Trending
BELLEVILLE -- When Ryan Frankhouser walks onto the Mifflin County Youth Fairgrounds in Reedsville, he remembers what the place looked like when bluegrass filled it.
Campers crowded onto the grounds, and families came back year after year. People settled into lawn chairs while the music carried across the park.
Frankhouser was 22 when he started the Remington Ryde Bluegrass Festival there nearly two decades ago. He didn't know what to expect.
Maybe 30 or 40 campers came the first year.
Then the festival kept growing.
Frankhouser kept promoting it. The crowds grew until the festival in Reedsville became too big for its home.
In 2013, the event moved to the Grange Fairgrounds in Centre Hall, where the Remington Ryde Bluegrass Festival continues each June.
Frankhouser never forgot Reedsville.
This September, the music is coming back.
The first Remington Ryde Reunion Bluegrass Festival will run Sept. 10-13 at the Mifflin County Youth Fairgrounds, where Frankhouser first took a chance on it.
"It was truly an amazing experience at Reedsville," Frankhouser said. "The crowd and the community. It was a great family event for everybody."
Centre Hall gave the festival the room it needed. The setting didn't feel quite the same to Frankhouser.
"It just didn't seem as homey as it is in Reedsville," he said.
People in the community had been asking about a return. His son, who will soon turn 12, wanted to help, and his daughter wanted to be involved.
That was enough for Frankhouser to try again.
"Why not?" he said. "Why don't we try to see if it goes again?"
The reunion will be smaller than the festival that outgrew Reedsville, but Frankhouser expects plenty of music. He said 10 bands are scheduled during the weekend.
Gates open Thursday at 8 a.m., with opening ceremonies at 2:45 p.m. and performances beginning at 3.
Friday's music begins at 2 p.m. Traditional Grass will perform, followed during the afternoon and evening by Larry Efaw & the Bluegrass Mountaineers. Remington Ryde will play twice Friday.
Saturday begins with an open jam at noon. The Kids Academy follows at 1 p.m. before another full day of performances that concludes with Nothin' Fancy at 8 p.m.
Frankhouser singled out Nothin' Fancy, the Virginia bluegrass group scheduled to perform twice Saturday, as one of the weekend's featured attractions.
Nothin' Fancy has built a national reputation during more than three decades of performing. The group won the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America's Entertaining Group of the Year award seven times and was inducted into the Virginia Country Music Hall of Fame in 2015.
Saturday's Kids Academy will give young musicians a place on the program. Children are encouraged to bring their instruments.
"Any kids that show up, I'm going to feature them," he said.
Food and craft vendors will be on the grounds. Camping is available, and a large tent near the stage will provide shelter if it rains. Spectators should bring their own chairs.
About 40 to 50 RVs had already signed up. Because camping space is limited, Frankhouser is focusing his promotion on people who drive in for the day.
Tickets will be available at the gate. Admission is $15 on Thursday and $20 Friday. Saturday admission is $25. Children 12 and younger get in free.
Frankhouser said keeping admission affordable matters to him, even with the expense of hiring performers and providing professional sound.
"At $15, $20, where can you go all day and see entertainment and everything else?" he said. "That was my goal, to keep it as reasonable as I can."
Frankhouser knows the future of the Reedsville festival will depend on the people who walk through the gate.
"The community is going to have to come out and support it," he said.
Frankhouser hopes some of them will be people who don't consider themselves bluegrass fans.
He believes people sometimes dismiss the music because their only exposure has been to an older bluegrass sound they didn't enjoy. Hearing it performed live, he said, can be a different experience.
"I don't believe you're going to get more entertaining music than coming out and watching a bluegrass concert," he said.
Frankhouser knows something about getting hooked on it.
He started Remington Ryde with his cousin as a family venture. His interest kept growing until he threw himself into promoting the music.
Frankhouser said bluegrass shares much with traditional country. The instruments are acoustic, with much of the appeal coming from the picking and vocal harmonies.
"If you're a traditional country music fan, you're a bluegrass fan too," he said. "If you didn't experience a bluegrass concert or event and you like traditional country, it's a must."
What began with a young musician and a small gathering in Reedsville eventually became an established festival large enough to need another home.
Now Frankhouser is bringing part of that history back.
Whether it stays will depend on Reedsville.
Frankhouser said the Centre Hall festival will continue. The Reedsville reunion could become an annual event if the community supports it and the finances work.
"As long as this goes well and the community supports it and the bills can be paid and it looks positive, I'll do it again," he said.
Frankhouser has been back at the fairgrounds promoting the reunion. Each visit brings back memories of the years when the festival was booming there.
He remembers the families most.
They came year after year. For some, the festival became an event they wouldn't miss.
"That's the kind of stuff that you can't forget," Frankhouser said. "And that's also the kind of things that I'm trying to do again."
The reunion will finish Sunday morning with an open gospel jam at 9 and a church service at 9:45.
Gospel music has long been part of the bluegrass Frankhouser loves. He remembers a peaceful feeling around the grounds during those earlier Reedsville festivals, something he hopes families find there again in September.
Nearly two decades ago, a 22-year-old musician wondered whether people would come to Reedsville for his bluegrass festival. They came in such numbers that the festival eventually had to leave.
Now Ryan Frankhouser is bringing the music home and asking Reedsville one more time to fill the grounds.