Department of Parks
Enjoy Homegrown Bluegrass Music and Arts Festivals at Audubon May 15-16

HENDERSON, Ky. – The natural beauty of John James Audubon State Park will provide the backdrop for two festivals featuring rousing bluegrass music and stimulating visual arts that will be staged May 15-16, 2009.

The Homegrown Bluegrass Festival, presenting nearly a dozen music groups from the tri-state area, will kick off at 5 p.m. on Friday May 15 and continue from noon until 9 p.m. on Saturday. Among the groups who hail from Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois will be Bold Witness, Sassafrass, Keith and Gary Vincent, Highway 41, Suzuki Fiddlers, Fields of Home, River Bottom, Brush Fire, Kings Highway, and Phillip Steinmetz. 

The Creative Arts Festival will kick off at 9 a.m. on Saturday May 16 with visual art booths and crafters selling and demonstrating their work. Woodworking, glass blowing, stained glass, watercolors, soap-making, weaving, jewelry, acrylics and pottery are just a few of the booths at this year’s festival.

A special section just for kids called Creation Station will include face painting, art classes, balloon creations, a potter’s wheel, bertha bubbles, inflatables, a petting zoo, magicians and more.

There is a parking fee of $3 per car, but admission to the festivals is free. For more information about the arts and music festivals, contact Kim McGrew at 270-827-1893 or Mark Kellen at 270-826-2247.

Audubon State Park is located at 3100 U.S. Hwy. 41 in Henderson. The park boasts the world’s largest collection of John James Audubon’s art and also features exhibits about the painter’s life in Henderson, where he came with his family to operate a small mercantile business and devote himself to exploring the surrounding wilderness and sketching the wild birds he found there.

The park offers overnight accommodations in six cottages and a campground and hiking, fishing golf, tennis and other outdoor activities.

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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.