Department of Parks
The Hills Will Be Alive with Music At Carter Caves Sept. 9-12

OLIVE HILL, Ky. – Carter Caves State Resort Park invites you to join a weekend gathering of traditional musicians and lovers of old-time music to help preserve the rich musical heritage of the eastern Kentucky hills.

The Fraley Mountain Music Gatherin’ will be held Wednesday through Saturday, Sept. 9-12, 2009. The festival honors master fiddler J.P. Fraley, who will be performing with professional and beginning musicians on stage, jamming in parking lots and sharing music around the campfires of Carter Caves. Traditional musical instruments such as the dulcimer, fiddle and guitar are used to tell stories about life long ago along the foothills of Eastern Kentucky.

On Wednesday evening there will be a free Jamming in the round get together in the campground starting at 8 p.m.  On Thursday starting at 7 p.m., enjoy an open stage concert in the park’s amphitheater.

On Friday afternoon at 1 p.m., the amphitheater will come to life with an open stage, a banjo gatherin’ and a dulcimer gatherin’.  Friday’s activities will be capped with an evening concert in the amphitheater at 7 p.m.

Starting Saturday morning, the amphitheater will resound with sessions devoted to ballads, storytelling, and Carter Family songs, and conclude with a fiddle gatherin’ and guitar gatherin’.  Saturday night’s concert in the amphitheater begins at 7 p.m. 

Paid admission is required for concert and jam sessions Friday afternoon through Saturday night. Fees range from $4 to $10. A festival pass for all programs costs just $25 per person.

For more information, including a list of invited musicians, contact Coy Ainsley at 606-286-4411 x2543 or email festival organizer Barb Kuhns at  bkuhnsfiddle@yahoo.com. Visit the festival web site at www.reedisland.com/RIR/fraleyfest.htm.

Carter Caves State Resort Park features a lodge, vacation cottages, RV campsites and primitive campsites. The lodge restaurant offers a variety of food for breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. There’s also hiking, golf, mini-golf, fishing, horseback riding and swimming. The park is located in northeastern Kentucky, 4 miles off of I-64 between Grayson and Olive Hill (exit 161).

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The Kentucky State Park System is composed of 52 state parks plus an interstate park shared with Virginia. The Department of Parks, an agency of the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet, operates 17 resort parks with lodges -- more than any other state. For more information on Kentucky parks, visit our Web site at http://www.parks.ky.gov