'Feels a little bit like home': WoodyFest marks 25 years in folk icon's Oklahoma hometown

Although Cathy Guthrie has never called Okemah home, this land seems like her land during her yearly visits.

"I've got cousins that I only see at WoodyFest ... and the musicians come for the right reasons. They weren't coming for the money (in the beginning), and they're still not coming for the money. They are coming to get together and celebrate Woody," she told The Oklahoman.

"It's really the people, and just everything about it. It just feels a little bit like home, even though I've never lived here."

For her iconic grandfather, though, Okemah wasn't just home; it was his hometown. Cathy Guthrie is one of the granddaughters of the late, great folk troubadour Woody Guthrie and is back in the small Okfuskee County town to take part in the 25th annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival.

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Affectionately nicknamed WoodyFest, the event continues through Sunday at various venues around its namesake's birthplace.

"The festival's meant so much to us throughout the years, just because it's a way for us to all get together if we can and celebrate Woody and everything that he stands for," said Cathy Guthrie, whose father is Arlo Guthrie, Woody's folk singer son.

Since 1998, WoodyFest has been taking place annually in Okemah on and around July 14, which is Woody's birthday. The iconic singer-songwriter would have been 110 years old this year.

More than 50 years after his death — he was only 55 when he succumbed to Huntington's disease on Oct. 3, 1967 — Woody's music, activism and fan base have made him arguably the most famous Oklahoman in the world.

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"I wouldn't say it's a comeback necessarily. But I do think that a lot of his message has been highlighted in the last five, six years ... and not only by a lot of folk musicians but a lot of country musicians and hip-hop musicians," said Maddie Gregory, the festival's marketing chair.  

"There's this renewed sense of protest music, and I think Woody Guthrie definitely fits into that genre and is relevant in a lot of different ways."

So, most every year, about 100 musicians and 3,000 music lovers brave the sweltering Oklahoma summer to make their pilgrimage to the place where the writer of "This Land Is Your Land," “Tear the Fascists Down” and "Dusty Old Dust (So Long, It's Been Good to Know Yuh)" truly got his start. The exception was in 2020, when the festival went virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was during the pandemic that Cathy Guthrie and her sister Sarah Lee Guthrie formed their new duo The Guthrie Girls, and they're scheduled to close out WoodyFest's Pastures of Plenty outdoor stage at 11 p.m. Saturday.

"When you're born, you don't maybe get to choose who your family is. I'm so glad that Woody Guthrie is my grandfather," Cathy Guthrie said. "I never met Woody; he died before I was born. ... But I'm absolutely super proud that I'm a Guthrie. I didn't really do anything to deserve it, I just got born into it, but I love it. I love the way ... people continue to honor him and celebrate him."

WOODY GUTHRIE FOLK FESTIVAL 

When: Through Sunday.

Where: Various venues in Okemah. 

Tickets and information: https://www.woodyfest.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Woody Guthrie Folk Fest marks 25 years in icon's Oklahoma hometown