Festival!
In June, the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum unveiled a new exhibition highlighting the history of the bluegrass festival. The culmination of a collaborative effort with the Appalachian Fiddle & Bluegrass Association (AFBA), the exhibition explores the roots and evolution of bluegrass festivals. The idea for this project stems from an offer to display a large-scale mural that was used as the stage backdrop for decades at the AFBA festivals in Wind Gap, Pennsylvania. Painted in 1978 by D.E. Johnson, the mural features the likenesses of legendary bluegrass artists Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt, Jimmy Martin, The Osborne Brothers, Doc Watson and more. Through a grant with the IBMA Foundation, the AFBA had the mural restored and transported it to the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum to be included as the focal point of the new exhibition.
Founded by Louie Seltzer, Larry Seltzer and Andy Tomsic in 1973, the AFBA grew out of a monthly jam session at Louie’s home. The group of pickers organized into the Appalachian Fiddle & Bluegrass Association, named for its proximity to the Appalachian Trail (AT) and their devotion to fiddle songs and bluegrass music. In 1974, their first festival was held at Klein’s Grove in Bath, Pennsylvania, and the mural was added as the stage backdrop in 1978. By 1979, the AFBA found a permanent home when they purchased the 23-acre Mountain View Park, the meeting point between the base of Blue Mountain and a section of the AT. By 1982, a new festival found a home at the AFBA’s Mountain View Park when AFBA member and promoter Harry Grant launched the annual Wind Gap Festival. The association continued improvements to the park as festivals grew, adding a permanent band shell in 1994.
With a devoted membership, the AFBA continued its growth of membership and leadership. In 2001, Joe Sullivan was elected president of the association. From 2002-2005, another festival found a home at Mountain View Park when the Echoes from the Hills Bluegrass Festival produced by Rich Evans and Beth Coleman relocated to the venue. An adjacent seven acres were purchased in 2005, increasing the property size to 30 acres. In 2007, the AFBA became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Also, that same year, Sullivan began a discussion with Ronnie Reno about how the mural should be considered as a historical artifact and displayed in a museum. At the time, Reno was a member of the board of trustees for the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum in Owensboro, Kentucky. In 2012, the association determined that the mural, nearing 35 years old, was an artifact representative of its history and needed to be preserved. The group developed a plan to create a copy of the original to be used as a backdrop so the original painting could be protected from the elements of multi-day outdoor music festivals. Joe Sullivan, Ben Jurnutowski and Albert LePosa transported the mural to a New Jersey printing company where a SciTec scanner was used to create a high-resolution image of the artwork. The AFBA used the scan to produce a vinyl replica for the stage at Mountain View Park.
Reno never forgot his conversation with Sullivan and his vision for a museum exhibit. In 2021, Joe Sullivan passed away after a battle with cancer. His beloved wife Dotti was determined to see Joe’s dream a reality. She picked up the conversation with Reno, who had recently rejoined the museum’s board of trustees. Reno presented the idea to the museum, and a partnership began between the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum and the AFBA to create an exhibition around the mural. Dotti invited her friend and association member Kathy Bestwick to join her on the project, who pursued a grant with the International Bluegrass Music Association Foundation. In early 2023, the AFBA was awarded a grant to transport and install the mural into a new exhibition at the museum entitled, “Festival! The History of Bluegrass Festivals.” Dotti, Kathy, and Kathy’s husband, Chuck, drove ten hours from Pennsylvania to Owensboro, Kentucky, to transport the mural to the museum in early May. The trio returned in June to see the opening, which occurred during the museum’s annual ROMP Festival. Thousands of festivalgoers toured the exhibit, and Dotti and Kathy volunteered as docents at the museum.
Dotti Sullivan commented, “This year, I was so happy to fulfill two of my husband’s dreams. One was to have the AFBA mural at the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum and the second was to attend IBMA in Raleigh. Both were amazing. Thanks to everyone who made this possible.” Kathy’s work on the IBMA Foundation grant made the exhibition a reality. “It is so rewarding to be able to share a treasure of the Appalachian Fiddle & Bluegrass Association with the greater bluegrass community. Over the last forty-five years, national, regional and local bands have enjoyed playing music on our stage with the meaningful mural as the backdrop. It is especially endearing to me to have both music and the visual arts come together to impact the cultural history of bluegrass.”
The exhibition will be on display until June 2025 at the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum in Owensboro, Kentucky. Visitors can expect to trace the history of bluegrass festivals through historical photographs, vintage festival t-shirts and memorabilia, and the AFBA mural. The Appalachian Fiddle & Bluegrass Association’s annual festival takes place August 1-4, 2024, in Wind Gap, Pennsylvania, featuring Becky Buller, The Gibson Brothers, Special Consensus, Danny Paisley and Nothin’ Fancy. More information about the AFBA can be found at: afbawindgap.org.
