Festival of American Fiddle Tunes (Centrum), Fort Worden, Port Townsend WA
Port Townsend, Jefferson County, Washington. All-day music festival; July.
Details
- Where
- 200 Battery Way, Port Townsend, WA. Directions
- When
- Saturday, July 4, 12:30 to 7 p.m.
- Getting there
- At Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend, about two hours from Sea-Tac Airport.
- Fees
- Sliding-scale 2026 tuition: $875 supporter, $675 standard, $550, $350 scholarship.
- Hours
- Check-in opens 4:00 p.m. on the Sunday the workshop week begins.
- Access
- Registration shuttle runs from SeaTac Airport to Fort Worden: $130 round-trip or $65 one-way.
- Walk-in or reserve
- WRISTBANDS ARE AVAILABLE ON LOCATION (FORT WORDEN) TODAY AT THE MCCURDY PAVILION BOX OFFICE.
- Phone
- (360) 385-3102
- Managed by
- Centrum.
- Established
- 1977.
Fiddle Tunes is held each July in the week around the Fourth, on the Fort Worden State Park campus overlooking Puget Sound. Centrum runs it as a week-long, total-immersion workshop. Centrum is the arts organization that was the park’s original tenant. The program lists its parts as “workshops, classes, band labs, tutorials, dances, concerts, singing, open jams, hat parties, gumbo.” Teaching follows what Centrum calls “the time-honored method of the oral tradition—close observation and personal experimentation.” The 2026 gathering ran from Sunday, June 28 to Sunday, July 5. Centrum gives the 2027 dates as Saturday, July 3 to Saturday, July 10.
Classes in the morning, dances at night
The fiddle is the center of the teaching, but most fiddlers on staff choose their own accompanists, so the other instruments change from year to year. There are always banjos and guitars. There is often mandolin, button accordion, piano accordion, piano, string bass, singing, clogging and social dance. In the afternoons each faculty style has a band lab, and each lab plays a Friday-night dance and a Saturday-morning concert. A Kids Track for ages five to twelve and a Teen Band Lab end in Saturday performances as well. On Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights there are showcase concerts in the Wheeler Theater, followed by dancing in Building 204. On Thursday afternoon there is a free concert on Littlefield Green.
People without a registration still take part. Many concerts are open to the public, and so are the jams and the dancing late into the night. Nearby in Port Townsend, the Mule Barn Camp takes campers without reservations. It is a short walk to the beach. Some campers drive or bike to classes, and others stay and jam day and night through the week.
Each year’s faculty comes from particular places. In 2026 it included:
- Jamie Fox, an Aaniiih tribal member of the Fort Belknap Reservation in eastern Montana. She got her first fiddle for Christmas at age 5 and plays in the Métis style, with Jim Fox on guitar and Scotty Leach on piano.
- The Lost Keys, the Spencer and Rains family of Douglas County, Kansas.
- The Newell Family, three generations of fiddlers from Maine. Carter Newell has fiddled for 50 years and farmed oysters for almost as long.
- Los Originarios del Plan, who play arpa grande. That music of large harp, two violins and high-pitched vocals goes back to the late 19th century in Michoacán and Jalisco, on the riverplain locals call El Plan.
- Fru Skagerrak, with one fiddler each from Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
- Cheick Hamala Diabaté of Kita, Mali, on ngoni and banjo.
- Caitlin Romtvedt, who grew up in northern Wyoming, playing Basque music with David Romtvedt on accordion.
The stringband The Onlies serve as artistic directors. Their 2025 album, You Climb the Mountain, marked 20 years as a band.
In 2026 the tutorial staff was replaced by what the program called Emotional Support Musicians. They met behind the Commons at 1:30, after lunch, Monday through Thursday. They offered help with bowing and with tricky phrases in band-lab tunes. According to Centrum, they also addressed “symptoms of depression, tuning anxiety, FOMO, and being overwhelmed by the number of tunes in the key of C.”
The fiftieth, on the Fourth of July
The 50th gathering ended with a public festival on Saturday, July 4, 2026, from 12:30 to 7 p.m. Four stages ran at once: the Wheeler Theater, Littlefield Green, the USO and the McCurdy Pavilion. There were food trucks, a beer garden, the Gypsy Coffeehouse, a kid zone and a tintype photo booth. Sandy Bradley, who was at the first Fiddle Tunes, was announced as emcee for the opening act.
