14th Year for Holly Bluegrass Festival

Fireweed Gets Ready to Play

“We’ve actually got motel rooms booked for the festival next year,” was how Marge Creech, one of the event’s organizers, described the popularity of the free festival Saturday, June 11^th.  The three day event features a mix of bluegrass and country-western performers which bring hundreds of residents and visitors to the Town of Holly to listen to a free concert in the town park, enjoy some neighborly company and the foods offered by the four high school classes as their fundraiser.

Ready for the Performances to Begin

Creech explained that the popularity of the festival keeps people coming back each year. “They travel to our town from parts of Colorado and the country.  We’ve had people in the past who were traveling through the town decide to stop for a day to enjoy the music,” she explained.  After 14 years of attending, some regulars have gotten good at setting up their lawn chairs in a vantage point that offers a shady spot from the park’s trees and close to the stage.  Holly high school students, from the class of 2020 on down to the current year’s graduates, have their food tables set up, offering home cooked lunches and baked goods, plus plenty of iced cold beverages.

A Shady Spot Near the Food

Friday is an open jam session that is accompanied by the Holly Commercial Club’s annual BBQ. Even after the groups have played, Creech says some people will head over to the nearby motel and just continue to do a few extra songs, reluctant to let the night come to an end.  Following the 7am Saturday breakfast in the park, the music acts prepare for the two shows each will perform for the gathering audience.  Fireweed led the day, followed by a mix of new and past favorites such as Freddy Darnell and Country Gold, Stanleytones, Parlor Pickers and Atomic Fireballs.  Gospel music is on the lineup for the final day on Sunday, as well as a Community Church in the park, sponsored by the Holly Ministerial Alliance and featuring “Plyllis & Frankie Valens’.

The Festival is an outgrowth of the 1965 flood that swept through the community in June of that year. Holly residents and merchants observed their resilience in several ways since then and the 100^th observance of Holly’s birth of a town was held in 2003.  A part of the celebration included a bluegrass festival that has continued to entertain the area to this day.

By Russ Baldwin