Hoo-wee! Uncle Dave Macon Days underway on The Murfreesboro Post

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Hoo-wee! Uncle Dave Macon Days underway

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By: ERIN EDGEMON, Business Editor

Hoo-wee! Uncle Dave Macon Days underway | Uncle Dave

Young Daniel Rothwell performs some old-time banjo tunes for the audience at The Uncle Dave Macon music festival at Cannonsburgh Friday evening. TMP/Chad Mason

The sounds of banjo pickin’, guitars strummin’, toes tappin’ and, not to forget, the smells of corn roastin’ and barbecue will fill the air of Cannonsburg Pioneer Village July 10-12 for the 32nd annual Uncle Dave Macon Days.

More than 45,000 spectators are expected to attend this year’s festival, the largest single tourist event in Rutherford County.

“If you haven’t experienced it, … you can have a vacation right in your own hometown,” said Gloria Christy, president of the Uncle Dave Macon Days festival.

The festival starts at 5 p.m. Friday July 10, at 9 a.m. Saturday, July 11 and 2 p.m. Sunday July 12. There is no admission charge, and free and paid parking is available.

Cannonsburg Pioneer Village is located at 312 S. Front St. (behind the Shoney’s restaurant on Northwest Broad Street). Free parking is available at the city parking garage off Vine Street. Spectators are advised to bring their lawn chairs and a way to get some relief from the hot July sun.

The festival was established to honor the memory of one of the Grand Ole Opry’s first superstars, Uncle Dave Macon. A master banjo player and performer, Macon lived near Murfreesboro. He died in 1952 and was elected into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1966.

Uncle Dave Macon Days serves as the national championships in old-time banjo, old-time clogging and old-time buckdancing. It is one of the few old-time music competitions in the country.

And the festival is not just popular with the locals; Uncle Dave Macon Day’s was selected by the Atlanta-based Southeast Tourism Society as one of the Top 20 events in the Southeast. The American Bus Association designated the festival as one of the Top 100 events in North America for 2008.

“The focus this year is the celebration of old-time music,” Christy said, referring to music that predates bluegrass music.

That is one of the reason’s the Roan Mountain Hilltoppers are being honored with this year’s Heritage Award, she said. The group will be honored and then perform at 5 p.m. Saturday.

The award is given to individuals dedicated to the preservation and the advancement of old-time music and dance.

“(The Roan Mountain Hilltoppers) are probably the most premier old-time band right now in the country,” Christy said. “They have played at many festivals and have promoted old-time music.”

Christy said the Uncle Dave Macon Days committee wanted to honor a group that could educate the audience about the differences between old-time music and bluegrass.

Besides the music, the festival is a good time for the entire family with children’s activities, mouth-watering concessions and a juried arts and crafts show.

More than 200 vendors selling everything from down-home, southern-style cooking, hamburgers and Nathan’s hot dogs to international Greek and Asian fare will be at the festival, said Teresa Owen, festival director.

“Visitors to the festival will see wood turned into bowls, chairs or puzzles, corn husks made into dolls, glass tubes fired and shaped into animals, watch lye soap trace, or purchase an array of new age scented soaps, salts and lotions,” she said. “Our crafts and fine arts include caricature portraits, beautifully crocheted tablecloths, textiles, handmade brooms, pottery and award winning jewelry. A new feature of the festival offers visitors an opportunity to sit down and learn to paint fantastic first-time finished paintings.”

Macon Memories, a historic photo exhibit, also will be available for viewing throughout the festival in the Cotton Warehouse in Cannonsburgh.

The exhibit is a collection of Middle Tennessee history in photography, which traces the 50-year career of Dick Shacklett, a retired Murfreesboro businessman and photographer. The pictures were taken from the 1860s to the1950s.

Christy said the festival is “guaranteed to strike something in you that you didn’t know was there.

“It lights up something inside you that you didn’t know was there,” she said of the Uncle Dave Macon Days experience. “If you come, then you will come back.”

Erin Edgemon can be reached at 869-0812 and at eedgemon@murfreesboropost.com.

Tagged under Uncle Dave

Member Opinions:

By: SocEtTuem on 7/6/09
My wife and I went for the first time last year and spent a few hours there. We were pleasantly surprised at how much we enjoyed ourselves. If you've never been, give it a try!

By: Flo on 7/8/09
I am saddened beyond belief to have a cast on my leg right now and miss the Uncle Dave Macon Days!!! I had hope it would have been off by now! :( Will be there next year!!

By: mhm2a on 7/8/09
Roasted Corn......Here I Come!

By: Flo on 7/8/09
WOW Hubby ordered a cool chair for me and if it arrives on time I will be there!!!!
Cross your fingers everyone!