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The annual event that started in 1983 had a beautiful day Sunday.
Lyons, PA —
Thousands of musicians and music appreciators from around the region and afar gathered Sunday for the 36th Lyons Fiddle Festival.
The beloved festival is known for its on-stage competition, old-time jam sessions and homemade food.
Pickers and strummers with guitars, banjos, mandolins and more joined fiddlers for the day of music under the trees.
The event began in 1983 as a way of using the community park at the edge of the festival’s namesake borough. About 300 came out that first year for the music and fellowship.
The festival exploded since then with more than 150,000 spectators listening to more than 800 contestants and an untold number of jammers in the ensuing years.
But it nearly ended in the summer of 2006, when founder Arlan Schwoyer and his wife, Donna, decided they could no longer produce the event. Though the festival was canceled, according to its website, its fans were determined to keep the music playing. They came to Lyons Park anyway, jamming as usual under the trees.
The music-loving group formed the nonprofit, volunteer-run Lyons Fiddle Festival and gave the bluegrass festival new life the next year.
Festival profits benefit community activities and help to maintain the park and its playground and pavilion.
Funded improvements include a veteran’s memorial, a stone bridge over the park’s stream, restroom facilities and a memorial to victims of a tornado that swept through the borough in 1998.
Contact Michelle N. Lynch: 610-371-5084 or mlynch@readingeagle.com.
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