Youth movement sprouts at Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield
There’s a youth boom at this year’s Walnut Valley Festival, which began Wednesday and continues through Sunday in Winfield.
“This year there are probably more first-time entertainers to the Walnut Valley Festival than there have been in a number of years,” said Larry Junker, writer and editor of the festival newsletter and assistant media director.
Those include Darin and Brook Aldridge, bluegrass guitarists whose song with The Oak Ridge Boys, “He’s Gettin’ Me Ready,” was No. 1 for five months in The Singing News; Chain Station, a Colorado-based Americana quartet; The Barefoot Movement, a married couple leading a band called “the Fleetwood Mac of bluegrass”; Pixie and the Partygrass Boys, which incorporates pop, punk and rock ‘n’ roll into its bluegrass; and Sadie Gustafson-Zook, an Indiana singer-guitarist and second-generation Walnut Valley performer whose father, autoharp player Les Gustafson-Zook, is also on this year’s schedule.
Junker said festival coordinators try to balance the lineup with one-third newcomers and one-third veterans, such as John McCutcheon, Roz Brown, The Cowboy Way and Chris Jones and the Night Drivers.
“Chris has really helped out this year with the showcase, rounding up judges for the songs,” Junker said.
The youth movement is also evident in developing new talent and new appreciation of bluegrass and related music forms.
“One of the things that makes Winfield a really special festival is that we have Andy May (a singer guitarist and another festival veteran) and he works with a lot of the younger kids to bring them on stage and get them accustomed to being there and playing, because that’s the future of the festival, the young kids,” Junker said.
Developing young performers and audiences is intentional, Junker said.
“The majority of the people here at the Walnut Valley Festival are 55 and older. The future of the festival is the kids,” he said. “We’ve got to do something to keep the kids coming in. We’re all not gonna be around that long.”
This is the 51st year for the festival, which went virtual during the pandemic. Crowds reached as many as 18,000 people through the years, Junker said, but are averaging between 12,000 and 15,000 in the past decade.
Attendance, he said, hasn’t quite recovered from the pandemic.
“It takes a while,” he said. “COVID-19 is still around, and some people are saying I don’t know (if they want to go in public). But some of the old-timers are the hardcore guys who keep coming back every year whether there’s COVID or not.”
The festival began at Southwestern College, based in Winfield.
“It really took off in the early ‘70s when Mr. Redford (Bob Redford, festival cofounder) and a few of the other individuals took it over and moved it out to the fairgrounds. Once they started the various contests, that’s when things took off.”
More information on the festival is at wvfest.com.
