A long standing partnership between Ozarks Public Radio and Silver Dollar City, continues this month when the 16th, KSMU Youth in Bluegrass Band Contest is held during SDC’s annual Bluegrass & Barbeque Festival.
Silver Dollar City’s D.A. Callaway says the theme park is bringing in a bevy of Bluegrass bands to entertain patrons during Bluegrass & BBQ, which runs through Monday, May 29th. “We’ve got a lot of people here, a lot of Bluegrass lovers, 6 stages running every day for 23 days. We’ve got 62 bands on the schedule, yeah, we’re having a ball.”
Callaway says the KSMU competition is Saturday, May 27th at SDC’s Opera House Theater. “I have one piece of advice, and that’s to get there early because that place only seats 850 people and it fills up, so get there early, and plan to stay a while. The contest will run about 6 hours, and a lot of people stay for the entire 6 hours. This year we have 20 bands registered, representing 12 states. Round 1 starts at 10:30, with each band playing for 6 minutes, in front of 3 judges. Round 2 starts at 2:30 with each band playing different tunes for another 6 minutes, in front of 3 new judges. At the end of the 2 rounds, we’ll add up the scores and determine the winners. Of course it doesn’t matter who wins. The camaraderie, and the relationships that are built, that’s what it’s all about.”
For those who are unable to attend, D.A. Callaway says YouTube will take you there. “The last few years we record video of the contest, and cut that up into single songs and post to YouTube. That YouTube channel has about a million views on it right now, so somebody’s paying attention.”
Callaway’s YouTube comment about close to a million views of the KSMU Youth in Bluegrass Band Contest, is no exaggeration. The view count is indeed, well over 900,000, and rising.
Bluegrass and Barbeque at Silver Dollar City, continues through Monday, May 29th. For information, www.silverdollarcity.com