The date for this year's Tallgrass Prairie Fiddle Festival and Acoustic Band Contest has been set for Saturday, May 27. With free fiddle and harmonica workshops in the morning, a luthier on-site, jam sessions erupting throughout the day, and more than $3,000 in award monies, it is sure to be an event you will want to get on your calendar.

The Tallgrass Prairie Fiddle Festival and Acoustic Band Contest is the place to be for musicians and music enthusiasts of all ages. The event will be free of charge and held at the Homestead National Monument of America Education Center four miles west of Beatrice, Nebraska.

The competition is geared towards all ability levels and begins with Deborah Greenblatt teaching a free workshop in the morning. She was the first woman to win the Nebraska State Fiddling Championship, the first woman to win the Mid-America Fiddle Championship, and is a member of the Mid-America Old-Time Fiddler’s Hall of Fame.

The Tallgrass Prairie Fiddle Festival and Acoustic Band Contest is a day for fiddlers of all ages and experience levels to come together much like they did when the first pioneers arrived in the 1800s and began settling the prairie. The sounds of fiddlers were often heard whenever homesteaders got together and those same sounds will be heard on May 27 at the festival.

Following the 10 a.m. workshops, participants will break for lunch and prepare for the competition, which starts at noon. The one rule which makes this competition unique is that all songs must have been in existence by 1936 when Homestead National Monument of America was established.

The day ends with the announcement of winners. Trophies are given to the top three finishers in the Junior, Senior, Legends, and Acoustic Band divisions. For more than a decade, the Coffin Family Foundation has provided funding for the cash prizes. Leigh Coffin started the foundation 12 years ago to help support youth education. Another partner for this event is the Nebraska Arts Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Arts.

The winner of a Tune Writing Competition, which is held in conjunction with the Nebraska Chapter of the American String Teachers Association of America, is also announced along with acknowledgements for the best left-handed fiddler and the youngest fiddler.