Surry Old-Time Fiddlers Convention scrapped

DOBSON — An annual event that had the goal of helping to preserve the traditional music of this region has itself become history.

The Surry Old-Time Fiddlers Convention held in Dobson no longer will be a showcase for the lively style of fiddle and banjo sounds popularized by string bands in the southern U.S. before the 1940s.

“Unfortunately,” said local tourism official Travis Frye, “it will not be taking place in 2024” after coming on the scene in 2010.

“And there’s no set date for it to take place in future years — and that’s kind of where we’re at,” added Frye, who is tourism coordinator for both Surry County and the town of Dobson.

A lack of volunteers to help stage the convention and scheduling issues are cited as the main reasons for its discontinuation.

The event was unique in the sense that, unlike other fiddlers conventions also featuring bluegrass, it focused solely on the old-time variety of music.

While bluegrass evolved from old-time and the two have similarities, old-time music can be considered mainly as upbeat instrumental dance music whereas bluegrass is a vocal type where the instrumentalists freely improvise.

The playing styles of instruments such as the banjo also are different, with the clawhammer type favored with old-time.

Logistical problems

For most of its duration, the Surry Old-Time Fiddlers Convention was held on the campus of Surry Community College in the county seat.

It was a two-day event, kicking off with a popular Friday night concert and dance in the SCC gym featuring established old-time bands from the area.

A day-long slate of competition in individual instrument and band categories would occur on Saturday.

“Just not having enough volunteers” was the primary reason given by Frye for the old-time convention’s demise.

“It takes a lot of volunteers,” the tourism official explained, mentioning that local musician Buck Buckner along with his family and associates staged it for years.

However, the situation reached the point where “we just didn’t have enough help to keep everything going,” lamented Frye.

“It was just hard.”

Different dates hurt

Frye also pointed to scheduling and continuity inconsistencies as factors for the convention being shelved after 14 years.

It had both spring and fall dates, which Frye says was problematic because many convention-goers rely on events being held at the same times every year.

That is the case with the Galax, Virginia, and Mount Airy fiddlers conventions.

“It can lose momentum,” Frye said of the effects on an event from such varying scenarios.

The fact the Surry Old-Time Fiddlers Convention was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 after the advent of COVID-19 also didn’t help, he said.

It was resurrected in October 2022, accompanied by a venue change from the college to the Surry County Service Center on East Atkins Street across town.

And in June 2023, the convention returned to the college for what would be its last hurrah.

“The crowds were actually pretty good,” the tourism official said of last year’s fiddlers convention.

“We did see a slight decline in musicians and bands,” he related. “We still had a lot of young people competing.”

The convention typically attracted more than 100 old-time bands and individual musicians from various areas of the Southeast including youngsters plying the craft.

Although the Surry Old-Time Fiddlers Convention seems to have delivered its last note, Frye did not totally rule out its return at some time in the future.

“It could be picked back up again.”