2007 Ozarks Celebration Festival 
Culture and Heritage
The Ozarks Celebration Festival is an entertaining and educational look at the region's culture and heritage. The University launched the festival in 1998 with the hope that it will foster a sense of place and understanding of place for both natives of the Ozarks and visitors as well. This year's festival will consist of over 60 traditional craftspeople and commercial artists, three stages of music (which will include traditional, bluegrass, and gospel music), Ozarks storytelling, traditional dance (which will include square, jig, contra and clogging), films, historical characters, exhibits, and much more. Many of the finest artists and craftspeople in the region will be on hand to demonstrate and display their creations, offering a number of items for sale.
Free & Open to the Public
Except for the finale concert at Hammons Hall on September 14, all events are free and open to the public. No registration is necessary. Free parking.
Welcome from the Festival Director
For the past ten years the Ozarks Celebration Festival has celebrated the rich cultural heritage that is unique to the Ozarks. For the past five years it has been my honor to serve as the director of the festival
and a privilege to have been able to meet the craftsmen, musicians, singers, dancers, storytellers, and historians who have made it their mission to preserve our past for future generations.
As a member of the Missouri State University community I am honored to welcome you to our campus each fall as we attempt to forge an entertaining and educational link to our region's past. As a life-long Ozarker, I am proud to be a part of this truly wonderful festival that celebrates the Ozarks – its rich past and its glorious future!
On behalf of Missouri State University and the Ozarks Celebration Festival family I invite you to join us on September 7th – 14th for the Tenth Annual Ozarks Celebration Festival!
Barb Jones
Festival Director
Welcome from the Director of the Ozarks Studies Institute
Welcome to the tenth anniversary of
the Ozarks Celebration Festival. We’ve added events to
make it the biggest festival ever, expanding into a full
week—opening Friday evening, September 7, and concluding
Friday evening, September 14. We also hope it will be
the best ever, and we’re excited about the additional activities,
concerts, and lectures.
In an attempt to increase the
educational value of the festival, which was originally
begun in order to teach our students and the community
about early Ozarks "survival arts," Missouri State
University Provost Belinda McCarthy is supporting a
lecture series during the week of September 9-14, in
addition to two special workshops on Saturday afternoon,
September 8. (Kansas City storyteller
and Ozarks native Steve Otto will conduct a workshop on
storytelling basics, with emphasis on preserving the
heritage of the Ozarks through the development and
transmission of Ozarks family tales; and championship
fiddler James Bryan from Mentone, Alabama, will conduct a workshop on playing
traditional fiddle tunes. Bryan, accompanied by his
daughter Rachel on the guitar, will also present a free
concert on Saturday night).
In the lecture series, Dr. Brooks
Blevins, Director of Regional Studies at Lyon College in
Batesville, Arkansas, will speak on "Beyond Hillbillies
and Mountaineers: Ozarks Studies in the 21st
Century." Springfield native Pamela Smith Hill, author
of Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer’s Life,
has borrowed a line from Wilder’s journal upon
first seeing the Ozarks and has titled her talk "'The
Sky Seems Lower Here': The Ozarks and Laura Ingalls
Wilder." Dr. Russ Gerlach, Professor Emeritus at Missouri State
University and author on the geography of the Ozarks, will discuss
"Scotch-Irish in the Ozarks." Dr. Milton Rafferty,
Professor Emeritus at Missouri State University and author of
The Ozarks: Land
and Life, will give two talks: "An Overview of
Ozarks Geography" and "Henry Schoolcraft’s 1818-19 Tour
of the Ozarks." Father Moses Berry, curator of the
Ozarks Afro-American Heritage Museum in Ash Grove, will
also make two presentations: "Efforts to Preserve Local
African-American History" and "Connections between the
Work of Phyllis Wheatley and Paul Lawrence Dunbar and
Oral Tradition."
Friday evening, September 14, the
festival will officially close with "An Evening of Music
in the Ozarks Tradition," recognizing the work of Gordon
McCann and celebrating the history, stories, and songs
of the hills. Featured performers will include Mark
Bilyeu and The Wayfarers, The Foggy River Boys, Kim and
Jim Lansford, Gordon McCann and Ashley Hull, Tom Brumley,
The Boldman Family, Betty and Ben Henderson, Judy Domeny,
Gail Lennon, The Undergrass Boys, Mitch Jayne of The
Dillards, and special guests Homer Boyd and George Culp
of The Philharmonics. This event is co-sponsored by the
Missouri State University Ozarks Studies Institute and
Ozark Adventures (a not-for-profit organization and
elderhostel in Branson, dedicated to encouraging and
enhancing the history and culture of the Ozarks). This
is the only festival event for which there is a charge;
all profits will help support a traditional music camp
in 2008 dedicated to the goal of passing on our rich
heritage to a new generation. Tickets are $14 and $24
and may be purchased at the Hammons Hall Box Office
(417-836-7678). For additional information, call
417-239-0203.
We hope you’ll come help us make
our tenth-anniversary Ozarks Celebration Festival the
biggest and best yet!
Kris Sutliff, Director
Ozarks Studies Institute
Welcome from Missouri State's President
For a decade now, Missouri State University has proudly
focused a long weekend on the heritage of the region in
its annual Ozarks Celebration Festival.
The Ozarks has an extensive and rich heritage marked by
hard work, ingenuity, persistence, and pride. We
celebrate that heritage through the trades, arts,
crafts, food, music, dance, games, stories, and dress
that have made the Ozarks a unique region of the country. Over the years, the
Festival has grown, with new elements being added each
year, and you will find that this year is no exception.
On behalf of the University community, I want to welcome you to this
year’s Ozarks Celebration Festival. I hope you take full
advantage of the opportunities for these few days of
events so you better understand and appreciate this
great place where we live and work: The Ozarks.
Michael T. Nietzel
President