2nd Annual Hagood Mill Kids Fest Saturday March 21 at the Hagood Mill Historic Site & Folk life Center

Come join the friends of the Pickens County Museum as “Music in the Mountains 2009”continues with the Hagood Mill playing host for a free day of fun for kids of all ages. Hosted by Gregg “Buffalo” Barfield, the Second Annual “Hagood Mill Kids Fest,” will offer a variety of entertainment by and for children. Highlights of the festival will be featured musical performances by the Holly Springs Elementary School’s “Young Appalachian Musicians (Y.A.M.S.), as well as a special performance by Buffalo Barfield and the costume character P. Doodle Possum & his Possum Holler Playhouse.

The P. Doodle Possum children’s show is one of several shows presented by the husband and wife duo of Gregg and Michele Barfield at “Unheard-of-Entertainment.” Together they have performed live shows and presented workshops throughout the East Coast for more than twenty years.

The Hagood Mill Kids Fest is designed to be an entertaining, educational and fun way to introduce children to the traditional music, folk instruments, and dance of the Appalachian Region, and to promote an appreciation for the visual and performing arts, all while helping to preserve our unique mountain culture.

One of the many highlights of the day will be the performances by students from the Young Appalachian Musician (Y.A.M.) programs at Holly Springs Elementary and Pickens Middle School. This pioneering program teaches kids in public school to play traditional instruments such as fiddle, banjo, mandolin and guitar by ear. Through this effort, Y.A.M. students have the opportunity to not only learn to play an instrument, but to play a keen role in preserving our musical heritage today and in the future.

As the day progresses, children of all ages will be invited to take part in the 2nd annual “folk rhythms washboard & kazoo workshop” with Buffalo Barfield and the Long Mountain Ramblers. Participants will be able to join the band and learn to play the washboard and kazoo to some old-time and traditional songs.

The day’s festivities will be rounded out with some old-time dance, flat-footing and clogging. Once again children will be invited to “shake a leg!” and enter the “Sugar in the Gourd, Dancin’ on a Board” dance contest!

Kids Fest entertainment will run from Noon to 3:00. The site itself will be open from 10:00 until4:00 with the old gristmill running and a variety of folk life and traditional arts demonstrations that may include blacksmithing, bowl-digging, flint knapping, chair-caning, moonshining, broom-making, quilting, spinning, knitting, weaving, woodcarving, open-hearth cooking, musical instrument building and more. Hagood Mill’s 1890 Cotton Gin will run several times throughout the day.

Hagood Mill operates just as it has for the last century-and-a-half. In the old mill, fresh stone-ground

Corn meal, grits and wheat flour will be available, as well as Hagood Mill cook books and a variety of other mill related items.

There promises to be lots to do and lots of fun! So, head on out, grab a plate of Kannarney’s Barbeque or a hot dog and enjoy a day at the Mill. Show your support for the Mill and the Pickens County Museum by joining them at this monthly third Saturday event. The Hagood Mill operates, rain or shine, the third Saturday of every month and is located just 3 miles north of Pickens or 5 ½ miles south of Cherokee Foothills Scenic Hwy 11 off SC Hwy 178 at 138Hagood Mill Road. Hagood Mill is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10:00 until 4:00, to tour the buildings and grounds and to visit the Mill Site Gift Shop.

“Music in the Mountains 2009” is sponsored by a private benefactor. The Pickens County Museum of Art & History is funded in part by Pickens County, members and friends of the museum and a grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Buffalo Barfield & P. Doodle Possum appear courtesy of the Gravely Law Firm, P.A. of Pickens and the Music Maker of Easley.

For additional information please contact the Hagood Mill at (864) 898-2936 or the Pickens County Museum at (864) 898-5963.