Third Annual Bluegrass Festival comes to Franklin County

     The Franklin County Bluegrass Festival continued its celebration of camaraderie and music this past week, for the third annual festival, at the Franklin County Fairgrounds.

     This is the third year that the Franklin County Bluegrass Festival has been hosted by the Bluegrass Music Association of Iowa (BMAI), after they were asked to take it over from Lori King and “Uncle” Billy Dunbar. King and Dunbar, through a mutual love of bluegrass music, first created BMAI in 2009. Now BMAI promotes six festivals in Iowa, all just as big as the Franklin County Festival.

     “This is the third year of us hosting the festival and we’ll keep doing it if the turnout is good,” King said.

     The festival consists of six bands that come together and play a wide variety of bluegrass, country, gospel and folk music. BMAI tries to get a mix of different family bands, so there will be something for everyone. They also rely on the comment cards that they provide to see what people like. This year’s bands consisted of the Roe Family Singers, Cedar Valley Bluegrass, Blue Mafia, The Kenastons, The Bluegrass Blondies and Rural Roots.  

    Read the full article in the June 15 edition of the Press.