WE SPENTt last weekend at what has become one of our favorite annual events, the Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddlers Convention.
It’s a competition held on the campus of Athens State University in Athens, Alabama. It’s held on the first Friday and Saturday in October. But it’s more than just that.
You see kids knee-high to a grasshopper playing a fiddle with flying fingers and a contestant in his 90s buck dancing with flying feet.
COMPETITORS PERFORM on a makeshift stage on the front steps of Founders Hall, The real fun is strolling around campus and stopping to listen to musicians clustered here and there. Some are people who play together regularly, but there also are players who wander around with their instruments and jam with different groups.
You don’t have to be a blue grass fan to enjoy it.
There is food, of course, most of it the kind your cardiologist would frown on, but I figure you get a dispensation on a fine fall weekend. There are arts and craft vendors, as well. Even though we have enough books to last us through the great flood, we always wander into the university’s used book sale. At the prices, we always find several books we have to have.
I BEGIN TO SOUND like an old fogey when I say that the Fiddlers Convention is a wholesome, family event., but there you have it.
You set your lawn chairs out in front of Founders Hall, and leave them as you wander around, and overnight as well. They’ll be there until you’re ready to go home. And you won’t see litter on the ground, either.
This was our third trip to the Fiddlers Convention, and we’ve never encountered an obnoxious person, nor even a rude one. Perhaps the fact that there’s no alcohol contributes to the atmosphere.
Or maybe it’s because people who like bluegrass are just naturally in a good mood. In years past, the audience — there always are young competitors — has tilted toward the older set. This year, there seemed to be more younger fans, and there were many families together.
TICKETS ARE A BARGAIN — $10 for a one day pass, $15 to attend both days. You can find free parking if you’re willing to walk, and parking close to the site for $5 or so. There are plenty of motels within a short distance from the campus.
The drive from our part of the state is convenient — up 280 to Birmingham and then up I-65 to Athens.
We were among 15,000 people who turned out for the 48th edition of the event. If nothing interferes, we’ll be in Athens next Oct. 2 and 3 for number 49.
Bill Brown is a retired newspaper editor whose newspapers won a Pulitzer Prize, National Headliners Award, Edgar Willis Scripps Award for Distinguished Service to the First Amendment and Associated Press Managing Editors Public Service and Freedom of Information Awards. He is the author of “Yellow Cat, Hendry & Me: Dispatches From Life’s Front Lines. He can be reached at bill@williamblakebrown.com
