Named World's Top Bluegrass Event, Silver Dollar City's Bluegrass & BBQ Is Park's Biggest Ever Music Festival
Named World’s Top Bluegrass Event,
Silver Dollar City’s Bluegrass & BBQ
Is Park’s Biggest Ever Music Festival
May 10 – June 3, 2012
With top accolades showing Silver Dollar City (SDC) leading in the presentation of American bluegrass music, the Branson, Missouri theme park is launching its biggest ever Bluegrass & BBQ festival, adding more days, more bands and more barbecue to the event, May 10 – June 3. This 8th season of the festival marks a year of top awards: “Event of the Year” from the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA), plus “Bluegrass Promoter of the Year” for park entertainment manager D.A. Callaway (SPBGMA*).
“Bluegrass is a uniquely American art form that has changed and evolved with what the audiences demand, creating crossover popularity that encompasses traditionalists and newer country audiences,” said festival manager D.A. Callaway, who visits bluegrass festivals all across America to find the best of both traditional and contemporary groups. “While much of today’s bluegrass doesn’t sound the same as grandpa’s fiddle-playing, the base is still there, and Nashville is selling more bluegrass-inspired records than ever before.”
The festival celebrates the all-American music genre, presenting more than 60 bands and hundreds of performances, featuring top artists and award-winning performers in bluegrass today, including Rhonda Vincent & the Rage, the Grascals, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, and the Kruger Brothers. Plus, guests can see the top up-and-coming bands in bluegrass, such as the Gibson Brothers, Balsam Range, Little Roy & Lizzy and Jerry Butler and the Blu-J’s, and bluegrass comedy kings, The Cleverlys.
National Bluegrass Competitions
The festival highlights two national competitions featuring entrants from across the country. The 6th Annual National Single Mic Championship, May 19-20, highlights performance skills as each band gathers around a single microphone and balances their sound by moving toward or away from it, a technique revived by many of today's top bluegrass bands. The Youth In Bluegrass Band Competition, May 26-27, promotes and encourages amateur bluegrass musicians 21 years of age or younger as they compete for top honors and cash prizes.
Food, Flavor and Variety ~ The House of BBQ, a Rib Feast, Hundreds of Sauces plus New Visiting BBQ Connoisseurs
The House of BBQ serves up Silver Dollar City’s famous flavor feast from St. Louis ribs and smoked chicken to Texas brisket and sweet roasted corn on the cob -- direct from large outdoor charcoal grills and a custom-made 9-foot smoker. Another back-by-popular-demand feature is an all-you-can-eat BBQ rib feast each afternoon with fall-off-the-bone ribs in four flavors, plus SDC’s signature 18-hour smoked brisket.
New this year to the park’s food offering is the addition of visiting, award-winning BBQ connoisseurs, adding a whole new dimension of barbecue variety. Bringing a straight-out-of-the-Ozarks flair is Richard’s Hawgwild BBQ out of Aurora, Missouri. Adding even more heat to the grills is Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, based in Texas. These new taste opportunities are designed to bring even more flavor variety – which is on overload on the City’s Square, with guests welcome to taste-test hundreds of sauces from smoky chipotle and sweet hickory to Carolina vinegar and honey habanero, plus the park’s own Honey Blackberry.
Silver Dollar City, located near Branson, Missouri, is open daily during Bluegrass & BBQ, May 10 – June 3, except for Wednesdays May 15 & 22. Hours are 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (9:30 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. on Saturdays, and Sunday, May 27). For information and performers’ schedules: 800-831-4FUN(386), or www.silverdollarcity.com.
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*Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America
