The Lyons Fall Fiddle Festival's name is misleading: Pickers are welcome, too, and fans come from all over By Daryl Driver Reading Eagle

It may be billed as the Lyons Fall Fiddle Festival, but banjo player Mike D. Hertzog felt right at home Sunday during the 20th edition of the event in Lyons Community Park. “It's a great atmosphere; the people are always real good,” said Hertzog after he and his Blue Mountain Group entertained a lawn-chair throng with a bluegrass version of “Are You Washed in the Blood?” Twenty years ago, Arlan R. Schwoyer of Lyons announced to his wife, Donna, “Lyons is going to have a fiddle contest.” And with the devoted work of the Schwoyers and about a hundred volunteers, the borough did. The fiddle fest has grown. An estimated 8,000 music lovers come from all over the East Coast to hear hundreds of fiddlers and guitar and banjo pickers, Hertzog said. “This is one of those places, as people walk around the park, they're bound to find something they like here,” the 43-year-old Ruscombmanor Township resident said. Under a half dozen scattered trees, jam sessions drew smaller crowds as fiddlers and guitarists formed impromptu bands. The event has been host to fiddlers as young as 3 and as old as 94, Arlan Schwoyer, 65, has said. Jim E. Cresko, 30, found his musical tastes satisfied as he listened to sounds ranging from Cajun to gospel to Irish. “It's not watered-down, popular contemporary music,” said Cresko of Lenhartsville. “That's why it's lasted for 100 years. It's the same as when it started.” Although the festival was postponed Sept. 15 because of threatening skies and Sunday was humid with temperatures in the mid-80s, the festival filled the park with music fans and many music fans with food. The lines for apple cider and funnel cakes were long, but not as long as the ice cream line, Cresko noted. “It's the longest ...,” he said. The event also featured antique cars and trucks, an evening worship service and vendors offering children's costumes, long-playing records and not surprisingly stringed instruments. Donna P. Mountain wasn't just selling her wares she was making them. Seated before a spinning wheel, Mountain, 41, of Maidencreek Township was turning sheep's wool into yarn. Wool mittens and hand-felted hats priced between $20 and $25 awaited customers. The festival was truly a family affair for Mountain. Also running the booth were her mother, Patricia E. Lesher, 64, of Kutztown and Mountain's 13-year-old daughter, Greta K. Mountain. Her husband, Christopher J. Mountain, 46, was playing guitar in a jam session.