Culture
16th Washboard Music Festival Kicks Off Tonight
By: Emily Votaw
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Tonight the rhythmic see-sawing and tapping song of the washboard will wash out over the streets of Logan, marking the kick off of the 16th Washboard Music Festival, which will run from tonight until 11 p.m. Saturday.
The event brings together washboard enthusiasts for a weekend of food, fun and family-friendly entertainment.
“Really, there are three things that people still use washboards for,” said Susan Heebink, the festival’s treasurer. “People use them for décor in their homes; people use them to play music and, in some places that don’t have running water, people still use them to wash their clothing.”
Heebink noted that Logan is the home of the festival because it is also home to the Columbus Washboard Company, the last remaining washboard manufacturer in the United States.
The 2016 edition of the event is especially exciting because it coincides with Logan’s bicentennial, something that the city will celebrate all year long. On Saturday a bicentennial parade, starring the city’s bicentennial queen, will make its way through the festivities.
Thanks to fundraising efforts on the part of several Logan-area organizations, the children’s rides will be entirely free for the event-going public.
“We live in an area where not every family can afford to go to a festival,” said Heebink, who noted that attendance to the festival is always free of charge. “We try to make it so that every family can afford to attend, and making the rides free means that the only way that a family has to spend money is if they want to get food or buy something from the vendors.”
Although the free kid’s rides, the craft vendors and the delicious fair foods are all perfectly adequate reasons to make your way to Logan this weekend, the focus of the event is, of course: washboard music.
This year the event is featuring a whole host of bands that utilize the washboard for it’s percussive properties.
Some acts that will entertain the gathered masses in Logan this weekend include hard-driving zydeco act Mo’ Mojo, Canada-based Washboard Hank, Zanesville area Appalachian music makers The Wayfarers, Lincolnton, GA-based Little Roy and Lizzie and many more.
Some of the other exciting things to check out this Father’s Day weekend in Logan include a quilt show hosted by the Hocking Valley Quilt Guild on display at the Bowen House Friday and Saturday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., as well as an antique tractor show on Saturday and a car show Friday night.
For more information on the festival and a full schedule for this weekend’s event’s visit their website.