Sue Truman, a Seattle fiddler and crankie artist, had led a group workshop each day of the week. Together they built a crankie: a long illustrated scroll wound between two spools and hand-cranked past a viewing window while a tune is played. Centrum notes that in the 19th century these were called moving panoramas. The Fiddle Tunes at 50 Crankie had its premiere at the festival. Tom Pich and Barry Bergey showed a pictorial exhibit of National Heritage Fellows. John Harrod and Tona Barkley presented traditional music from Kentucky.
The evening sets began around 5 p.m. in the McCurdy Pavilion: arpa grande from Michoacán, Diabaté with Danny Knicely, and Rhiannon Giddens’s Old Time Revue. That morning Centrum posted that indoor seats were sold out and told wristband holders to bring a chair or blanket for the lawn. The lineup also listed a pair as “Festival Founders”: Bertram and Madeline Levy.
A medical student and the old fiddlers
Bertram Levy was born in New York in the 1940s. In his early teens a friend played him the old-time musicians behind the folk songs he already liked, and he took up southern music at 14. He went to college in Atlanta. While studying medicine in Durham, North Carolina, he met Alan Jabbour, who taught him Henry Reed’s repertoire, and with Tommy and Bobbie Thompson they formed the Hollow Rock String Band. Levy visited and learned from Tommy Jarrell, Henry Reed, Fred Cockerham and other fiddlers, before he could afford a tape recorder. He described what he saw in the South as “a breakdown of musical succession, from father to son.” He and his peers could get around that break, he said, because they were not from the area.
He went next to Dublin and then to Port Townsend, waiting for his draft number to be called. The war in Vietnam wound down before it was. Joe Wheeler, for whom the Wheeler Theater is named, asked him to help put together a folk festival. Levy agreed on condition that he could structure it as he saw fit. He later told the Port Townsend Leader, “The revival of old-time music was on life support, as young people still weren’t embracing it.” He went on:
“Most folk festivals at that time were performer showcases that culminated in playing contests. There was no educative aspect. I wanted people who came to Fiddle Tunes to learn not just the music, but the cultures it came from. That’s why there are classes in the mornings, ensemble playing in the afternoons, concerts and dances in the evenings, and a contest at the end of the week.”
The first Fiddle Tunes sold out. Many of the Cajun, Texan, Northeastern, Southeastern and West Coast fiddlers formed communities of their own in the Pacific Northwest. Some moved there, and others returned each year.
The sources disagree on the founding year. Centrum’s program page and a FolkWorks article give 1977. Centrum’s own 2025 announcement and the Leader give 1976. The Washington State Historical Society’s America 250 listing calls it “the first festival of its kind in the nation.”
From tents to the balloon hangar
Kay W. Wilson of Silverdale had attended the festival for 25 years when the Fort Worden Oral History Program recorded her on July 7, 2002. She remembered the early years under canvas: “They had to get a bigger tent at one point because the crowds were getting too big.” The biggest tent stood in the stable area on old blacktop. “I can remember people dancing wall to wall in this tent, the tent just vibrating.” Once the rain came through the roof and struck someone’s instrument while they were playing. “The tent was billowing and the wind was howling and everybody was sitting in there hoping this tent wasn’t going to fall down around them.”
When even the big tents were too small, the old balloon hangar was restored as the McCurdy Pavilion, which now seats 1,200. “In a way I was really sad to see the Pavilion built because it ruined the blimp hangar as an artifact,” Wilson said, “but, on the other hand, it is a wonderful space and it’s better than having just let it rot and fall down in a heap.”
She described the program widening along with the venue. Levy’s first idea, as she told it, was to bring in old southern Appalachian musicians whose tunes “weren’t written down anywhere.” Then the range opened: “At first it wouldn’t have been allowed to bring someone from Mexico or Ireland or Scotland, because that wasn’t American. This was set up around the 4th of July and American Fiddle Tunes.” Cape Breton fiddlers came with their own piano players, who “were all over the keyboard” and “doing jazz runs.” Participants asked for lessons on their evaluation forms, and over the years a piano program grew from those requests.
