Uncle Dave begins anew in 2010 on The Murfreesboro Post

Sidebar Ads

Uncle Dave begins anew in 2010

Related Articles

‘Arsenic & Old Lace’ takes stage at Arts Center

Stones River National Battlefield celebrates Memorial Day

Beale Street blues floods muddy Mississippi

Some Bonnaroo fans choose comfort over closeness

Music fans head to Alabama to 'Hang Out'

Weekend Planner: Celebrate May at Fellowship Church

Lunch, learn about raising healthy kids

Weekend Planner: Barfield Park holds annual Beach Party

Suicide prevention conference targets African American faith community

Volunteer soars to Tennessee Air Show success

View All

By: MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Editor

Posted: Monday, April 19, 2010 11:24 am

Uncle Dave begins anew in 2010 | Uncle Dave Macon Days, Event, Gloria Christy

Luke Muday and Danny Clark duel it out on a bench at Cannonsburgh during Uncle Dave Macon Days in 2007.

Editor's note: The Uncle Dave Macon Days Web site has been updated to include a reasoning for the changes. Find it here.

•••

Uncle Dave Macon Days enters a new era this year as a paid event.

What started 32 years ago as a Saturday afternoon banjo-picking contest on Murfreesboro’s Square, has grown into a three-day nationally recognized event.

And it will now cost visitors $5 a day (children under 12 years old get in free) to enjoy the old-time music and dancing. The Sunday Gosphel Showcase will remain a free event.

Organizers made the official announcement in a press conference Wednesday morning at Cannonsburgh Pioneer Village, home to the festival for more than 20 years.

“We feel like in order to move forward and do the things we need to do, Uncle Dave Macon Days needs to create a sustainable stream of revenue from the festival itself,” long-time festival judge John Balch said.

Uncle Dave Macon Days has been a free event in all of its 32-year life and draws nearly 40,000 visitors to town annually.

Throughout its entire run, Uncle Dave Macon Days has survived on private donations, program, booth and contest fees, and corporate sponsorships, Festival organizer Gloria Christy explained, adding not a single penny has been provided by grants or government funds.

In fact the all-volunteer UDMD staff puts on the event with less than $50,000 a year, she said. And in the past two years, it has lost three main corporate sponsors who donated a total of $25,000 yearly, or half the nonprofit’s budget. Last year UDMD used the last of its reserves and ended the year with less than $500 in the bank.

“It’s always been free, but it never really was free,” she said, adding the community needs to ask itself, “Is it worth $5?

“It’s less than a hamburger. It’s less than a movie. If you want to equate value,” she continued.

Christy said the UDMD volunteer staff struggled with the decision, but after talking with other old-time music festival organizers in Smithville and Franklin (the only two remaining free events of this type in the nation), they decided the time had come to charge an admission fee.

“We have grieved over this,” she said.

Christy knows this move will have an impact on attendance initially but is sure people will see the value in the event and eventually come around.

Sustainable tourism
Organizers said the money raised will be used to promote the festival, keep it sustainable, preserve Cannonsburgh, help support local civic groups and help develop Murfreesboro and Rutherford County as a music tourist destination.

“Uncle Dave Macon Days is too big and too large for us to continue in this way,” Balch said about the new admission charge. He explained the festival has been run by a volunteer staff and needs a full-time professional staff.

Christy seconded the thought and added UDMD doesn’t have an office, supplies or even a telephone line. The UDMD volunteer staff donates everything that is needed to organize the event.

“We finally came to the conclusion that this is a business that needs to run year round with a dedicated staff,” she said.

That staff will apply for grants and organize an old-time music concert series and radio show in collaboration with WSM, the very same radio station that originally broadcast Uncle Dave on the Grand Ole Opry.

But Cannonsburgh doesn’t have a suitable venue for such performances and the sustainability of the pioneer village recreation is also a concern.

Christy said banjo pickers playing on porches and 40,000 visitors over one weekend a year has taken its toll on the historic buildings at Cannonsburgh and some need to be repaired.

So part of the funds raised will be used to stabilize Cannonsburgh Pioneer Village.

“It’s irresponsible for us not to maintain this asset,” Christy said.

There is even talk of constructing an American music history interpretive center to draw more tourists annually.

Christy said this is just in the dream stage but fits with a plan to turn Murfreesboro into a mecca for old-time music and draw some tourists away from Music City, U.S.A.

Tourism is one of Tennessee’s hottest businesses, adding more than $2 billion per year into the state economy with Nashville as the top hot spot.

Christy and some local stakeholders want to tempt some of those music tourists (and their dollars) into Rutherford County.

One way she hopes to attract tourists is by promoting traditional music and how that it has influenced the popular music of today.

But Christy’s vision of the future starts today with a $5 admission charge to Uncle Dave Macon Days.

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.

Tagged under Event, Gloria Christy, Uncle Dave Macon Days

Member Opinions:

By: thmcra09 on 4/19/10
I WILL NOT BE GOING I WILL HAVE A BURGER INSTEAD.

By: Bosda on 4/20/10
No thanks. I'll spend my $5 elsewhere.

By: abide on 4/21/10
I have talked to people who come and play music under the trees for the crowd and they say they wont be going, if too many other groups feel the same way it will cut attendence in half and signal the end of Uncle Dave Macon Days.