Blue skies and bluegrass music, the formula for a perfect weekend, arrived simultaneously in this Perthshire village Aug.15 through 17 to make the 11th annual Guildtown Bluegrass Festival a sparkling success. Four enthusiastic bands provided the program for the concert, the centrepiece of the festival, headed by Missing Strings, making its first showing in Scotland. Others on the program included: the Usual Suspects, the Runaway String Band and Alive and Pickin’. The four groups were well received and many of their members took part in impromptu sessions in and around the Anglers Inn pub after the concert and again Sunday. They were joined by musicians of varying abilities from among the other festival participants. About 200 people attended the festival, enough to pack the Guildtown Public Hall for the duration of the concert. They found more than adequate camping facilities on the playing fields beside the hall - the hall facilities; toilets, kitchen and football showers were available all weekend - and there was plenty of good food, good beer, great service and atmosphere at the Anglers Inn - Guildtowns pub.

Dave Logan, who has run several concerts of his own, lent a hand as master of ceremonies keeping the proceedings moving smoothly and quickly along.

This year’s festival was put together by Betty and Russell Cooper, ardent admirers of bluegrass, who had attended the festival in the past and were reluctant to see it fade when John Sheldon threw in the towel after 10 years. The Coopers recruited the bands, and friends of bluegrass, arranged for the co-operation of Guildtown officials and turned in a nice job of publicising the event. When Friday afternoon arrived so did a flock of campers, the vanguard of the main body that was to assemble behind the hall by Saturday evening. Missing Strings of Kidderminster received high praise from their audience and were equally generous in assessing the behaviour of the festival crowd. Also a crowd pleaser was the Runaway String Band from Edinburgh featuring Robert Big Stevie Stevenson, Robin Wallace, John Booth and Willie Rodgers. Alive and Pickin’ of East Kilbride made its final public appearance at the festival, according to Jerry McLuskey who confirmed rumours that his family group was “going private”. Teeside’s Usual Suspects provided a strong opening for the evening’s festivities and included Dave Nicholson and John Weighell, with Ian MacIver filling in for Mick Martin. The balmy weather made for lots of family fun in the afternoons with cookouts and plenty of space behind the hall for playing ball, tossing frisbees or even taking Rover for a stroll.

From Friday through to Sunday night there were picking sessions going on in the pub, the beer garden, the village hall, and the campsite. Missing Strings played the weekend out, lasting well in to the wee small hours of Monday morning - long after many other exhausted souls had scurried off to their glens!

Carl Romansky, (Cleveland, Ohio)

Updated 23rd Jan 1999