HOQUIAM’S BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL – Music of the working class
The Annual Grays Harbor Bluegrass festival is an event that you definitely want to be part of! The residents of Hoquiam City have always been proud with their love affair with this genre of music that got its start from the end of the Second World War and continued on to be a favorite among communities who like Hoquiam are made up of hard working people who like to hear good stories that touch your heart. Bluegrass bands both professional and amateur, fans from all walks of life gather for a few days in Hoquiam’s Olympic Stadium to sample the high lonesome sound that is distinct with true bluegrass melody.
The Grays Harbor Annual Bluegrass festival is attended by people from all walks of life, they come to Hoquiam city to partake of good music, good food, and good friends. Bluegrass music has always been welcome in Hoquiam, Washington and the Grays Harbor area, its long history of working class and their daily struggles to keep alive through hard work and doggedness, logging the surrounding forest long before the genre existed in its present form maybe explains the people’s natural connection to this type of music.
During the festival, the organizers promise visitors and locals alike will enjoy and be able to sense the enchanting Bluegrass music that is being celebrated. In bluegrass, listeners are enthralled by the skill and creative manner on how the lead performers take turns playing a melody with their instruments while winging a tune while the rest of the band play in the background.
Most traditional bluegrass bands use a mixture of stringed acoustic instruments that deliver continuous melodies that touch the heart and soul of those who listen in a lively sort of manner, instruments like the banjo, acoustic guitar, violin and mandolin are all played together or in sequence or support to the main musicians’ efforts.
Instrumental solos are a crowd pleaser and you will get a lot of these amazing displays of pure raw talent during the Bluegrass festival. Band members try their best to outdo other bands or even their own band mates not so much so to show who is the best soloist but rather to entertain the crowd and give them a good time.
The Grays Harbor Annual Bluegrass festival shares the passion of residents in good music to the throngs of visitors that visit Hoquiam city during this yearly event. Bluegrass experts, avid fans and initiates flock together to enjoy and partake in the passion of the different bluegrass genre bands that take part in bringing life music into play. Visitors would often be moved when a particular band or two include in their set a praise song or two to right the mood for such good folk.
Aside from the well loved and much focused on traditional bluegrass music genre, other bands tend to be progressive in their use of other musical instruments to enrich their own style of bluegrass with some bordering their music play with instruments more commonly identified with mainstream country music, these type or form of progressive bluegrass is often referred to by avid bluegrass scholars and traditional fans as “Newgrass”.
Love delicious home cooked meals and gracious company with your bluegrass? Go get yourself to Hoquiam and be part of the Bluegrass music festival where the music played in the historic Olympic Stadium definitely celebrates the sweet life of the working man.
Check out Wade Entezar catches the Hoquiam Bluegrass Festival, music for that special place
