DelFest 2024 | Togetherness, friendship common theme

May 24—CUMBERLAND — DelFest attendees often say the festival is one of the friendliest music events they've been to.

"It's really nice," said Cody Taylor of Mansfield, Ohio, who was attending with his wife Christina for the first time. "Everybody we have met so far has been incredibly friendly. It seems that everyone who is out here really wants to be here."

DelFest started Thursday and continues through Sunday at the Allegany County Fairgrounds.

The Taylors are celebrating their one-year wedding anniversary at DelFest.

"It's a lot friendlier than any of the other festivals I've been to," said Christina Taylor. "People actually engage in conversation rather than ignore each other."

Togetherness and friendship are often a theme at the annual festival. Joe Craven, the multi-instrumentalist and writer, is the emcee of DelFest. Craven promotes the theme over the microphone with lines like, "Think about unity this weekend; think about brotherhood; think about how great it is to live in this country."

The friendly atmosphere extends to the many musicians, from the casual and novice to the professional. Pickup jam sessions can be found at camping spots all across the fairgrounds.

Sometimes people that play for fun will wind up jamming with a touring professional. This is often seen during the DelFest Academy, which took place earlier this week.

During the academy's DelFest Karaoke, a band of professionals will back up any casual singers that want to sing. That was what happened to Jeff Arriza of Kenneth Square, Pennsylvania.

Arriza signed up to sing the song "Nellie Kane" by Hot Rize. "I really liked that song and wanted to give it a go," he said.

Arriza found himself being backed by East Nash Grass, an up and coming bluegrass act from Nashville that was playing at DelFest for the first time.

Although Arriza didn't have anyone to sing with him, he was surprised when he received a backing vocal from Maddie Denton, a performer who was been nominated for the 2024 Americana Music Association Instrumentalist of the Year award.

"I didn't expect that," said Arriza. "She jumped in there and made it sound great."

"He looked around for somebody to help and nobody else did," said Denton. "So I just thought, OK why not?"

With Denton's harmony part added, the song received an enthusiastic applause.

Denton moved to Nashville from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where she was a high school biology teacher.

"I took up fiddle at five," she said. "My mom played and my dad played ... not professionally but it was for fun.

"We started playing at this place called Dee's Lounge seven years ago on Monday nights. Bluegrass is a small community. Rob and Ronnie McCoury had come and watched us a couple times at Dee's.

"So in the last year or so we started touring more. Now we are at this beautiful (fairgrounds) playing DelFest for the first time and meeting a lot of people. It's pretty cool."

The Americana Music Association award winners will be announced during a ceremony at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in mid-September.

Greg Larry is a reporter at the Cumberland Times-News. To reach him, call 304-639-4951, email glarry@times-news.com and follow him on Twitter @GregLarryCTN.