Washboard Music Festival

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Logan, Ohio, is home to the nation’s only remaining washboard manufacturer—and to Hocking Hills State Park. You know what they say about power coming with responsibility? Well, the folks in Logan are not ones to ignore the charge, and to meet it, they have created the annual Washboard Music Festival: Three days of live music and other entertainment that celebrate the washboard-as-instrument and, more largely, Appalachian heritage. 
    
Music mattered in mid-1800s Appalachian family life, but instruments were not always readily available. So they adapted the washboard that every house already had for its intended purpose, added an empty jug, a stick, and a string for a makeshift instrument that made some unique music. The sound stuck, and even traveled south, being worn on a vest throughout the Bayou.

Next weekend, there will be music from 14 live bands—washboard and jug band tunes, plus polka, folk, and some classic rock—and food, craft vendors, children’s entertainment, and a few rides.

Go Saturday, June 14, and get warmed up for the music by imbibing at the wine and beer fest hosted by the Inn & Spa at Cedar Falls that afternoon (2–5 pm). Crash in comfort in one of their cabins, and stay for the Father’s Day barbecue on Sunday.

All said, sounds much better than an average laundry day.

June 12–14, 5–10 pm Thurs, noon–11 pm Fri–Sat, Logan, Ohio, washboardmusicfestival.com

Photographs courtesy Washboard Music Festival.

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