Kidfest at Hagood Mill Historic Site & Folklife Center

Come join us at Hagood Mill for the 11th annual “Kidsfest” concert and Young Appalachian Musicians Talent Show on Saturday, March 17th, from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm on the historic grounds of Hagood Mill in Pickens, South Carolina.

This year’s event will feature a wide variety of instrument workshops and musical performances for kids of all ages!

Students in the Young Appalachian Musicians (YAM) program representing many of the area’s schools will be performing throughout the day beginning at 10:45 am. Sweet Potato Pie Kids will also be giving special performances on March 17th.

Kids and adults alike will be delighted when they stroll through our super informative and hands-on “Instrument Petting Zoo!” What’s an instrument petting zoo you ask? It’s a wonderful opportunity for “kids of all ages” to get up close and personal with a musical instrument. Whether you’re a two-year-old or 92, “the zoo” will enable you to explore a variety of traditional instruments in a hands-on way. Adult pickers and YAM students will demonstrate how to hold, play, and experience these instruments under the tent all day. There will be traditional instruments like guitar, banjo, mandolin, and fiddle, but also many mountain and jug band instruments like spoons, bones, washboards, washtub bass, and many more!

As part of the ongoing tradition of “Instrument Workshops at Kidsfest,” there will also be a craft table located in the petting zoo where kids can build their own “make & take kazoo” while supplies last!

All kids are invited to participate in the “Music & Milling Games” throughout the day. Teams of kids will take part in a variety of traditional mountain games like Sack Races, Tug-of-War, Jump the Creek, Wheel Barrow Races and much more. Other activities include Parachute Games, Archaeology Adventures, Creek Critter Identification, rock painting, horse painting, and a host of other fun and exciting recreational opportunities.

Around 1:30 pm there will be a “Traditional Bluegrass and Old-Time Talent Show” sponsored by the co-host group “Preserving Our Southern Appalachian Music” (POSAM). The show is open to all youth, high school age and under. Registration will be at YAM schools or from 10:30 am – 1:00 pm at Hagood Mill on the day of the festival.

Throughout the day there will be other events to take part in as well. Volunteers from various Pickens County Fire Departments will be on hand providing kid-friendly safety demonstrations along with teaching the proper techniques and safety strategies crucial to survival if confronted with a home fire situation.

The Pickens County Rescue Squad will be performing a “Vehicle Extraction Demonstration” showcasing the essential tools utilized in freeing trapped victims involved in serious automobile accidents.

The old gristmill and other demonstrations will be running from 10:00 until 4:00. The water-powered 1845 gristmill is one of the finest examples of nineteenth-century technology in the South Carolina Upcountry and operates just as it has for the last century-and-a-half. The mill will be running throughout the day. In the old mill, fresh stone-ground cornmeal, grits, and wheat flour will be available, as well as Hagood Mill cookbooks and a variety of other mill-related items.

The Hagood Mill hosts a variety of folklife and traditional arts demonstrations each month, including blacksmithing, bowl-digging, flintknapping,chair-caning, moonshining, broom-making, basket-making, pottery, quilting, spinning, knitting, weaving, bobbin lace, woodcarving, open-hearth cooking, metal-smithing, leather-working, beekeeping and more!

There is a $5.00 parking fee for the day but admission is FREE to the Hagood Mill Site as well as the Hagood Creek Petroglyph Site. All proceeds from parking help offset the costs at Hagood Mill.

So head on out, grab a helping of tasty food served on site from some of the best food trucks in the area, and as always, enjoy this special day at the Hagood Mill Historic Site.

Hagood Mill operates, rain or shine, the third Saturday of every month and is located just 3 miles north of Pickens or 5 ½ miles south of Cherokee Foothills Scenic Hwy 11 off SC Hwy 178 at 138 Hagood Mill Road. Hagood Mill is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm.

For additional information, please contact Hagood Mill at (864) 898-2936 or check out the Hagood Mill Facebook page.