If you appreciate acoustic music played in the best traditional bluegrass and gospel style, then you’ll certainly want to be in Guyton from April 17-21 for the 35th Bluegrass Festival at the award-wining 34-acre Mossy Oak Music Park.
“In October, we set an attendance record, and we are again expecting and preparing for what looks like will be another large crowd,” said Rebecca Rose.
Rose, along with her husband, Russell, and her father, Allen Lanier, brother Doug Lanier and family, have hosted the festivals on their family farm two miles out of Guyton since 2002.
The park encompasses 34 acres and provides camp sites for more than 525 motor homes, trailers, and tents. Music fans who frequent the bluegrass festival circuit voted Mossy Oak Music Park one of the “best outdoor music venues in the Southeast.”
“Our April lineup of entertainers includes some of the best touring bluegrass bands,” Rebecca Rose said. “They’re coming to entertain us from Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina.”
The special headliner is the Daughters of Bluegrass band. Also performing will be the Gary Waldrep Band, The Nelons, the Heather Berry Trio, Mindy Rakestraw, Gina Britt, Lorraine Jordan and Carolina Road, Dale Ann Bradley, Becky Buller, Frances Mooney and Fontana Sunset and the hosting Lonesome Whistle Band.
The Daughters of Bluegrass band was honored recently with national recognition from the International Bluegrass Music Association. Dale Ann Bradley was named IMBA’s 2013 Best Female Vocalist, the fifth time she has won that award.
Gospel Music Association’s national Dove Award winners The Nelons are making a special appearance courtesy of Mossy Oak Music Park and area Chick-Fil-A restaurants.
Members of each of the military branches will be recognized and special guest retired U.S. Marine Neal Corbin of Rincon will present the colors during the ceremony.
The park has a covered theater/pavilion that seats more than 700, a large lighted, handicap accessible parking area, an on-site daily flea market, a full kitchen, playground, museum, bath house, vendors, dump stations and a number of other amenities. Pets and golf carts are welcome.
“Everything our great staff does here is focused on making our guests welcome and well entertained,” Allen Lanier said. “If it’s traditional bluegrass and southern gospel music in an alcohol-free environment that folks like, then we have the place for them. Just bring along a lawn chair, then sit back and enjoy.”
The five-day festival program, now in its 12th year, begins with a covered dish supper Wednesday at 6 p.m. with “open stage” beginning at 7 p.m. Music starts at 12 noon each day and runs to 10 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It concludes with special gospel music and worship service on Sunday at 8:30 a.m., led by nationally-known evangelists/musicians Mike and Mary Robinson from Massachusetts.
Tickets are $20 daily or $40 for the full five days. Tickets are half-price for children 12-15 and those under 12 are free. Camping with hookups are $15/$20 per night. Tent camping is $5 per night.
For camping reservations and additional information, call 772-5142 or 772-3467 or visit the park on the web at www.mossyoakmusicpark.com.
