Arizona State Fiddle Contest

Registration for the 2026 J.W. & Vertielee Floyd Memorial Old Time Fiddlers’ Contest opened at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 3, in the ballroom of the Mazatzal Hotel and Casino in Payson. Introductions came at 9:00 and the national anthem at 9:05. At 9:10 the youngest players went up: the Small Fry, Junior Junior, and Junior divisions. The Arizona Old Time Fiddlers Association pays the entry fees for all three. The printed schedule set one rule off in asterisks at its foot: spectators may clap only after a contestant has played the entire set list.

The contest is the Arizona State Championship. The association that manages it publishes a bimonthly newsletter, The Arizona Fiddler, and keeps chapters in the Payson, Tucson, Yuma, and Cottonwood areas. Payson Parks and Recreation answers questions about the contest.

Six divisions and a face-off

After awards and tie-breakers for the children, the Young Adult, Senior, and Adult divisions played from 10:30. Lunch ran from 12:30 to 1:30. The first round of the Grand Champion Division followed at 1:30. At 2:45, between the championship rounds, an Open Talent Division gave the stage to performers of something other than fiddle. Round 2 began at 3:15 and was followed by a pause for scoring. The championship carried a $500 prize.

The specialty divisions came late in the afternoon:

• Twin, at 4:45, for two fiddlers playing together.
• Trick, at 5:00, for novelty playing.
• Band, at 5:15, for the Fiddle-In-Band prize of $1,000, sponsored by the association.

Closing remarks were set for 6:30, with a fiddlers’ jam if time allowed. The schedule warned that times were not guaranteed and that divisions might run earlier or later depending on how many entered.

The two highest scorers from the second round carried their contest across town. Visit Arizona listed this as new for 2026: the finalists faced off on stage during the 8 p.m. headliner concert at the Payson Event Center. Competing fiddlers and their immediate families were admitted free to the festival weekend.

A buckle for the county fair

The Payson Event Center is the grounds of the Northern Gila County Fair, which advertises “Growing Traditions Since 1955.” The 2026 fair ran October 1 through 3 and opened the inaugural B.U.C.K.L.E. Festival alongside it. The letters stand for Bull Riding, Unity, Culture, Kids Rodeo, Live Entertainment, and Experience. Payson Parks and Recreation, the fair, Cowboy Lifestyle Network, and Mazatzal Casino organized it together.

The weekend’s program included:

• championship bull riding, ranch rodeo, goat roping, and barrel racing
• the Arizona State Championship Mutton Bustin’
• junior livestock shows and an auction
• an exhibit hall of art, photography, woodworking, and metalwork
• a mini carnival with a 40-foot slide
• a free Kids Zone with roping dummies and cornhole

Payson Parks and Recreation billed the fiddle contest as Arizona’s 56th State Fiddle Championship. On the Friday evening the department posted that bull riding and mutton bustin’ had been pushed back an hour, because several contestants were stuck in heavy accident traffic on the 87.

From Green Valley Park to the fairgrounds

According to a 2023 Payson Roundup article, Payson has hosted the championship since the 1960s. At first it drew only a few fiddlers. By 2023 musicians of all ages came from all over the state. Visit Arizona puts the contest’s age at more than 50 years. A color slide from 1986, now in the Arizona State Archives among photographs from the Arizona Office of Tourism, shows Sol Rudnick at a fiddling contest in Payson.

For years the contest belonged to Green Valley Park. The Arizona State Fiddle Competition of 2020 was part of the 50th Annual Old Time Fiddle & Acoustic Celebration, held there September 25 through 27. The 2023 championship ran Friday, September 22, through Sunday, September 24, at the same park, with free admission.

In 2025 the association announced a change of date and format. Payson’s 55th Annual J.W. & Vertielee Floyd Memorial Old Time Fiddle Celebration combined with the Northern Gila County Fair, September 4 through 6, at the Event Center. Most divisions played on Friday, starting at 10 a.m. with twin, trick, and band competitions in the afternoon. The championship rounds moved to Saturday, with final awards at 3 p.m. Food trucks and a beer garden stood on the grounds both days. Friday night closed with the Donny Grubb Band & the Twin Fiddles, and The Arizona Wildflowers played the Saturday evening concert.

Six tickets to Weiser

The 2020 contest sent six players to the 2021 National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest in Weiser, Idaho. A Roundup photograph from September 26 shows two young women in the twin fiddle competition, with a third accompanying them on guitar.

• Maria McArthur won the Young Adult division and placed first in the second championship round. She also took the twin contest with Maggi Cucitro.
• The Dietrich family filled much of the results. Aspen Dietrich won Small Fry, and Sawyer and Isely Dietrich placed third and fourth behind her. Brie Dietrich won Junior-Junior and finished third in the final round. Ranelle Dietrich won the Junior division, finished second in the championship, and took the hot bow prize.
• Rick Commo won the Adult division.
• Dave Brinkman won the Senior division. He edits The Arizona Fiddler and maintains the association’s website.
• Danielle Carter won trick fiddle, and Macy Kienbaum won fancy fiddle.
• The band contest went to the Arizona Wildflowers of Casa Grande, ahead of Payson’s 6 Gal n’ Hat and the MG Crickets of Apache Junction.

Aspen, Brie, Ranelle, Maria McArthur, Rick Commo, and Dave Brinkman were the six who qualified for Weiser.

Families still come in numbers. A photograph from the 2024 Payson contest in the association’s newsletter shows the Barry family, Clay, Ben, Jess, Ivy, Elie, Corrine, Laura, and Amy, under the caption “They all play fiddle!”