Big Horn Mountain Festival - Contests & Band Scramble

	*5th Annual* BIG HORN MOUNTAIN FESTIVAL Acoustic, Americana, Folk, Old-Timey, Bluegrass & Traditional Music July 10, 11 & 12, 2009
	Johnson County Fairgrounds Buffalo, Wyoming
	e-mail: info@bighornmountainfestival.com

Contests & Band Scramble

2009 BHMF Intrument Contest Rules & Information

We’re excited to host the annual Wyoming Mandolin and Banjo Championships, an Old Time Fiddle Contest, and a contest for guitar pickers too. Big Horn Mountain Festival mandolin, banjo, and Old Tim Fiddle champs all earn guaranteed slots at the 2009 Walnut Valley Festival contests in Winfield, Kansas with entry fees paid by the Big Horn Mountain Festival. While the mandolin and banjo winners go to Winfield as Wyoming State Champions, we want to be clear that is not the case for the fiddle contest winner. The Wyoming Old Time Fiddle Association determines the Wyoming State Fiddle Champion at the State Fiddle Contest in Thermopolis (Wyoming’s guitar champion is determined at the Oyster Ridge Music Festival in Kemmerer). Past contest prizes have included cash, custom instrument cases donated by the Colorado Case Company for the mandolin and banjo winners, trophies, Intelitouch Tuners, and passes to next year's Big Horn Mountain Festival. We’ll work to keep enticing y’all with cool prizes this year too.

Contest Schedule - Saturday Morning

Main Stage (#1)		Cook Shack Building
9:00 - 10:00 am GUITAR CONTEST		9:00 - 12:00 pm FIDDLE CONTEST
10:00 - 11:00 am BANJO CONTEST State Championship
11:00 am - Noon MANDOLIN CONTEST State Championship

Contests aren't for everyone, but for those who think they've got the chops or who just want some stage time in front of people, they can be a lot of fun. It’s also a really good way to meet new picking friends and learn new tunes, and the fans can hear some really good stuff. So grab the metronome, get practiced up, and give it a shot!

General Guidelines
(Subject to change)

The entry fee is $10.00 per instrument and you can enter as many instruments as you want. Contestants must have a valid festival ticket for the day of the contest. First ($75), second ($50), and third ($25) place cash awards will be presented for each category.

Contests will be held for mandolin, banjo, guitar and fiddle. All contests will be held on Saturday on the Main Stage (#1) except the fiddle contest that will be held in the Cook Shack Building. Please remember this is for acoustic instruments only.

Start and end times are; Guitar - 9:00 am to10:00 am, Banjo - 10:00 am to 11:00 am, Mandolin - 11:00 am to noon, and Fiddle - 9:00 am to noon. Because of time limitations we can only guarantee the first 10 guitar, banjo, and mandolin contestants to register will play. There are no limits to the number of fiddle contestants.

The contestant order will be randomly assigned prior to performance.

All contests will consist of a single round with two songs of choice played by each contestant, except for the fiddle contest where 3 songs will be played including a hoedown, waltz, and tune of choice.

Contestants may have one rhythm instrument for accompaniment and medleys are not acceptable.

Maximum playing time of five (5) minutes for all contests except Fiddle.

Three judges in the audience will score individual players and their decisions are final. Contestants will be judged on Arrangement, Execution and Timing, Show Value, and Overall Impression (100 points).

Performance time is scheduled for 6:00 pm on the main stage for 1st place contest winners.

The registration form below can be printed and sent to us for pre-registration. Otherwise, contestants can register at the Big Horn Mountain Festival merchandise booth. Registration closes when the contests start.

Tony Wendtland is this year’s contest coordinator and final arbitrator of any (unlikely) controversies.

How To Sign Up

Please download and print this form to pre-register or you can sign up at the Big Horn Mountain Festival merchandise booth when you arrive at the fairgrounds.

2009 Band Scramble Rules & Information

Band scrambles are a lot of fun for everyone involved. It’s a great way for amateur and professional musicians alike to have fun playing with new folks, learn new tunes, and entertain the fans. It’s also a ton of fun for fans that get to hear great music while gaining a greater appreciation of just how really good these pickers are. Ok, so it’s also a chance to win the really big bucks and help finance that (a) just-gotta-have-it shiny new instrument, (b) debt payment accrued from being a musician in the first place, (c) six pack for after the show, or (d) whatever.

We want to make it fun and keep it simple so there are only a few rules that should cover pretty much everything, but if not, Bill Bradshaw is herby designated the arbiter of all controversy (he’s of loose moral character).

Here's how it'll work.

The entry fee is $5.00 per instrument and you can enter as many times as you want. An electric bass is ok, but otherwise only acoustic instruments can be used (the usual suspects like guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, harmonica, dobro, spoons, washboard, zither, bones, kazoo, etc.). All entry fees will be returned as prize money and if we have any left over after putting this monster on, we’ll try to sweeten the pot a little bit more. In any case, winner takes all and contestants must have a festival ticket for the day of the contest. We’ll post the winners on our web site so they will be famous.

The contest will be held on Stage #2 in the Community Building. It starts at 4:00 pm on Saturday, July 12th and has to end by 5:00 pm.

Names of contestants will be drawn from John’s big old-timey hat in time to give the newly created bands at least two hours to practice and come up with really cool names (usually the hardest part). That means we’ll close registration at 1:30 pm on Saturday and draw the names at 2:00 pm. Let’s gather at the merchandise booth to have the drawing. It’s right in front and to the right of the main stage (facing away from the stage).

Mr. Bradshaw more or less randomly determines who plays when.

Sound equipment will be provided but it may be a single mike that people will have to play around; just like the old time folks did it.

Each band will perform two or three tunes depending on how many bands there are. Bluegrass, old-timey, folk, or other related genres are acceptable (please, let’s not argue about this, you know what we mean). Medleys are fine and will count as a single selection, but please be mindful of our time limits and other performers, and don’t drag them out forever. Please include at lease one vocal selection regardless if you play two or three songs. Everyone wants to know who you are, so try to work in an introduction of everybody too.

The audience is the judge and the best audience response (applause, hoots, joyful screaming, fainting, etc.), determines the outcome. Stage presence and overall impressions are critical and the best sounding or fastest band may not necessarily win. What the heck, we all know there’s no accounting for taste anyway.

How To Sign Up

If you want to sign up early, please download and print this form or you can be creative in how you get the information in the form to us. We don’t care how it’s done as long as we have all the information requested in the form. You can e-mail the information or snail-mail it to Bill Bradshaw at 706 Adair, Sheridan, WY, 82801. If you preregister, go ahead and make out a $5 check to Big Horn Mountain Festival and send it to Bill. You can also pick up a form at the Festival Merchandise Booth when you get to Buffalo in July.