Competition Changes Announced for 2022 Fiddlers Convention

Dateline: February 17, 2022, Athens, AL –Athens State University will be welcoming old-time music lovers of all ages to campus from October 6-8, 2022 for the 55^th Annual Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddlers Convention, presented by Aetos Systems, Inc.

Musical competitions will be held on the Alabama Farmers Cooperative Main Stage in front of Founders Hall and at the Pettus Plumbing & Piping, Inc. Brown Hall stage with over $47,000 in prize money to be awarded. Proceeds from the convention fund student scholarships and other university projects throughout the year.

Competitions:

Beginning in 2022, several changes will be implemented for competitions.

Prize Money

All competition categories will now have eight (8) award places instead of five (5). With the exception of some fiddle categories, prize money for individual categories will now be:

1^st: $300 | 2^nd: $250 | 3^rd: $200 | 4^th: $150 | 5^th: $125 | 6^th: $100 | 7^th: $75 | 8^th: $50

The prize money for the Bluegrass Band and Old Time Band categories will increase to:

1^st: $1,500 | 2^nd: $1,250 | 3^rd: $1,000 | 4^th: $750 | 5^th: $500 | 6^th: $400 | 7^th: $300 | 8^th: $200

Competition Categories

The following competition categories have been discontinued:

• Beginner Musician
• Junior Fiddler
• Intermediate Fiddler
• Fiddle-Off

The following competition categories have been added:

• Beginner Banjo
• Beginner Mandolin
• Beginner Guitar
• Tennessee Valley Fiddle Champion

Instead of a Beginner Musician category, the new categories for children will now be Beginner Banjo (12 and under), Beginner Mandolin (12 and under), Beginner Guitar (12 and under), and Beginner Fiddler (10 and under).

There will no longer be a Fiddle-Off between the top contestants in the three main Fiddle categories. Instead, the Junior Fiddler and Intermediate Fiddler categories have been removed, and a new open Fiddle Category has been added – Tennessee Valley Fiddle Champion. A fiddler may NOT enter more than one fiddle category. Anyone who wishes to compete for the Fiddle Championship must enter this category.

The new categories of fiddle are as follows:

• Beginner Fiddler (age 10 and under) – $300 first place
• Apprentice Fiddler (ages 11-15) – $300 first place
• Classic Old Time Fiddler – $1,000 first place
• Senior Fiddler – $1,000 first place
• Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddle Champion – $2,000 first place

Other fiddle categories will step down as follows:

Classic Old Time Fiddler and Senior Fiddler:

1^st: $1,000 | 2^nd: $800 | 3^rd: $600 | 4^th: $500 | 5^th: $400 | 6^th: $300 | 7^th: $200 | 8^th:  $100

Tennessee Valley Fiddle Champion:

1^st: $2,000 | 2^nd: $1,750 | 3^rd: $1,500 | 4^th: $1,250 | 5^th: $1,000 | 6^th: $750 | 7^th: $500 | 8^th: $250

*The Tennessee Valley Fiddle Champion category is open to age 11 and up.

All individual categories will be designated Alabama State Champion, and the open fiddle category will be designated Tennessee Valley Fiddle Champion.

Finally, competitions will begin at 7:00 pm on Friday, October 7, and resume at 9:30 am on Saturday, October 8 instead of 8:30 am.

Tickets:

The cost of admission is $20 per adult for Friday, $20 per adult for Saturday, or $25 per adult for a weekend pass. Children under 12 will be admitted free with a paid adult. The preview night concert scheduled for Thursday evening is free and does not require the purchase of an admission ticket.

Tickets can be purchased online at www.TVOTFC.org or www.eventbrite.com. The purchase of an admission ticket includes access to all convention entertainment, events, and activities as well as entry to one competition category.

For more information about the Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddlers Convention, please call the Athens State Office of University Advancement at (256) 233-8215.