Hannibal – Dorothy LaBounty leaned forward while pounding chords on a wooden stand-up dulcimer to the tune of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” under the direction of Judy Schmidt.
Saturday was the 46th Annual Folklife Festival, and it was a sunny day that drew crowds from all over the region. From the wafting smells of homemade soup and the sounds of entertainers playing to the crowd, it was a weekend of celebrating comfort food and strolling back to another time.
Schmidt and her husband Karl, all from Louisiana, Missouri, along with guitarist Gene Murray, performed as street entertainers in front of the Mark Twain Museum. Their bassist was David Parrish of Ravel, Missouri, and Schmidt went missing that day, she said.
Schmidt said he likes teaching children how to play. Hours after her festival began, she said dozens of children had already approached her to try it out.
“It’s an instrument they can walk up to and they’re always excited to be able to play it. My parents love taking videos,” she said.
Called Judy Schmidt and Friends, the group was approached by Michael Gaines of the Hannibal Arts Council to perform at Folklife in 1994 and has been a tradition ever since.
“This is a great place to play old music and square dance music, which is mostly what we play,” she said. “I also love that people stop by and ask questions. They mostly want to know about the dulcimer.”
The instrument is a hammered dulcimer, which, according to Schmidt, dates to around 100 BC as a biblical instrument.
“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo heard the dulcimer’s trumpets while they were in the fiery furnace,” she said. “It’s a very historical instrument, but the old one would have been simpler. It’s evolved into something bigger and better, but it was still a trapezoidal box.”
The 46 years of the Folklife Festival, and the 47th festival scheduled for October 21-22, 2023, have many traditions that have been passed down over the decades. One of them is food.
Over time, several vendors have become favorites of the Hannibal Folklife people have grown up with. In a recent Courier-Post post asking readers to list their favorite Forklife snacks, the list included turkey legs, chicken and noodles, pork rinds, catfish his sandwiches, and cheese his soup. rice field.
Cheese soup is a treasured tradition that St. John’s Lutheran School makes each year and this year won Best of Show in the food category. All proceeds from Cheese Soup will be donated to the school.
“Festival food vendors must be local civic, ecclesiastical and non-profit organizations. 100% of their profits go back to our community through the mission of their respective organizations.” Announced on Folklife Facebook.
Folklife could be a new tradition for Steven and Dorothy LaBounty from St. Louis. The couple had no idea that the weekend they chose to come to Hannibal to celebrate Stephen’s birthday would be such a busy one.
“We come here once or twice a year, but today we thought we’d have downtown all to ourselves,” said Dorothy. “But it worked. We are having a great time!”
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