37th Annual Traditional Music and Bluegrass Festival this Weekend at Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site

[September 09, 2017]  PETERSBURG The 37th annual Traditional Music and Bluegrass Festival at Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site will be held on the weekend of September 8-10.

Performers from all over the Midwest will entertain on such instruments as mountain and hammer dulcimers, concertinas, bones, autoharps, fiddles, banjos, and guitars throughout the historic village on both Saturday and Sunday between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. each day. Bluegrass concerts will be held in the outdoor theater on Friday and Saturday evenings, September 8 and 9, from 6-10 p.m. Cloggers will perform on a platform provided outside the village beginning Sunday at 12 noon.

The event is free and open to the public.

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.

Historic interpreters in period clothing throughout the log village will be interpreting 1830s life in central Illinois.

The Shops at New Salem, managed by the New Salem Lincoln League and OMGosh! Snack Shack will be open during the event.

The Traditional Music and Bluegrass Festival is sponsored by Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site and the New Salem Lincoln League. Visit online at www.lincolnsnewsalem.com or on Facebook at Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site.

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

[Illinois Department of Natural Resources]