Jun 9
Longtime Oklahoma festival becomes history
It’s one of those bad things that’s bound to happen– and something that will make bluegrassers grit their teeth.
High fuel prices have been cited as a factor in ending the 30-plus year run of the Sanders Family Bluegrass Festival in McAlester, Okla.
It was held each year in June, but the festival grounds will be quiet this year.
“I’ve lost a lot of sleep since we had to stop,” Freddie Sanders told the McAlester News-Capital in a story published in the newspaper’s June 7 edition. “We had it for 31 years and we met a lot of nice people.”
Still, he said the family made the decision together to end the festival.
Jo Sanders, who helped her husband put the festival together each year, told the newspaper a lot of factors played in the decision to end the festival’s three-decade run.
“Age, the economy and everything all came together,” Jo Sanders said. “Sooner or later it was going to come to this.”
The festival relied largely on a fan base that traveled from throughout the United States, and rising gas prices over the past year or so have cut into that itinerant crowd.
“The audience has been getting older and with the gas prices, it all came together,” said Eddie Sanders, Freddie’s and Jo’s son.
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