The 3rd annual BLACK SWAMP OLD-TIME MUSIC FESTIVAL will be held July 8-9-10, 2005 in northwest Ohio at Seven Eagles EARTH Center (16486 Wapakoneta Rd, Grand Rapids, OH). The festival begins with a concert and dance on Friday evening, runs all day Saturday with jams and workshops and an evening concert, and continues Sunday with a gospel jam in the morning and a concert until 4:00 pm. This family-oriented festival features old-time music (fiddles, banjos, guitars, string bands, dulcimers, vocal traditions, etc.), dancing (flatfoot/clogging workshops, contra and square dancing), vendors, and children's activities. Performers will include Dan Gellert and Debbie Posey, Whitt Mead, Art Lang and Cathy Ciolac Half of The Red Mules, Dave Rice, Mark Ward and Joe LaRose, Ann and Phil Case, Judy and Warren Waldron, the Lonesome Moonlight Trio, Dan Levenson and The Hippie-billies, Root Cellar String Band, Celery City Sod Busters,  Tina Bergmann  and Bryan Thomas, Jim Hall and Cindy Morgan,  Fiddle Faddle, and more. Dance callers and teachers include Marlin Whitaker, Barry Dupen, Judy Waldron, and Marilyn Branch.

Located 1/2 hour southwest of Toledo, the festival site is an arts, history, and nature center and is home of the endangered cricket frog. The festival site is rustic with appropriate ADA accommodations. Primitive (no showers) camping ($5.00 per night per person, July 8-10) and food vendors are available. The town of Grand Rapids is one mile north with antique stores, restaurants, parks and a pleasant canal walk along the Maumee River. Providence Metropark is on the opposite banks and offers canal rides and living history. Sauder's Village in nearby Archibold holds a fiddle contest that Saturday. Hotels and full hook-up camping are nearby. Bowling Green has a Hampton Inn (419-353-3464), a Holiday Inn Express (419-353-5500), a Best Western (419-352-4671), Days Inn (419-352-5211), and a Quality Inn (419-352-2521.) There's a state park with some camping in Grand Rapids, Mary Jane Thurstin State Park (419-832-7662.) There are also two bed and breakfast accommodations listed in Grand Rapids (Mill House 419-832-6455) and Sisters of Thurston House (419-832-0915.)

Tickets are available at the gate:
Weekend--$25;
Friday evening dance/jam--$5.00;
Saturday day and evening--$15;
Saturday/Sunday day or evening only--$10.
Children (13-17) and seniors-- 1/2 price; 12 and under--free.
Gate opens Friday at 3:00. Camping available-Fri.-Sunday.

Hours
Fri. concert: 7-9; dance -9:00-11:00;
Sat: jams/workshops10a.m.-5 p.m.; concert: 6-10; dance: 10-12;
Sun: jam/sing-along:10:00 am - 1:00 pm; concert: 1-4.

www.sealionestates.com/oldtimemusic or http://www.GoDancing.org/blackswamp.html
Lucy Long (419) 372-7862; LucyL@bgnet.bgsu.edu   
Brenda Holdridge  (419)923-8641; Indridge@fulton-net.com

Sponsor
Arts Council Lake Erie West: Martin Nagy (419) 531-2046 (www.artscouncillew.org)

DIRECTIONS
[I-75 south from Toledo to Bowling Green; Rt.6 west to Wapakaneta Rd., right turn towards Grand Rapids; festival site on right.]

**  Old-time music is the hand-made and homemade music of the southern Appalachians and rural pioneer America. Growing out of Anglo-Scots-Irish traditions with some African-American elements thrown in, it was commercialized in the 1920s and 30s as hillbilly music. String bands usually include a fiddle, banjo, guitar, and string bass, but mandolins, dulcimers, and other instruments are also used. Old-time vocals include gospel, ballads, and lyric songs.