The West Virginia Division of Culture and History hosted the 34th annual Vandalia Gathering in Charleston, W.Va., May 28 in the Norman L. Fagan West Virginia State Theater of the Culture Center .
The festival, established to celebrate the cultural roots of West Virginia, welcomed an environment of free expression and invited everyone to share their rich heritage through music, dance, crafts, storytelling and cooking.
Pete Kosky, 2009 State Champion lyre player, musician and storyteller, has participated in the festival since its opening in 1977 and said it feels like home to him.
"No one in my family played music, and it (the group of musicians at the Vandalia Gathering) became the nucleus of my musical family," Kosky said.
The ceremony featured an awards ceremony for quilts and wall hangings and the presentation of the Vandalia Award followed by a concert.
The musicians in Friday night's concert included Kosky, Fox Hunt, Jerrica Hilbert, Mountain Echos, Matt Lindsay, Mike Morningstar, Robin and Dan Kessinger and the Black Mountain Bluegrass Boys.
For acts returning to the Vandalia Gathering, the festival is more than just a performance, it's a chance to reunite with familiar faces and do their part in showing their state pride.
Kosky said he believes the Vandalia Gathering is essential to the preservation of West Virginia culture and allows an opportunity for the state to represent its diversity.
"It's different from other festivals because even though it is on the Capital grounds,
it is musician-friendly, and the state doesn't interfere over what kind of music is performed – anybody can join in," Kosky said.
"It's important because it preserves music. There hasn't been a year where I didn't learn new tunes and songs," he said.
The Gathering maintains a welcoming atmosphere for professional musicians and those who return for the well-known, impromptu jam sessions.
Residents of all ages from all parts of West Virginia brought their instruments and banded together on the Capital grounds, creating a unique blend of guitars, mandolins, fiddles and more.
Tommy Harvey and Larry Wilson, both residents of Summersville, W.Va., said they continue to return to the event to "pick with all the people."
Wilson, a traditional mandolin player who has been enjoying the Vandalia Gathering for a decade, said he believes the state needs the festival to maintain its unique cultural heritage.
Special contests and hands-on activities such as candle making, woodworking and blacksmithing were available, as well as a demonstration by
Three Rivers Avian Center, an animal shelter for endangered, wild animals.
The West Virginia Storytellers Guild was also on hand to entertain festivalgoers of all ages.
The Vandalia Gathering continued Saturday and Sunday with adult and youth contests such as flat pick guitar, fiddle, bluegrass banjo, mandolin, lap dulcimer and Liars.
Dancing, including square dancing, flatfoot and clogging, as well as cooking contests and craft fairs were also available.
For more information about this year's Vandalia Gathering, previous years and the history of the festival, visit www.wvculture.org/vandalia.
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