Culture
Miami Valley Brewgrass Festival Highlights Area’s Bluegrass Roots
By: Emily Votaw
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According to Max Nunery, the founder and main coordinator of the Miami Valley Brewgrass Festival, which is taking place Sept. 17; the area near the town of Dayton, including the Miami Valley, has a rich heritage of bluegrass music.
“A mass migration took place in the 1940s and some 40,000 to 50,000 people came to the Dayton area from Appalachia. They brought with them their culture, including bluegrass,” said Nunery. “I just really wanted to put on a festival that would be enjoyable to a lot of people and connected with the history of the area.
Perhaps one of the biggest names in bluegrass history to come from the Dayton area was Henry Allen, a.k.a. Red Allen. Although Allen was technically born in Pigeon Roost Hollow near Hazard, KY, he started performing professionally while living in Dayton. Clay Hess, the guitarist for Ricky Skaggs’ Kentucky Thunder group, is also from the general Dayton region, having been born right here in Athens.
“The bluegrass community in the Ohio region is just very rich,” said Nunery. “And is still a great network of folks here Cincinnati, the Miami Valley and Dayton.”
The 2016 edition of the event marks the second year of its existence, and Nunery expressed that he hopes that the weather cooperates a bit more with the outdoor setting of the festival than it did last year.
“Last year it rained a lot,” said Nunery, who expressed that since it was the first year of the festival, there were a couple of issues that needed to be ironed out before the festival came around again this year. “It started raining around 2 p.m., and the city had never put on a festival where alcohol was served, so we were still trying to figure that out.”
Nunery said that he is very excited for this year’s festival, especially with the impressive line up that he nailed down for the event. Some of the names on this year’s performance docket include 30-year plus bluegrass veterans Big Country Bluegrass, Hocking County-based The Hocking River String Band, the internationally touring Henhouse Prowlers, Evan Lanier and the Bluegrass Express, The Clay Hess Band and more.
Nunery’s own band, The Repeating Arms, will also be playing the day of the event.
“People in the bluegrass community here have been organizing events for a while, like benefits for friends who need a little help and that kind of thing,” said Nunery of organizing the event. “This is really just a matter of doing it on a larger scale.”
Nunery said that there will be food and beer available to purchase at the event. In the future, he hopes to be able to offer attendees some sort of camping option to allow them to stay around Miamisburg for just a little bit longer.
Pre-sale tickets are available online now at www.miamivalleybluegrass.com for $15, and will be available for $20 on the day of the event at the gate.