Old Fiddlers Convention

Festival Location: Galax, VA, USA

Festival State: Virginian Festivals

Festival Type(s): Country Music Festivals, Bizarre Festivals, Conventions

By: © Nelson Taylor 2009

There's no better place than a small, Blue Ridge Mountain town to kick back and enjoy some of the hottest fiddle players in the country. Held every August since 1935, this event attracts about 50,000 fiddle enthusiasts of every ilk, who come to see some 2,000 musicians compete in categories like old time fiddle, dobro, mandolin, autoharp, dulcimer, bluegrass banjo and many others. Some well-known names include: Jimmy Martin, Ronnie Bowman, Sammy Shelor, and Junior Sisk, just to name a few. But better than the staged contests are the impromptu jam sessions that fire up in the campground area, which is packed with RVs and hippie-like vans.

If you've been to a Grateful Dead show, this parking lot scene is similar. While you won't hear acid vendors hawking doses, smelling the sweat aroma of marijuana is a given. And no mountain music festival of such epic proportions is complete without some serious clogging and flatfoot dancing, which tends to go on late into the night, every night. Entrance to the convention grounds runs between $5 and $8 for this 4-day fiddling extravaganza. Camping spots, which fill up fast, go for $60.