By the 36th annual festival in 2013, the Fourth of July lineup included a Cape Breton fiddler, a Texas-Polish family, Basque musicians, and a klezmer trio led by Cookie Segelstein. Segelstein said her music “is not your mother’s klezmer” but “her mother’s klezmer.”
Those who came after
Levy served as artistic director for about a decade. “It felt harder to let it go than to create it,” he said.
Warren Argo later managed the festival. He was born in Fresno in 1942 and trained as a mechanical engineer at Hughes Aircraft before leaving to play music full time. He came to Seattle in 1968 and became a dance caller. Argo died on September 27, 2010. Levy wrote of him: “With his unique sense of grace, this giant of a man brought us all together for years.”
Suzy Thompson was artistic director from 2011 through 2016. As a teenager she had been accepted to Yale, but she left Connecticut on a Green Tortoise bus for Berkeley, where she knew one person. She returned in 2026 with Eric and Allegra Thompson to play blues and rags.
In 2025 Centrum named Levy its Centrum Champion. By then he was a retired urologist and wooden boat builder in his 80s, keeping a woodshop in uptown Port Townsend. Board Chair Walter Parsons said Levy had created “what remains today Centrum’s largest program.” Levy said of the festival, “Traditional fiddle music is no longer on life support.” He also said, “I taught my daughter (Madeline) to play the fiddle at the age of 4. You can’t learn where the music comes from just by watching a video.” His commemorative plaque was added for display in the McCurdy Pavilion.
Notable Events
- 1977Fiddle Tunes started as the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes. centrum.org
- 2011Suzy Thompson's artistic directorship began. centrum.org
- 2016Suzy Thompson's artistic directorship ended. centrum.org
- 2025Centrum Board Chair Walter Parsons announced that Port Townsend resident Bertram Levy has been named Centrum Champion for 2025; a commemorative plaque is added for display in the McCurdy Pavilion. centrum.org
- 2026The gathering offers Emotional Support Musicians in lieu of a Tutorial Staff. centrum.org
People
- Bertram Levy, founder (1976).
- Walter Parsons, Centrum Board Chair who announced founder Bertram Levy's Centrum Champion recognition (2025).
- Sandy Bradley, was at the first FT.
- Warren Argo, Managed Centrum's Festival of Fiddle Tunes; community organizer and old-time musician (Born in 1942).
- Allegra Thompson, Artist faculty with Suzy and Eric Thompson.
- Betty Vornbrock, Fiddler with the Reed Island Rounders.
- Billy Cornette, Guitarist with the Reed Island Rounders.
- David Simard, Fiddle and guitar performer.
- Eric Thompson, Artist faculty with Suzy and Allegra Thompson.
- Kirk Sutphin, Fiddle and banjo performer with the Reed Island Rounders.
- Stéphanie Lépine, Fiddle performer.
- Suzy Thompson, Blues specialist in the evening concert.
- Winifred Horan, Irish fiddle performer.
- Adrienne Davis, Past guitar faculty alongside Earl White.
- Alasdair White, Past faculty.
- Alexis Chartrand, Fiddle faculty.
- Alice Gerrard, Past North Carolina faculty.
- Alicia Svigals, Violin faculty.
- Allison De Groot, Past faculty.
- Amelia Powell, Artist faculty in father-daughter duo.
- Ann Savoy, Past faculty.
- Anna Lindblad, Fiddle faculty with Fru Skagerrak.
- Becky Tracy, Past fiddle faculty with Eloise & Co.
- Belen Escobedo, Past Texas fiddle faculty.
- Bernabe Hernandez Orozco, Past quinta huapanguera guitar faculty with Canto a Mi Tierra.
- Betsy Brown, Fiddle Tunes dancer and participant commemorated by the Betsy Brown Memorial Scholarship.
- Bob Douglas, Friend and mentor of Betsy Brown in her annual Fiddle Tunes pilgrimage.
- Brigid Blume, Performer with Tony Mates's band Peckin' Out Dough.
- Bruce Molsky, Past New York State faculty.
- Caitlin Romtvedt, Violin faculty with Biba Tera.
- Caleb Klauder, Mandolin support musician and past faculty.
- Carmen Ficarra, Performer with Tony Mates's band Peckin' Out Dough.
- Carrie Wells Carter, Past Kentucky faculty.
- Carter Newell, Fiddle faculty with the Newell Family.
