Texas Folklife Presents The 3rd Annual Festival of Texas Fiddling

Texas Folklife Presents 
The 3^rd Annual Festival of Texas Fiddling

December 2, 2017

Twin Sisters Dance Hall, Blanco, Texas

Austin, Texas – November 1, 2017 – The 3^rd Annual Festival of Texas Fiddling is a day-long event featuring showcase concerts, a symposium session, workshops, and tons of dancing at historic Twin Sisters Dance Hall in Blanco, Texas, on December 2, 2017. The Festival ends with an extraordinary evening dance by Grammy Award Winner and Western Swing Hall of Fame Bobby Flores and the Yellow Rose Band.

Polka, Texas Polish, Old Time, Western Swing, Country, Cajun, Creole, Tejano, Son Huasteca--all the styles of fiddling in the state are at the Festival of Texas Fiddling.

Ticket Information:
Tickets are $10 for the all-day Festival program, while separate tickets for the evening dance are $20.  If you buy the $20 evening dance ticket, the daytime festival tickets are only $5.  The festival also has free sessions including a morning symposium and afternoon block with music, dance workshop, and award ceremony.  

Festival Tickets for the daytime program are available on Eventbrite for $10

RSVP for free morning symposium and afternoon session on Eventbrite

Tickets for evening dance with Bobby Flores are available on Tickets to the City for $20

*** Buy a $10 festival ticket online and receiving a *free* Festival of Texas Fiddling CD and bumper sticker! ***

Artist Line-Up:
Festival master fiddler concerts includes Brian Marshall (Texas Polish), Erik Hokkanen (polka), Howard Rains and Tricia Spencer (old time), Belen y Tocayo (Tejano), Trio Paseador Hidalguense (son huasteca), and introduces 12 year old Western Swing virtuoso Jack Phillips, accompanied by Mark Rubin. Full festival program is available below. 

About the Festival of Texas Fiddling:
Fiddling IS Texas music. Texas has the most diverse fiddle traditions of any state. Along with all that fiddling comes some of the best dance traditions anywhere—with the polka right in the heart of it all.

The Festival of Texas Fiddling is the first and only festival that brings all of the great traditions of fiddling in the state together in a truly historic Texas dance hall.

The overarching goal of the Festival of Texas Fiddling is education about all styles of fiddling and fiddle associated music played historically and currently in the state of Texas connected with preservation, presentation, performance of the music in a historic space of a traditional Texas dance hall.  An additional foundational goal of the Symposium session is to establish an annual galvanizing event that will facilitate and promote the sustainability of all varieties of fiddling in Texas through collaborations with humanities scholars, local and state-wide organizations, musicians, and community leaders.

Historic Twin Sisters Dance Hall

The Twin Sisters Hall, built by German immigrants, opened in January 1870 and continues today to host a public dance on the first Saturday of the month and also continues to serve as a community center for weddings, family functions, educational workshops and fund raisers.  Twin Sisters Hall maintains these traditional uses and activities to preserve the historic dance hall structure and a way of life in the Hill Country of Texas. 

Event Sponsors and Partners:

The 3^rd Annual Festival of Texas Fiddling is sponsored by Texas Folklife, Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Texas Music Office, Center for Popular Music at MTSU, Twin Sisters Dance Hall, Alamo Music Center, and the National Parks Service.

For more Festival information, visit our webpage at http://thefestivaloftexasfiddling.com or Texas Folklife at www.texasfolklife.org/event/ftf2017

Media information: 
festivaloftexasfiddling@gmail.com

Texas Folklife
1708 Houston St
Austin, TX 78756
512-441-9255
www.texasfolklife.org

3^rd Annual Festival of Texas Fiddling Schedule

Morning Free Session:

10:00-10:45    Fiddle Humanities Symposium: Foster, Young, Margolies, Reish, and more

Morning Ticketed Session:

11:00-11:45:  Howard Rains and Tricia Spencer

12:00-12:30 Jack Phillips (with Mark Rubin)

1:00-1:15    Huapango Dance Lesson by Tomas Salas and Rachel Murray, music by Trio Paseador Hidalguense

1:15-2:00 Trio Paseador Hidalguense

2:15-2:45 Erik Hokkanen

3:00-4:00  Brian Marshall

Afternoon Free session:

4:15-5:15 Belen y Tocayo

5:30-6:15 Plenary of all fiddlers from day program (1-2 tunes each)

6:15-6:30 Texas Master Fiddler Award ceremony

6:30-7:00 2 step Dance Lesson, with music by Brian Marshall

Evening Dance – Separate Ticketed Event:

7:00pm Opening Act

8:00-til 11:00pm Bobby Flores and the Yellow Rose Band