Fort New Salem hosts 33rd annual Dulcimer Festival

SALEM, W.Va. (WBOY) — For over thirty years, Fort New Salem has hosted the annual Dulcimer Festival to give music lovers an opportunity to gather, learn and celebrate, and this year was no different.

The summer of 2024 marks the 33 ^rd year of the festival where various music workshops are hosted throughout the weekend along with nightly concerts. Most of the workshops focus on the mountain and hammer dulcimer , with additional workshops on other folk instruments.

Music Director of the Dulcimer Festival Linda Sigismondi explained the history of the instrument and how it evolved as it traveled.

“The mountain dulcimer is related to a German instrument called a scheitholt and a French instrument called epinette, but those were basically a box with some strings on it. And when it came over the soundbox was added to it to give it more volume,” Sigismondi said. “There weren’t that many instruments here at the time. It’s one that people could make with the materials that they had here.”

Vendors were also available during the festival weekend selling instruments and supplies. Fort New Salem also had demonstrations on tinsmithing, blacksmithing and fiddle making to name a few as part of the festival.

You can learn more about the fort on its website .

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