Partners swingin' and feet a shufflin' across the lot at the Butler campus, the annual Pennington Folk Festival kicked off Thursday night with the Back Stage Square Dance.
"I think everyone is having fun with this. It should be a really good event for us next year," said Stacey Menser as dancers toed the line.
The event was the first square dance outing for the festival, which continues with a schedule of performers Friday night and Saturday.
Also on Saturday is a talent competition with preliminaries beginning at 10 a.m. and the finals at 3 p.m.
Even as the festival was beginning, attractions were being added. “We have just added another event to the Pennington Festival. The Rain Dogs, the popular Kansas City blues band featured at Friday night's show, will offer a workshop Saturday, June 7, at 1:30 p.m. in the Butler Annex Building on Washington street," said Menser.
The Rain Dogs will offer information and demonstrations on their instruments and address topics such as overall instrumentation and talk about the history of their style of music, the blues. They will also answer questions.
This workshop is free and open to the public, Menser said. "All who are interested are encouraged to attend this special event."
The Pennington Festival, now in its 11th year, is sponsored in part by the Kentucky Arts Council, Southern Arts Federation/National Endowment for the Arts and numerous local sponsors.
For more information, persons can call Stacey Menser at (270) 625-5886.
