Last modified: Thursday, June 12, 2008 2:11 PM PDT In this 2007 file photo, a fiddler plays a tune for the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest judges. The 56th annual contest and festival kicks off Monday in Weiser. Fiddle fest kicks off Monday Johna Strickland Argus Observer Weiser Three hundred people are having a party next week. And you’re invited. There will be music and dancing, contests and prizes, food and a parade. Oh, and fiddles. Lots of fiddles. The 56th National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest and Festival, the world’s largest, opens Monday in Weiser with about 300 competitors, festival director Sandra Cooper said. The fun begins at 8 a.m. at Weiser High School with preliminary fiddling rounds. Fiddlers will duel all week with the finalists competing in the evenings. Saturday night one fiddler will be named the Grand National Champion. From noon Tuesday to Saturday night, musicians and vendors will transform the Weiser city park, next to the courthouse on East Court, into a bluegrass village. “I expect the festival attendance to be much improved. We have doubled, I would say more than doubled, our festival vendors,” Cooper said. The bandshell will be hoppin’ from noon to dusk each day. Entertainers include cloggers, a harmonica player, bands, guitar music, a band named Stickerville, after the fiddlers’ favorite camping place, and a group playing Ozark mountain music. “It’s just a little bit of everything. We’ve got everything from cowboy poets to Karoke,” Cooper said. Friday will include some special entertainment for children. Friday morning Smokey Bear will stroll into town and an antique firetruck will take visitors for a free spin. At 12:30 p.m. Friday, Ty’ the unicycle-riding clown’ will take the stage. Cooper said Saturday will feature Idaho’s largest parade, followed by the Weiser Men’s Club barbecue and a battle of the bands. At 4 p.m. the Weiser city and rural fire departments will host a firefighter hose competition, while the Weiser Police Department will sponsor a pigs and pies event. Starting at 9 p.m. Saturday, two bands — a gospel/bluegrass-playing family of nine and Jonathan Warren and the Billy Goats — will take the bandshell in the bluegrass village. About a thousand volunteers, not counting clubs, will help with the week-long festival and contest, Cooper said. “It’s a good opportunity for them to give back to the community, and that’s one of the reasons the Men’s Club has their barbecue each year. It’s part of their fundraising, so they can do other things,” Cooper said. “It’s really a good thing for the town. It gets everyone involved ... just to take ownership of the event.” Despite rising fuel prices, contest organizers expect a full house. “We’re seeing an effect as far as fuel,” Cooper said. “We’re not going to have the (distance) attendance, but we’re getting more local people. ... I think that in one way the fuel prices have made us focus our advertising on a more local audience.” Cooper speculated local families may not head out to Disneyland this year, instead choosing cheaper alternatives like local entertainment. “People are buying tickets in the Boise valley that maybe never have before,” she said. “I think we’ve really raised the bar in a lot of areas. We have a new vision for it. Doing things a little differently and trying new things. Everyone seems to be extremely enthusiastic this year.” It’s an enthusiasm that began in 1953 when Blaine Stubblefield, then Weiser Chamber of Commerce secretary, brought fiddling back to Weiser after a long absence. Fiddlers first arrived in 1863, though, when the Logans established a way station near Weiser. “Fiddlers came here when there was nothing more than a ferry here when people were going west,” Cooper said. The first official contest was held in 1914, Cooper said, but faded around World War I. Stubblefield revived it with $175 — the 2008 budget is $200,000 — from the chamber in 1953 at the fifth annual Weiser square dance festival. Dad Roberts from Harpster, Idaho won the title. In 1963, Idaho’s territorial centennial, an outdoor bandshell was built in Memorial Park. “A man named Loyd Wanzer won the championship that year, and it just continued to grow. I remember Loyd Wanzer. His name was like a household word,” Cooper said. “Some people have been coming to this thing since they were children and now they’re grandparents.” The contest attracts visitors and fiddlers from around the world, Cooper said, citing one man who will arrive from Japan to compete this year. “Seems like it doesn’t matter where you go, but if you mention Weiser, Idaho, people say, ‘oh yeah, National Oldtime Fiddlers Contest,’” she said. Although the famous contest turns 56 this year, the fiddlers have not kept pace. “The older the contest gets, it seems like the younger the contestants get. In our grand national contest this year, we have a young man who is 14 years old,” Cooper said. Tickets for rounds held between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. are $2.50 for adults, $1.50 for children younger than 12. Night tickets will cost more. They can be ordered ahead, purchased at the door or by credit card online or over the phone. To buy tickets, call (208) 414-0255, visit fiddlecontest.com or ictickets.com.