Gebhard Woods Dulcimer Festival returns to Goold Park on Saturday and Sunday

The Hammers and Noters Dulcimer Society of Illinois (HANDS of Illinois) returns from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, June 14, and Sunday, June 15, at Goold Park for its 35th annual Gebhard Woods Dulcimer Festival, featuring live performances and workshops.

The festival is full of Dulcimer performers, and the workshops are aimed at all audiences, especially beginners and children.

Performers this year include Mike Anderson, Andina and Rich, Karen Ashbrook and Paul Oorts, Susana Baker, Matthew Dickerson, Carole Ehrman, Jonas Friddle, Bing Futch, Donna Herula, Diane Ippel, Katie Moritz, Debbie Porter, Bill Robinson & Friends, and Trillium.

Steve Karlovsky, Director of HANDS of Illinois, Baker is a young performer joining the festival for the first time, and Friddle is a banjo artist playing out of Chicago.

“We also have Karen Ashrbook, who was last here in 1995,” Karlovsky said. “She is a hammer-dulcimer player, a therapeutic musician. She plays the dulcimer in therapeutic setting and she’s here with her husband, Paul Oorts.”

Karlovsky said Oorts is from Belgium, and he’s a skilled harp guitar player. The harp guitar is a harp shaped like a guitar, but it’s fanned out above the six strings and keeps going for another six or seven strings behind that.

He also said there are three national dulcimer champions scheduled to play this year.

There also will be a fully staffed children’s area open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. each day, with crafts, music and other activities for children ages 3 and older. The children’s area is run by Anna Strange, a performer who has been teaching and working with children and families for more than 30 years. Strange is a farmer from northern Florida, and she leads monthly SongFarmer song circles in Madison, Florida, entertains hospitalized children in Chicago, and performs public concerts for children.

The suggested donation at the gate is $15, and Karlovsky said that also gets attendees access to the workshops.

“You can bring an instrument and take pare in the workshop as a learning experience, or you can just listen and observe people,” Karlovsky said. “Some teach tunes on different instruments, and some teach techniques, like how to do certain skills on a hammer dulcimer, mountain dulcimer, guitar or ukulele.”

Karlovsky said like the saying ‘it’s good to stop and smell the roses,’ that it’s also good to stop and hear the music: The Gebhard Woods Dulcimer Festival offers a chance to come out in a beautiful setting and see intimate performances with live performers, and just relax.

“It makes for a very, almost, I’d say, pure experience,” Karlovsky said. “It’s worth taking part of the day and doing just to center. That’s how I feel.”

The festival will go on regardless of the weather, so those attending should be prepared in case of rain.