PLAY
Where the bluegrass grows
Kansas' own Walnut Valley Festival is a hot spot for music fans from around the world
By Brianne Pfannenstiel
bpfannenstiel@kansan.com
Sept. 9, 11:48 p.m.: David can smell bluegrass in the air.
Sept. 1, 4, 5:38 p.m.: David can taste bluegrass.
Sept. 1, 5, 9:28 p.m.: David is trying to forget about everything but bluegrass.
Sept. 1, 7, 14:44 p.m.: David is bluegrass.
Sept. 17, 11:41 p.m.: David is bluegrass.
For nearly two weeks leading up to the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kan., the status updates on David Podschun's Facebook page chronicled his anticipation for the coming weekend of bluegrass music. Podschun, a junior from Winfield, has been going to the festival with his family since he was little. Today the festival, which began in 1972 as the Walnut Valley National Guitar Flatpicking Championships, has become a tradition for locals, Kansans and bluegrass lovers around the world.
"At the festival, there's just music all the time." Podschun says. "Really late at night it gets quieter, but it's pretty much constant music. That's one of the best things about it."
This year's festivities were dampened by a series of storms that uprooted festival-goers from their traditional campesets to stations farther away from the main stage.
But even the soggy weather couldn't dampen the spirits of the festival attendees. For many, the main action of the festival takes place far from the official stages and headlining acts, nestled instead throughout the campsites between cases of beer; sleeping bags and several generations of festival-goers.
Winfield, like many folk festivals, is known not only for the prominent acts that grace its stages, but also for its impromptu jam sessions "You can't walk through the campgrounds without hearing people playing music," says Taylor Stevenson, Winfield freshman. "Everyone just jams together. It's definitely a community."
The community aspect of bluegrass in general is what many fans say keeps them coming back to festivals like Winfield year after year. Roy Flottman, media director for the Winfield festival, says that in his 23 years of working the event, the camaraderie and sense of family that exists among bluegrass musicians and fans never ceases to amaze him.
"Growing up through the '60s, '70s and '80s, I went to a lot of rock festivals!"
Flottman says. "The mentality was different at those kinds of festivals. The spirit there was more 'all of us against them.' Here, it's just all of us, playing music. At the risk of sounding like a flower child, it's just very much a community."
That community, he says, may stem from the deep roots of folk and bluegrass tradition. "Bluegrass has a lot of historical significance," Flottman says. "It's like storytelling, in a sense.Words and melodies just end up getting passed down. You can have relatively new songs with lyrics that go back generations."
The Walnut Valley Festival is all about traditions as well, whether it's staking out your family's favorite campsite every year or trekking to your favorite unofficial stage. But one of the biggest Winfield traditions is the opportunity musicians have to participate in instrument competitions. Musicians have five minutes to impress the crowd. They are then judged on arrangement, execution,
Photo by Don Shorock
The Wiyos, a rattle-like blues band from Brooklyn,
N.Y. performs at this year's Walnut Valley
Festival, which took place September 16 through
September 20 in Winfield, Kan.
tuning, show value and overall impression. Past instrument competition winners include Mark O'Connor, Alison Krauss and Chris Thile of Nickel Creek.
Bluegrass has seen many changes over the generations, and has, among youth, moved into a newer, more progressive style, dubbed "newgrass." Lawrence has a thriving folk music scene and is home to many progressive bluegrass-style groups,
such as That Damn Sasquatch and Truckstop Honeymoon.
Flottman says he sees many more KU students than Kansas State students at the festival, and he attributes this to the supportive atmosphere Lawrence provides for bluegrass musicians. "The arts in Lawrence are incredible," Flottman says. "It's such a great place for bluegrass and music in general."
Even more grass to go around
The music doesn't have to stop at the festival gates. The Lawrence and Kansas City areas have thriving folk and bluegrass scenes ready to take you in and tide you over until next year's festival.
Third annual Get Down Town Festival
Featuring The Brody Buster Band,
Trombone Shorty, Split Lip Rayfield and
Mooreland and Arbuckle
Friday, Oct. 3, 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 4, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.
New Hampshire Street between Eighth
and Ninth Streets
The Calamity Cubes/Deadman Flats
Friday, Oct. 17, 10 p.m.
The Gaslight Tavern
Yonder Mountain String Band Wednesday, Oct. 24, 8 p.m.
Liberty Hall
6
October 2,2008