Frankfort Bluegrass Festival Wins Event Of The Year Award

FRANKFORT, IL — After three consecutive nominations, the annual Frankfort Bluegrass Festival on the Green has won the 2018 Event of the Year award from the International Bluegrass Music Association. The award — which recognizes festivals, concerts and other live performances for “outstanding accomplishment and service to bluegrass music” is an impressive honor for the village festival, which began in 2011.

“This is a big deal for our community,” festival committee member and merchandise manager Nikki Giblin said. “We feel so incredibly honored to have won this award and to have our town, Frankfort, recognized on an international level."

“We went to Raleigh, North Carolina [for the awards ceremony], and amazingly, the buzz in the international music community was about bluegrass flourishing in Illinois, specifically in Frankfort," founding festival committee member Steve Haberichter added.

In fact, that buzz even made its way onstage at September's awards show when the Frankfort Bluegrass Festival on the Green received a shout out from one musician.

RELATED: 5 Must-See Musical Acts At The Frankfort Bluegrass Festival

“[T]he special highlight for me was during the presentation and speeches when Chris Thile from Nickel Creek and Punch Brothers fame mentioned Frankfort Bluegrass on the Green in a speech. He knows our name,” festival committee member April Jackson said.

Run by volunteers, the event has a goal of preserving bluegrass music, as well as educating the public about the genre. Bluegrass acts from around the country have come to Frankfort to perform on the two stages at the festival, which has grown in the past eight years.

WATCH: Check out the musical performers at the 2018 Frankfort Bluegrass Festival on the Green.

And the award isn't just recognition for the festival. It also puts a spotlight on the Midwest and takes away the unfair stigma the region has when it comes to the musical form.

“It was not that long ago that many people in the bluegrass community did not consider bands and events up North ‘real’ bluegrass music because there were no southern roots,” said Greg Cahill, band leader for Special Consensus, an award-winning bluegrass act that has performed at the Frankfort festival since the start. Cahill also has served on the International Bluegrass Music Association's board of directors for 12 years, as well as serving as the chair from 2006 to 2010.

"Now this Midwestern festival bringing people to Frankfort has won the top award for bluegrass events around the world," he added.

But above all, the Event of the Year award is validation for all the hard work done by the festival's volunteers and supporters, Haberichter said.

“Seeing how far we've come is so gratifying, both for us but to bring families together, and to share our passion for the music in hopes bluegrass lives on forever," said committee member Brooke Groszek, who also runs the festival's kids activities and has been bluegrass fan since she was a child.

Frankfort Bluegrass Festival on the Green committee members — (from left) Steve Haberichter, Nikki Giblin, Amanda Thompson, BrookeGroszek, Jennifer Wonnell, Jon Hamilton and April Jackson — show off their Event of the Year award the International Bluegrass Music Association Awards. (Photo via Frankfort Bluegrass Festival on the Green)