The Granville Hook & Ladder Fire Company will host a weekend of country music fun starting Friday with the inaugural “First Annual Country Music Jamboree” on Aug. 19, 20 and 21.
Hook and Ladder treasurer Dan Roberts said the music will be all country, everything from old timey country and square dance country to current popular country music along with a healthy dose of the blues thrown in for good measure.
Gate fees to walk in are $5 per person Friday and Sunday and $10 per person Saturday. Hours are 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Children under the age of 12 get in free. The event will take place at the carnival grounds off of East Potter Avenue.
Bands include, but are not limited to: Honky Tonk Express, Black River Canyon Band, Hand Picked Band and Old Time Country. Organizers said the weekend will feature as many as 18 different bands each playing hour-plus sets.
The wrinkle organizers are offering is camping. Tent, trailer or motor home camping will be available at the site with space for camping trailers and two people costing $40 for the weekend, a fee that includes the gate costs. Tent sites for two people will be $35 for the weekend including camping and admission to the jamboree.
Roberts said a former member George Stoddard is a part of the Northeast Association of Country Western Entertainers who put on regular fundraising jamborees around the region.
“They lost the place they used to play, someone sold it and they were looking for another place,” Roberts said.
The two men got together to begin organizing the jamboree after deciding Granville might be a good place to start up a new music festival.
The entire weekend of music is expected to feature as many as 18 all volunteer bands who regularly play jamboree fundraisers like this one.
“It the first one and we’re hoping it goes well, we’d like to make this an annual thing,” Roberts said.
Bands will perform from the carnival grounds band stand. Patrons are advised they need to bring their own chairs to the event for the open seating that would typically be full of a carnival midway during the fireman’s carnival. Roberts said the fire company’s food booths will be open and a couple of games booths as well.
The event will have a bar, but Roberts advised there will be restrictions on the site of consumption. A fenced-in area around the carnival casino will contain the bar and the only space on the grounds where drinking will be allowed. No alcohol containers will be allowed outside of the area.
For those who bring their dancing shoes, a tent will be put up and under that tent will be a dance floor. Several of the bands come with their own callers making square dancing a distinct possibility. Proceeds from the event will go to the Hooks.
“We’re hoping people will come and check it out, I think they’ll like what they hear; you’ll definitely have a good time,” Roberts said.
