Hagood Mill's Super KidsFest is Saturday

 Come join the friends of the Pickens County Museum as "Music in the Mountains 2013" continues with the Hagood Mill's Sixth Annual KidsFest, this year becoming a "SUPER KIDSFEST" concert  and music competition, on Saturday, March 16. Starting at 11:00 and continuing until 6:00 on the outdoor stage, the event's emcees and hosts, Gregg "Buffalo" Barfield and Steve McGaha - the "Wizards of Odd" -  will present a great variety of performances of students in the Young Appalachian Musicians (YAM) program of the Pickens County schools.

Youngsters are also invited  to participate at 11:30 in a "Found Instrument Workshop," learning to build and play homemade instruments and to perform with them in "Buffalo's Jug Band Jam" (performance at 1:10 p.m.).

At 2:00 p.m. there will be a Youth Music Competition conducted by the YAM sponsoring board, "Preserving Our Southern Appalachian Music" (POSAM). Categories include fiddle, guitar, banjo, mandolin, vocal, stringband and open (for other instruments). There will be two divisions - one for middle and high school - the other for younger kids. Registration is at the site. The Sweet Potato Pie Kids (featuring YAM students) will perform while the judges decisions are being made.

Buffalo Barfield appears courtesy of the following Pickens businesses: Cornerstone Christian & Music Supply; Solid Gold; and the Gravely Law Firm, P.A.

The old gristmill and other demonstrations will be running from 10:00 until 4:00. The water-powered 1845 gristmill is one of the finest examples of nineteenth century technology in the Upstate and operates just as it has for the last century-and-a-half, the mill will be running throughout the day. In the old mill, fresh stone-ground corn meal, grits and wheat flour will be available, as well as Hagood Mill cookbooks and a variety of other mill related items.

A special feature of the day will be the Foothills American Indian Horse Club, with Colonial Spanish horses that kids can paint "Indian style" with hand prints (or music notes).

The Hagood Mill hosts a variety of folklife and traditional arts demonstrations each month, including blacksmithing, bowl-digging, flintknapping, chair-caning, moonshining, broom-making, basket-making, pottery, quilting, spinning, knitting, weaving, woodcarving, open-hearth cooking, metal-smithing, leather-working, bee keeping and more!

 There promises to be lots to do and lots of fun! So, head on out, enjoy some good old southern cooking prepared by our newest vendors from Gatehouse Restaurant and enjoy a day at the Mill. Show your support for the Mill and the Pickens County Museum by joining them at this monthly Third Saturday event.

The Hagood Mill operates, rain or shine, the third Saturday of every month and is located just 3 miles north of Pickens or 5 ½ miles south of Cherokee Foothills Scenic Hwy 11 off SC Hwy 178 at 138 Hagood Mill Road. Hagood Mill is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10:00 until 4:00, to tour the buildings and grounds and to visit the Mill Site Gift Shop.

"Music in the Mountains 2013" is sponsored by a private benefactor. The Pickens County Museum of Art & History is funded in part by Pickens County, members and friends of the museum and a grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

For additional information please contact the Hagood Mill at (864) 898-2936 or the Pickens County Museum at (864) 898-5963.