Pickin' Party is this week
At this time of year, visitors to the Prairie Lake grounds northeast of Holton are likely to find a few more campers and trailers than normal — and with the 32nd-annual Prairie Lake Pickin’ Party coming up next week, this year will be no exception.
“It’s a beautiful place,” said Joleen Thorpe, one of the many musicians who’ll be making music at Prairie Lake next week, of the Pickin’ Party’s home ground. “It’s our favorite place to camp, and the festival has turned into a community in and of itself. Everybody, for the most part, knows everybody, and you see people that you might only see there and play music with them every year.”
The annual Pickin’ Party, the flagship event of the Kansas Prairie Pickers Association (KPPA), will be held next Thursday through Saturday, June 11 through 13, at the Prairie Lake grounds and feature “old-time country, bluegrass and gospel” from 15 groups, including longtime Pickin’ Party visitors and a few new ones as well.
One of the new groups that Thorpe’s looking forward to hearing is the Tresgrassers, a band featuring Holton natives Ben and Sam Kuglin, who grew up with the festival and continue to make music — in fact, the band won the Kansas Bluegrass Association’s Winterfest band contest earlier this year. Also new is a Lawrence-based group of young people known as Mud Creek Turnaround, which Thorpe describes as “a little more old-timey.”
Thorpe said she’s pleased to see more young people getting involved in bluegrass music and bringing their talent to the Pickin’ Party.
“We encourage younger people to get involved and come and play, because some of us have been doing this for a long, long time,” she said. “And there are several bands with young people this year, which I’m super excited about.”
As always, there’s no charge for coming out to listen to the music — or even make some of your own — unless you plan to bring a camper or a trailer, and in that case, it’s a good idea to stake out a spot as soon as possible, as Thorpe noted.
“There’s already people out there at Prairie Lake,” she said. “People like to get there early to make sure they have electricity, and there are some who want their certain spot where they are every year.”
This year’s Pickin’ Party lineup includes:
• Thursday, June 11: Six Mile Creek, 5 p.m.; Bootlegged Bluegrass, 6 p.m.; Rood Awakening, 7 p.m.; Mud Creek Turnaround, 8 p.m.; and Poor Man’s Opera, 9 p.m.
• Friday, June 12: Pheasant Pluckers, 5 p.m.; Bluebelles Of The Trail, 6 p.m.; Boiler Room Boys, 7:10 p.m.; Jed Zeppelin, 8 p.m.; and Tresgrassers, 9 p.m. The winner of a $500 KPPA scholarship will be announced following the Bluebelles’ set.
• Saturday, June 13: Live Bait, 5 p.m.; MayBelles, 6 p.m.; Kansas Mash, 7 p.m.; Pastense, 8 p.m.; and New Lands, 9 p.m. The winner of a T-shirt design contest will be announced following Live Bait’s set, and a drawing for a musical instrument will be held following Pastense’s set.
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