Dunlap, Tenn., will celebrate the traditional bluegrass music of Southeast Tennessee – and of the Sequatchie Valley in particular – at the Coke Ovens Bluegrass Festival this weekend. The 29th annual event will take place Friday and Saturday, June 5-6, at the historic Dunlap Coke Ovens Park & Museum.
This year’s lineup of regional musicians includes Banjo-Rama, Cannon Creek, Cedar Ridge, Connection 27, Cumberland Band, Davenport Brothers, Fredonia Bluegrass, Fox Mountain Express, Roy Harper, Avery Trace and Valley Grass Express.
“We are trying to uphold the acoustic string music tradition of the Sequatchie Valley,” says Ed Brown, a musician with the Cumberland Band and a member of the Sequatchie Valley Historical Association, which produces the event. “The amphitheater at the Dunlap Coke Ovens Park and Museum has exceptional sound.”
If you go
* What: Coke Ovens Bluegrass Festival * When: 6-10 p.m. Friday, June 5, and 1-10 p.m. Saturday, June 6; also Saturday, Songwriters Showcase, 10 a.m., and Fiddle Workshop, 11 a.m. (all times Central) * Where: Coke Ovens Park & Museum, 350 Mountain View Drive (off U.S. 127 at Cherry Street), Dunlap, Tenn. * Admission: $4 Friday, $6 Saturday; admission armband not required for children under 12. * Phone: 423-949-2294, 423-949-3483. * Website: www.cokeovens.com * Note: Transport will be available from the handicap parking area into the park
Performances will begin at 6 p.m. Friday and at 1 p.m. Saturday (all times Central) at the park’s main amphitheater, which is constructed from old railroad timbers. Audience members should bring lawn chairs and blankets to enjoy the sounds of the fiddle, mandolin, banjo, guitar and bass in the park’s historic woodland setting.