Blueberry Festival in Nacogdoches Kicks Off Friday with Bluegrass

It's Blueberry Festival Time in Downtown Nacogdoches. Saturday, numerous events, attractions, and features will open up to the public in the Oldest Town in Texas, but the festival officially gets underway Friday night with the annual Blueberry Bluegrass Concert in the Park, from 6 to 9:30 p.m.

This free family-friendly concert is made possible by Presenting Sponsor Rex Perry Autoplex and will feature three well-known musical acts, The Little Roy and Lizzy Show, The Purple Hulls and The Blake Brothers, as well as a special appearance by up-and-coming group the Gent Mountain Grassburs.

THE ACTS

Little Roy and Lizzy are renowned bluegrass musicians from Georgia. Elizabeth Long, or Lizzy as her friends and fans know her, has played with acts such as Mac Wiseman, Jim and Jesse, The Lewis Family and Earl Scruggs.

At the 2015 GMA Dove awards she was awarded Best Bluegrass Song of the Year for "God is There," a duet with Rhonda Vincent. She is one of the youngest fiddlers to be inducted into “America’s Old Time Fiddler’s Country Hall of Fame” in LeMars, Iowa.

“Little Roy” Lewis, from the legendary Lewis Family, has been inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, SPGBMA Hall of Greats, IBMA Hall of Honor, and the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

The Purple Hulls are identical twins Katy Lou and Penny Lea Clark. The Clark sisters were raised on a working family farm in Kilgore and they paid for college with money from the family's purple hull harvest. After graduation, they moved to Nashville, where they began touring with various country artists and writing songs for Nashville’s largest publishing company, Sony Tree.

The sisters returned home in 2012 to care for their terminally ill father and they stayed in East Texas after he passed away, helping their mother with the farm while continuing their music career. This will be the Purple Hulls’ fifth appearance at the Blueberry Bluegrass Concert.

The Blake Brothers, formed in 2000 by Tim and Bruce Blake, feature Britt Green on mandolin and vocals and Nancy Blake on bass. The North Louisiana band played at the inaugural Blueberry Bluegrass Concert and has performed extensively across East Texas and the Ark-La-Tex area over the years.

FOOD, PARKING AND MORE

The event will take place at Festival Park, near the banks of Banita Creek. The concert also will feature food trucks and vendors. Organizers encourage attendees to bring blankets and lawn chairs. The event is family-friendly, so please leave your coolers and alcohol at home. Pets on a leash are welcome.

Parking will be available downtown. However, some downtown streets will be closed due to the Blueberry Festival, so concert-goers are urged to visit texasbluegrassfestival.org or www.facebook.com/bluegrassnac/ for parking instructions.

Parking with a free shuttle service to the concert venue will be available at First Baptist Church, 411 North St. Parking at the venue will be at the Nacogdoches City Garage location at 114 W. Cox St.