pay based on how many tickets they believe the performer can sell.\n“We are always interested in local bluegrass bands and trying to give them a chance,” Dillman said. “Everybody’s got to start somewhere.”\nOnce given a chance to play at the festival, most performers agree that it is both a benefit, due to the large number of attendees who come to the festival, and an honor, because of the many famous performers on the lineup.\n“This is the granddaddy of all festivals. It’s a great place to play. It looks good on a resume. It’s kind of like the Grand Ole Opry – everybody wants to play the Bean Blossom,” festival ambassador Karl Shiflett said. Shiflett began playing at the festival in the 1980s with his former band “The Sullivan Family.” He said he currently participates in the festival with his band “Karl Shiflett and the Big Country Show.”\nBiddle said the campground has very limited electricity availability, but self-contained and primitive camping is readily available for those interested. Tickets for the festival can be bought at the campground. Tickets for the festival on Wednesday and Thursday are $25 apiece and Friday and Saturday tickets are $30, prices that many of the attendees feel is a steal for the experience the Bean Blossom provides.\n“It’s wholesome entertainment, family entertainment and a chance to hear a musical art form being preserved,” Shiflett said.\nFor more information on the festival and other events at Bill Monroe’s Bean Blossom Memorial Music Park and Campground, visit their Web site at www.beanblossom.com.