Festival of the Bluegrass

The Cornett Family of Georgetown, Kentucky, first ventured into the bluegrass music business in 1974 with The Festival of the Bluegrass, which was named by Raymond McLain, Sr. The first festival stage was a farm wagon with a tarp for shelter. The fans also used a tarp as shelter from the terrible thunderstorms the first day of the festival. The following years brought more rain, hot days and then a record cold night, plus lots of gorgeous Kentucky June weather.The first festival was held on Walnut Hall Farm, which is now the Kentucky Horse Park just on the north side of Lexington. We moved to Masterson Station Park, a Lexington city park, for what we thought would be two years. As it turned out, however, we didnt move back to the Horse Park until the seventeenth year, by which time the Horse Park was fully developed with an excellent campground. Now our campers have beautiful tile bathhouses, many different ball courts, blacktop roads, ample electricity and four dump stations. Our festival now has two stages as well as many special programs for children.The Cornett Family has grown enlarged in size with marriages, grandchildren and now great grandchildren. So have the families who attend the festival. The festival has grown and changed too, and will continue to grow and change. Our vision for the future is that our festival will include people of all ages. We want the young people to learn to love and play bluegrass music while the older people are still around to teach them. We want this wonderful soul music of the hills to be around forever for all people to enjoy.