Fiddlers Convention Celebrates 30 Years Of Making Music Magic

Thirty years of old-time and bluegrass music is being celebrated at Glen Maury Park in Buena Vista this weekend with the return of the Maury River Fiddlers Convention. The fun gets underway Friday at 6 p.m. and continues all day Saturday.

The very first such convention was held in September of 1994 after Kerrs Creek musician Ann Grindy had approached Buena Vista City Council a couple of years earlier to suggest holding an annual festival featuring traditional mountain music.

Roger Groot, a Buena Vista resident and civic leader of the community, picked up on Grindy’s idea, thinking it would be a great way to showcase the city’s then under-utilized 315-acre municipal park that’s in a beautiful setting along the Maury River, in full view of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Groot, Grindy and other like-minded folks formed a committee that began planning for that initial Maury River Fiddlers Convention.

The first convention was held the second weekend of September but it was moved to the third weekend in June the following year, 1995, and has been held on this weekend ever since, with a one-year interruption in 2020 due to the pandemic.

In the early days the convention served as a fundraiser for making improvements to the park. An all-volunteer committee of local citizens organizes the convention each year and has established the park as a musical performance venue that draws people from near and far. Multiple other music events are held regularly at the park, filling out much of the park’s calendar for the warm months of the year.

“We are thrilled to be able to continue this important and fun cultural heritage celebration,” said Ruth Huffman, a member of the committee that’s organizing this year’s convention. “We are endlessly grateful for the huge community support over the years, and the efforts of all the volunteers and organizers who had the vision and persistence to create this event three decades ago, and put in so much work every year to keep it going strong.”

This weekend’s convention, in addition to the jam sessions and cashprize contests for individual musicians and bands, will feature performances by Nothin’ Fancy, Mark and Karen Templeton, and last year’s band winners, Herding Cats and Garden Variety String Band. Nothin’ Fancy, a renowned bluegrass band that holds its own music festival at the park each fall, is celebrating its 30th year as well this year.

In this milestone year, Huffman said she and other committee members want to pay tribute to those who came before them to get the convention going. “We especially want to acknowledge the dedication of one of our main organizers, Charlene Graves, who has been part of this event almost since its inception, and who has donated countless hours to keeping things flowing smoothly. This is her last year with us, and we are celebrating her as she passes the torch and takes a well-earned break.

“Speaking of torchpassing, both old-time and bluegrass music, like all traditional forms of music, are mainly passed from one generation to the next directly, in a truly hands-on fashion, and this is part of what keeps this art form so authentic and true to its roots. The old-fashioned fiddlers’ conventions provide a welcoming space for the young pickers to learn from and connect with the older musical masters. Events like ours are an essential link in the traditional music continuum, providing a chance for music lovers of all walks of life to joyfully re-connect with old friends and make new ones, and to celebrate as a community the distinctive music that helps make our little rural corner of the world such a special place.”

Huffman expressed hope that “all our friends and neighbors and music lovers from near and far will join us for a weekend of music contests – for kids and adults alike – both bluegrass and old time concerts from our host bands, good country food served up by the South River Fire Department, and of course lots and lots of pickin’ in the park. Come hear the banjos and fiddles ring out down by the river with us.”