Lincoln's New Salem Traditional Music & Bluegrass Festival Friday & Saturday

[September 04, 2012]  PETERSBURG -- More than 100 traditional and bluegrass musicians are expected to participate in Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site's annual Traditional Music and Bluegrass Festival set for Friday evening and all day and evening Saturday. A special clogging performance will take place Sunday. The festival is free and open to the public.

Traditional, folk and bluegrass musicians are invited to participate in the weekend impromptu jam session. Several bluegrass bands will be featured from 6:30 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday on stage in the outdoor theater, and the festival will be in full swing in the village from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Performers from all over the Midwest will entertain on such instruments as mountain and hammer dulcimers, concertinas, bones, autoharps, fiddles, banjos, and guitars.

Outside the village, a large clogging platform will be provided, which will be filled with cloggers starting at noon Sunday.

Songs and music of the 19th century will be performed in the village Abraham Lincoln called home for six years. No electrified instruments or equipment will be permitted.

The log buildings will be open and staffed by costumed interpreters interpreting lifestyles of the 1830s. The New Salem Museum Shop, the New Salem Lincoln League Souvenir and Book Store, and OMG Bistro will all be open during the event.

The festival is sponsored by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, which administers Lincoln's New Salem, and the New Salem Lincoln League.

Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site is located 20 miles northwest of Springfield and two miles south of Petersburg on Route 97. A donation of $4 for adults, $2 for children or $10 per family is suggested.

[Text from file received from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency]