NATCHITOCHES – The Louisiana State Fiddle Championship will take place as part of the 45th annual Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival to be held on the Northwestern State University campus on July 19. The Fiddle Championship will be held at 1 p.m. in the Magale Recital Hall, located at 143 Central Avenue on the NSU campus. Fiddlers may compete for cash prizes in the championship or non-championship, as well as in the twin fiddle category. Registration is at noon in the first-floor foyer outside Magale Recital Hall. The Fiddle Championship winner will perform on the main stage in Prather Coliseum at 5 p.m.
Contestants may pre-register to compete. Contestants that pre-register by July 10 are admitted free to the festival. To pre-register for the Louisiana State Fiddle Championship call the Louisiana Folklife Center at (318) 357-4332, email folklife@nsula.edu or go to https://www.nsula.edu/folklife/statefiddlechampionship/.
Contestants may also register from 12-1 p.m. on the day of the festival. Late registration will take place in the Magale Recital Hall. Americana folk music band Smithfield Fair will perform live music on the Magale stage during late registration.
In addition to cash prizes, young Championship entrants (18 years or younger) have the opportunity to be gifted a free handmade fiddle. The fiddle was donated by its maker, Hilton “Hil” Lytle, a master fiddle maker, who intended that it be given to a young player in order to encourage younger people to take up the craft.
“The Fiddle Championship is the heart of the festival,” said Dr. Shane Rasmussen, professor of English and director of the Louisiana Folklife Center at Northwestern State University. “When players of any age take up an instrument like the fiddle, they become part of a living heritage that keeps our shared traditional culture vital and alive. Hilton Lytle believed in the deep importance of folk culture, and it would be our honor to gift a young player with one of his fiddles. They are beautiful instruments which would be prized by any fiddler.”
Held in air-conditioned Prather Coliseum, the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival features three stages of live music, over 75 crafts people, Louisiana cuisine food vendors, dance lessons, music informances, narrative sessions, on-site demonstrations and more. Admission to this family friendly event is $10 for an all-day all event pass, with children 12 and under admitted free all day. For information go to https://www.nsula.edu/folklife/.
Support for the festival is provided by grants from the Cane River National Heritage Area, Inc., the City of Natchitoches, the Louisiana Division of the Arts Decentralized Arts Fund Program, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the Louisiana Office of Tourism, the Natchitoches Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Natchitoches Historic District Development Commission, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, the Shreveport Regional Arts Council, and the State of Louisiana. The festival is sponsored by Atmos Energy, C&H Precision Machining, City Bank, Cleco, Evans Family, LLC, Exchange Bank, the Family Doctors of Natchitoches, the Harrington Law Firm, Natchitoches Wood Preserving Company and Young Estate, LLC. The views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in the program will not necessarily represent those of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.
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Two-time Louisiana State Fiddle Champion Joe Suchanek of Fields. Photo by Peter Jones.
