Traditional Music & Bluegrass Festival September 6 - 7 at Lincoln's New Salem

PETERSBURG - More than 100 traditional and bluegrass musicians are expected to participate in Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site's 26th annual Traditional Music and Bluegrass set for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, September 5, 6 and 7. 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, September 5 and 6 on stage in the outdoor theater, with the festival in full swing in the village from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, September 6 and 7. Performers from all over the Midwest will entertain on such instruments as mountain and hammer dulcimers, concertinas, bones, autoharps, fiddles, banjos, and guitars. There will be a large clogging platform provided outside the village, which will be filled with cloggers starting at noon on 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 1830's. The New Salem Museum Shop and the New Salem Lincoln League Souvenir and Book Store will both be open during the event.

The Traditional Music 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.