Berkeley Old Time Music Convention

The Berkeley Old Time Music Convention is an annual five-day music festival featuring concerts, workshops, master classes, panel discussion, square dance, string band contest, jam sessions, and a community stage in venues throughout Berkeley.

The first stringband contest was held in Provo Park in 1968.  The contest was put on by a loose-knit group of volunteers, musicians organizing a good time for themselves, other musicians and the public.  Annual events were held through 1970; the Convention was resumed in its current fesitval form in 2004 and been held annually since.

Grants from ACTA's Living Cultures Grants Program in 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, and 2007 supported the appearance of artists Travis and Trevor Stuart, fiddle and banjo players from western North Carolina; Ginny Hawker, traditional Appalachian singer, and her husband Tracy Schwartz, master musician and cultural expert; Kenny Hall, mandolin player from the Central Valley of California; Clyde Davenport, old-time fiddler and banjo player from Tennessee and NEA National Heritage Fellow; Sheila Kay Adams, ballad singer, banjo player and storyteller from North Carolina; Rich Hartness, Southern Carolina native and singer; the Whitetop Mountain Band; Riley Baugus; Mike Bryant, Tennessee fiddler; and Kirk Sutphin, banjo and fiddler master player from western North Carolina.