Nothin’ Fancy, Della Mae headline Loudoun Bluegrass Festival

Attention Bluegrass music fans from Washington, D.C. to the west side of the Blue Ridge Mountains -- time to mark your calendars:  The second annual (more on that later) Loudoun Bluegrass Festival, presented by the Dulles International Airport Rotary Club and supporting local scholarships, is May 7 at the Loudoun County Fairgrounds just west of Leesburg, Va. All proceeds from the event – Rotary has no overhead – support college scholarships for deserving students in Loudoun County.

In addition to headline performances by Virginia’s own all-guy Nothin’ Fancy and Boston-based all-girl group Della Mae, the day is packed with workshops, jam sessions and competitions. Clipped Wings, the non-profit arm of the local flight attendants, will run the beverage truck, Capital Cuisine Caterers wills serve up Carolina Brothers Barbecue and four top Loudoun wineries will be set up for tasting. The 15,000 square foot 4-H exhibition barn offers ample shelter should Mother Nature throw in some rain.

Some Bluegrass festivals are aimed at a listening audience. The Loudoun festival, said Tara Linhardt of Waterford, has that, but packs in the best parts of a fiddlers convention as well. Linhardt, who is donation her time to help develop the music program for the event, is an accomplished mandolin player, and has won many awards for her skill on the mandolin, such as first place at the Maury River Fiddler’s Convention, The Watermelon Park Music Festival, Mt. Airy Fiddler’s Convention, and the Carroll County Fiddler’s Convention. She is also a founding member of the Mountain Music Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of traditional music cultures.

“Having a festival with a contest as a part of it is a really good thing to develop community, to pull people in,” Linhardt said. “It gives musicians of any age, and those who are just learning, a chance to get up and perform on stage. People clap for them, and they have the potential to win prizes.”

At the Loudoun Bluegrass Festival, they can win cash as well as recognition -- $100 first, $50 second and $25 third, in mandolin, flatpicking, banjo and fiddle.

The Dulles Rotary for years has raised money for its charitable outreach through a very successful annual golf tournament. This fundraising has been supplemented by manning a beverages booth at the Nissan Pavilion in Fairfax. “Now,” said Rotary’s Dave Humphries, “the club is looking to refocus that supplemental fundraising back into the Loudoun community, and into something that people will expect every year. We wanted something that would get the community involved. Loudoun County is bedrock Bluegrass Country. It’s in our hearts and roots.”

Rick Gondella, of Causeware.net, said "This is about connecting community, about showing what Loudoun County is about, about how we can have a good time and support a good cause at the same time.” Gondella , is donating his time and expertise in marketing for non-profits to help develop the Loudoun Bluegrass Festival as a regional mainstay.

Rotary is a community of business people, and the festival will benefit the entire county – hotel rooms, fill ups at the local gas stations, sodas and snacks at the convenience stores and grocery stores, meals at local restaurants, taxes to the county and revenue to local merchants.

The contests and jam sessions are going to be a big draw, Gondella said (he’ll be in the guitar competition). “Most Bluegrass players would just as soon sit at home and pick as go to a concert. We’ll have the people who attend to hear the bands, and then they can go hear the jam sessions and have a cold beer and a barbeque. This will bring some of the best young musicians in the county and beyond.”

Linhardt stressed that the festival’s jam sessions aren’t overly “picky” about defining Bluegrass: Old Time, Swing and Irish music are warmly welcomed to come jam. “There are plenty of spaces for pickin’, but no electric instruments are permitted," Linhardt said.

 And, the pickers, pluckers, jammers and just plain old listeners who revel in a day of top Bluegrass on May 7 will be able to say, a decade or two from now, “I was there when it all started, when the Loudoun Bluegrass Festival was a one-day event at the fairgrounds in a county most of us never heard of.”  The Galax Old Fiddlers Convention, which debuted as a one-day event in 1935 and now runs for a week, started small too. Loudoun County is on the Bluegrass map.

Tickets are $18 per person, $8 for ages seven through 13, and free for fans six and younger, and all Pickin' Competition contestants will get a $5 refund (payable after playing).

Organizers encourage anyone planning to enter one of the four competitions to register now at www.BluegrassLoudoun.com.