The Festival of the Bluegrass, located in

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County. By population, it is the second-largest city in Kentucky and 57th-largest city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 28th-largest ...

, is the oldest

bluegrass music Bluegrass music is a genre of American roots music that developed in the 1940s in the Appalachian region of the United States. The genre derives its name from the band Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. Like mainstream country music, it la ...

festival in the

bluegrass region The Bluegrass region is a geographic region in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It makes up the central and northern part of the state, roughly bounded by the cities of Frankfort, Paris, Richmond and Stanford. The Bluegrass region is characteriz ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

. The festival takes place the first full weekend of June each year. The Festival of the Bluegrass helped shape the early bluegrass festival culture. The Cornett family of

Georgetown, Kentucky Georgetown is a home rule-class city in Scott County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 37,086 at the 2020 census. It is the 6th-largest city by population in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It is the seat of its county. It was original ...

, began the festival in 1974 with The Festival of the Bluegrass, which was named by Raymond K. McLain. The first festival stage was a farm wagon with a tarp for shelter. The fans also used a tarp as shelter from the terrible thunderstorms the first day of the festival. This first festival was held on Walnut Hall Farm, part of which is now the

Kentucky Horse Park Kentucky Horse Park is a working horse farm, international equestrian competition venue, and an educational theme park opened in 1978 in Lexington, Kentucky. It is located off Kentucky State Highway 1973 (Iron Works Pike) and Interstate 75, at Ex ...

just on the north side of Lexington. Later the festival was moved to Masterson Station Park, a Lexington city park, for initially two years. However, the festival did not move back to the Horse Park until the seventeenth year, by which time the Horse Park was fully developed with a suitable campground. The annual event is a

traditional bluegrass Traditional bluegrass, as the name implies, emphasizes the traditional elements of bluegrass music, and stands in contrast to progressive bluegrass. Traditional bluegrass musicians play folk songs, tunes with simple traditional chord progressio ...

festival dedicated to preserving bluegrass music. Since 1998, the festival consists of three stages of music and incorporates a music camp designed to teach bluegrass music to school-age children. In 2007 the festival received the International Bluegrass Music Association's Event of the Year award. In 2013, the weekend Festival of the Bluegrass will be following up a weeklong celebration in Lexington, "Best of Bluegrass"."Big Ears, Boomslang, and Best of Bluegrass: the Boom of the Multi-Venue Music Festival"
''Under Main''

References

External links

Festival of the Bluegrass website
{{Bluegrass music Folk festivals in the United States Bluegrass festivals Music festivals in Kentucky Music festivals established in 1974

See also

References

External links