The 40th Bluegrass and Gospel Music Festival runs Wednesday through Sunday morning at Mossy Oak Music Park. Visitors to the 34-acre park will enjoy bluegrass and gospel music done in the old school, traditional acoustic style, as well as great high lonesome vocal harmonies.
This year’s Rebecca Rose Memorial festival is dedicated in loving memory to Fette Turner, who passed away in July and is remembered by many in Effingham as a caring and unselfish Christian individual.
“In May, we set an attendance record, and we’re expecting and preparing for what looks as if it’s going to be another great crowd,” said Doug Lanier, who with his father Allen Lanier and their family have hosted the festivals since 2002 on their family farm two miles outside of Guyton.
The award-winning park provides camp sites for more than 500 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.”
“The great lineup of entertainers we’ll have next week includes some of the very best among all touring bluegrass bands,” Lanier said. “They’re coming to entertain us from Kentucky, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Iowa, Missouri and the Carolinas.
“We again have a number of International Bluegrass Music Association music award winners in our lineup. Among those on this year’s program are such noted performers as Little Roy Lewis & Lizzie Long, The Boxcars, Volume 5, Clinton Gregory, Adkins & Loudermilk, Jimmy Wolling Band, Constant Change, and special guest and musical ‘phenom’ Isaac Moore, the 12-year-old sensation who is capturing everyone’s attention in bluegrass circles, and others.”
Members of each of our military branches will be be recognized and special guest and Rincon’s own 89-year-old retired U.S. Marine Sgt. Neal Corbin will present the colors during the special ceremony that is a part at each October festival.
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, snack shack, bath house with washer and dryer, vendors, dump stations, and a number of other amenities, including free bingo for all every morning from 10 a.m.-12 noon. Pets and golf carts are also welcome.
“Everything our courteous staff and volunteers do here is focused on making our guests feel welcome and well-entertained,” Allen Lanier said. “So, if it’s that traditional and unique bluegrass and southern gospel music sound, in an alcohol and drug-free environment, that folks like then we have a great place for them. Just bring along a lawn chair, then just sit back, relax, and enjoy.”
The five-day festival program, now in its 13th year, begins with a covered dish supper Wednesday at 6 p.m., followed by an “open stage” that provides local talent an opportunity to showcase their singing and musical skills beginning at 7 p.m. Music starts at 2 p.m. each day and runs to 10 p.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
The festival will conclude with a special gospel music presentation and a worship service on Sunday at 8:30 a.m., led by nationally recognized and well-traveled evangelists Mike and Mary Robinson from in New England.
Daily tickets are $20 or $45 for the full 5-days; 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.
