Youth Activities at the Festival

The following activites will be available for children at the Skiatook Bluegrass Festival this year.

Junior Fiddling Contest-This contest is open to children and teens up to the age of 15. It will be held on Saturday morning, with winners participating in the Showcase on Saturday afternoon. Please check our website for more information about registration and rules.

Band Contest-This contest will be Thursday evening at the festival and will give bands an opportunity to perform. Bands do not have to be professional, and children are encouraged to enter.

Band Scramble-This is a fun event that anyone can enter. It will be held on Thursday evening. There will be 5 or 6 containers; each will have the name of a musical instrument on it. Entrants will write their name on a piece of paper and deposit it in the proper container. Then 5 or 6 names will be drawn out and will constitute a band. As many bands as possible will be formed in this way. These bands will have a short rehearsal. Then the bands will perform. Children of all ages are encouraged to participate.

Bluegrass Instruments Workshops-This year there will be workshops given for guitar, mandolin, banjo, fiddle, and upright bass. The workshops will give our youth the opportunity to learn more about these instruments and to ask questions. The workshop instructors will be musicians who have years of experience playing their particular instrument.

Children's Tent-During the festival, there will be a tent where children may go for age-appropriate activities.

Rockin' Acoustic Circus

Roaring out of Oklahoma with a ferocious energy and musicianship that belies their years, the members of Rockin' Acoustic Circus have become the most exciting new act on the acoustic-music scene. Already a favorite on the regional festival circuit, with enthusiastically received appearances at Branson's Silver Dollar City and Walnut Valley International Festival in Winfield, KS, among many others, the Circus is now poised to go national, taking their fresh acoustic blend of bluegrass, country, swing and other genres of music to a whole new set of venues and audiences...(read the rest of this article on our website under Bands).

They are not only active in the festival circuit, but many contests as well. They recently attended the 34th Annual SPBGMA (Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America) Awards and National Convention in Nashville, TN. While there they competed in the "International Band Championship" for the first time and took 6th place overall. Not bad for the first time in a national championship! They were also invited to audition for NBC's "America's Got Talent" to be held at the historic Majestic Theatre in Dallas, TX. Most recently, the Rockin' Acoustic Circus has been chosen as one of only six bands to compete in Wayman Tisdale's, "Battle of the Bands" competition to be held in Tulsa, OK at the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame. His band challenge will be televised locally on Tulsa's Fox 23 for a six-week competition beginning on Saturday, March 15th at 6:00 p.m. and concluding on April 15th, 2008. Each week, viewers will be invited to cast their vote (at www.goodnewzmag.com) for their favorite band. They would welcome your tuning in, support and vote.

The Rockin' Acoustic Circus has graciously agreed to play at our festival on Saturday morning. We hope everyone will drop by and have a listen. They are good! Visit their website: www.RockinAcousticCircus.com, or their myspace page: www.myspace.com/RockinAcousticCircus, for a wealth of additional information and a preview of their unique sound.

2008 Festival Bands

Fiddles and Viddles

Our spring silent auction fundraiser, "Fiddles and Viddles", will be held on Monday, May 5. Entertainment will be provided by the Rockin' Acoustic Circus. Time and location will be announced later.

If you have any items to donate to the fundraiser auction, call Jeni Porter at 918-845-6225. Last year donated items included handcrafted jewelry, fishing gear, paintings, dinners out, a condo in Florida, and a guitar autographed by Trisha Yearwood.

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