- Catherine Alexander, Performer with Tony Mates's band Peckin' Out Dough.
- Cedric Watson, Texas accordionist in the Cajun and Creole Dance.
- Cheick Hamala Diabaté, Ngoni and banjo faculty.
- Chester McMillian, Past faculty accompanying Paul Brown.
- Claudette Boudreaux, Cajun accordion support musician.
- Cláudio Rabeca, Past faculty; fiddle player, composer, singer and teacher.
- Clelia Stefanini, Fiddle faculty with the Stefanini Family.
- Conner Vlietstra, Past faculty with the Tennessee Hillbuddies.
- Daniel Steinberg, Past faculty.
- Danny Knicely, Mandolin and fiddle faculty.
- David Cahn, Leader of the Baby Band that inspired Betsy Brown to learn fiddle.
- David Romtvedt, Accordion faculty with Biba Tera.
- Dirk Powell, Artist faculty in father-daughter duo.
- Eamon O’Leary, Bouzouki faculty.
- Earl White, Past Virginia faculty.
- Ed Poullard, Past Texas faculty alongside Cedric Watson.
- Elías Francisco “Pancho” Cárdenas, Vihuela faculty with Los Originarios del Plan.
- Elise Wessel Hildrum, Fiddle faculty with Fru Skagerrak.
- Ellika Frisell, Past Swedish faculty.
- Eric Dayan, Guitar faculty with the Newell Family.
- Eric Merrill, Irish fiddle support musician.
- Fernando “Perico” Amezcua, Violin faculty with Los Originarios del Plan.
- Fernando Hernandez Orozco, Past jarana huasteca faculty with Canto a Mi Tierra.
- Geoff Seitz, Past faculty.
- George Wilson, Past faculty.
- Gerry Milnes, Fiddle and banjo faculty with the Milnes Family.
- Grace Rogers, Banjo support musician.
- Helen Newell, Fiddle faculty with the Newell Family.
- Henry Barnes, Past faculty with the Tennessee Hillbuddies.
- Howard Rains, Fiddle and guitar faculty with the Lost Keys.
- Irene Herrmann, Mandolin faculty.
- Isaiah Sibi, Fiddle and guitar faculty with the Lost Keys.
- Jake Shulman-Ment, Violin faculty.
- James Leva, Fiddle faculty.
- Jamie Fox, Fiddle faculty with the Fox Family.
- Jamie, Banjo player and partner of Betsy Brown, identified only by first name.
- Jane Vidrine, Guitar, fiddle and voice faculty with the Vidrine Family.
- Jason Sypher, Bass faculty.
- Jeff Claus, Past guitar and banjo uke faculty alongside Judy Hyman.
- Jefferson Hamer, Guitar faculty.
- Jerron Paxton, Past guitar faculty.
- Jesse Milnes, Fiddle faculty with the Milnes Family.
- Jim Cauthen, Past Alabama fiddle and guitar faculty with Joyce Cauthen.
- Jim Fox, Guitar faculty with the Fox Family.
- Jim Nelson, Past faculty.
- Jo Vidrine, Guitar and accordion faculty with the Vidrine Family.
- Joe Thompson, Friend and mentor of Betsy Brown in her annual Fiddle Tunes pilgrimage.
- Joel Savoy, Cajun and Creole Dance performer.
- John Harrod, Presenter during the festival week.
- John Haywood, Past Kentucky banjo and fiddle faculty.
- John Vidrine, Accordion faculty with the Vidrine Family.
- Joseph DeJarnette, Past bass faculty alongside Earl White.
- Joyce Cauthen, Past Alabama fiddle and guitar faculty with Jim Cauthen.
- JP Fraley, Friend and mentor of Betsy Brown in her annual Fiddle Tunes pilgrimage.
- Judy Hyman, Past New York State faculty.
- Justin Harrington, Banjo faculty.
- Justin Robinson, Fiddle and vocals faculty.
- Kaethe Hostetter, Violin faculty.
- Katie McNally, Past faculty and performer at the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes.
- Katie Shore, Past faculty.
- Kevin Wimmer, Past Louisiana fiddle faculty alongside Preston Frank.
- Laura Feddersen, Past fiddle and guitar faculty alongside Nathan Gourley.
