Online old-time banjo festival THIS WEEKEND (2-3 May 2020)

THANKS to Oldtime Central (OTC) for the news that an Online Old Time Banjo Festival is to be held this weekend (Sat. 2 May and Sun. 3 May), under the auspices of the Mike Seeger Commemorative Old Time Banjo Festival and hosted by Cathy Fink and Brad Kolodner. The lineup, shown on the poster image above, includes a good selection of the top layer of today's old-time players.

Concerts will be streamed on YouTube from 7.30 to 9.30 p.m. EST on both evenings; workshops (for which prior registration is needed) will be held on Zoom from 2.00 to 5.30 p.m. EST on Saturday and 12.00 noon to 5.30 p.m. EST on Sunday. Details are on the OTC. The cost is $25 per workshop, payable via PayPal; for concerts, the rule is 'pay what you can', but a donation of $25 is suggested. For admission to all concerts and workshops, a full weekend pass is $150. A one-minute teaser video can be seen here. NB: EST is five hours behind BST.

For pickers interested in Irish music (or the tunes in 6/8 notated in Samuel Bayard's 1944 book Hill country tunes), Allison de Groot's Sunday workshop will be on playing jigs in 6/8 - to take this workshop, you must be able to drop-thumb.