The Union County Fairgrounds was transformed into an outdoor concert hall Friday and Saturday. One featuring a blend of music designed to appeal to a wide variety of tastes.

The fairgrounds was the site of the inaugural Americana Music Festival. Some of the best known local and Northwest musicians performed there Friday and Saturday, playing jazz, bluegrass, country and more.

Performers included Paul deLay of Portland, the Portland Sacred Harp Singers and Northeast Oregon musicians and groups such as Jimmy Lloyd Rea of Baker City, the Eastern Oregon University fiddle ensemble and Too Loud MacLeod and the Silencers.

A blend of music was played throughout. A sequence of bluegrass, jazz and country would be played rather than multi-hour blocks of one type of music.

"Our goal was to introduce people to a variety of different kinds of American music,” said Union County Commissioner Colleen MacLeod.

MacLeod and Grady Goodall were the festival’s co-directors.

MacLeod was impressed with the interest people displaye1d for all of the types of music performed.

"There was tremendous energy and enthusiasm,” MacLeod said. "Everybody had a great time.”

Musicians preformed from 2 to 10 p.m. Friday and from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday. There were no breaks.

Musicians played on two stages. When one group finished, the performers on the other stage would open. This meant that there was no down time while a group was setting up.

"It was music non-stop,” MacLeod said.

The festival also had workshops for instruments such as banjo and harmonica.

The weather was excellent throughout, but there was a scare Friday afternoon. A hail storm was reported around Meacham, and it was feared that it might move to La Grande. This would have posed serious problems for the music festival since there was no cover for spectators, MacLeod said.

The Americana Music Festival was part of a busy weekend in Union County. The other events included Elgin Riverfest on Saturday and the Saturday Market in La Grande. The Americana Music Festival was conducted to complement, not compete with, the other events. MacLeod noted that throughout the music festival people were encouraged to attend the other events.

"We wanted to bring a broader spectrum of people to the events,” MacLeod said.

People attending the Americana Music Festival were issued bracelets which allowed them to easily come and go throughout both days.

MacLeod said that the festival went particularly well considering that planning for it did not begin until early this year. She said that planning for next year’s Americana Music Festival will start in about a month.

– Dick Mason