West Plains, MO. – Earlier this year, it was announced that the annual Ozark Heritage Festival will move from its usual date in June to later in the year. Officials have announced their plans to have a mini preview festival to test out the new dates chosen in September. They have scheduled it for September 7, 2024, on the West Plains Civic Center grounds. Attendees can expect music, storytelling, artisans’ demonstrations, and other activities to be represented at the festival.
The lineup of music will include the following:
- The Shortleaf Band will be playing at 1:00 p.m.. They have been a part of the Old-Time Music Festival since its inception. They will open the music program with music celebrating the “Scots Irish” settlers in the area. They have talents with vocals and the fiddle.
- Duane Porterfield will play at 2:30 p.m. He started his music career as a kid, playing acoustic instruments and honing skills alongside his brothers at festivals and fairs.
- The Ozark Hellbenders will start playing at 4:00 p.m. The band consists of Gordon Jonson on piano, Randy Aufdembrinke on guitar, and CD Scott on guitar and mandolin. They will be playing a range of music, including older rock and roll, country, bluegrass, Celtic, and gospel music.
- For the finale, Hogmolly will bring an end to the performances and start at 5:30 p.m. This band features Bo Brown on guitar, Mat Calton on mandolin, and Jeff Sowards on bass.
Along with the music performances, there will be storytelling from Dannette House and Marideth Sisco and dulcimer workshops with Fawn Cockrum and Duane Porterfield. Dennis Crider will have photographs set up and the Journey Stagecoach will be set up outside. There will be demonstrations of rope making, fire starting, knot tying, river cane fishing poles and building them, flintknapping, Pawpaw recipes for ice cream and cheesecake, Persimmon recipes for pudding and bread, Sassafras tea recipe, butter churning, ice cream making, apple butter making, rendering fat, corn sucking and shelling, yarn carding, weaving, and spinning exhibit of materials and equipment, spoon making and wood cutting boards with native and exotic woods, carving walking sticks, honey making, and lastly beekeeping.
The Ozark Heritage Festival is the signature event for West Plains. The festival seeks to celebrate, preserve, pass on, and nurture an appreciation of the old-time music and folk life traditions distinctive to the Ozark Highlands. Admission to all festival events is free. Festival partners are the West Plains Council on the Arts, the City of West Plains, and Missouri State University – West Plains. The festival receives funding from the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.