- Lee Stripling, Friend and mentor of Betsy Brown in her annual Fiddle Tunes pilgrimage.
- Leo Shannon, Artistic Director with The Onlies.
- Leonel “La Chona” Mendoza, Harp faculty with Los Originarios del Plan.
- Liette Remon, Past faculty.
- Linzay Young, Past faculty.
- Lisa Ornstein, Québecois fiddle support musician and past faculty.
- Liz Hanley, Fiddle faculty.
- Lucas Hicks, Composer, teacher and multi-instrumentalist commemorated by the Lucas Hicks Shining Light Front Porch Fellowship (Passed in October of 2017).
- Luke Price, Past Oregon faculty.
- Madeline Levy, Artist faculty alongside Bertram Levy.
- Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Past Irish faculty.
- Mairi Rankin, Past Nova Scotia fiddle faculty.
- Maisie Newell, Fiddle faculty with the Newell Family.
- Maja Kjær Jacobsen, Fiddle faculty with Fru Skagerrak.
- Manus Lunny, Past bouzouki and guitar faculty alongside Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh.
- Mark Olitsky, Past banjo faculty alongside Earl White.
- Nathan Gourley, Past fiddle and guitar faculty alongside Laura Feddersen.
- Nathan Viner, Presenter of Songs Between Others: Jewish Visions of Appalachia.
- Neal Pearlman, Past faculty; directory heading spelling.
- Nicolas Babineau, Guitar and fiddle faculty.
- Nokosee Fields, Old-time fiddle support musician.
- Orion Spencer-Speirer, Banjo uke faculty with the Lost Keys.
- Osiris Ramsés Caballero León, Past Veracruz faculty with Canto a Mi Tierra.
- Paul Brown, Past fiddle and banjo faculty.
- Pete Rushefsky, Tsimbl faculty.
- Peter McCracken, Volunteering and work trade contact.
- Phil Tanner, Past faculty alongside Russ Tanner.
- Preston Frank, Past Louisiana button accordion faculty.
- Rachel Bell, Past piano accordion faculty with Eloise & Co.
- Rafael “Caña” Farías, Violin faculty with Los Originarios del Plan.
- Rafael Sida, Past percussion faculty alongside Ellika Frisell.
- Rafe Stefanini, Fiddle and banjo faculty with the Stefanini Family.
- Ramon Gutierrez, Past Texas bajo sexto faculty alongside Belen Escobedo.
- Reeb Willms, Guitar and singing support musician and past faculty.
- Rhiannon Giddens, Fiddle, banjo and vocals faculty.
- Rhys Jones, Past Virginia fiddle faculty.
- Rick Good, Past faculty.
- Riley Baugus, North Carolina afternoon concert performer.
- Riley Calcagno, Artistic Director with The Onlies.
- Ru Yother, Bass faculty with the Lost Keys.
- Russ Tanner, Past faculty alongside Phil Tanner.
- Sami Braman, Artistic Director with The Onlies.
- Sarah Kate Morgan, Past Tennessee mountain dulcimer faculty.
- Scotty Leach, Piano accompanist with the Fox Family.
- Sue Truman, Crankie workshop leader.
- Tami Allen, Cajun fiddle support musician.
- Tatiana Hargreaves, Past faculty.
- Terri McMurray, Past faculty accompanying Paul Brown.
- Thomas Deakin, Guitar support musician.
- Tom Krueger, Past social dance faculty alongside Caitlin Romtvedt.
- Tona Barkley, Presenter during the festival week.
- Tony Mates, Longtime Fiddle Tunes participant; fiddle, guitar, bass, singing and dance calling.
- Trevor Holder, Past faculty with the Tennessee Hillbuddies.
- Tricia Spencer, Fiddle faculty with the Lost Keys.
- Troy MacGillivray, Past Nova Scotia fiddle, piano and dance faculty.
- Vivian Leva, Artistic Director with The Onlies.
- Wes Westmoreland, Past Texas faculty.
- Wilson Savoy, Past faculty.
- Arkaitz Miner, Basque Fiddle Finale performer.
- Barbara Magone, Pianist in the matinee.
- Bobby Taylor, Old-time American Fiddle Finale performer.
- Brian Marshall, Texas-Polish afternoon concert performer.
- Chirps Smith, Midwestern fiddler in the evening concert.
- Cindy Roy, Old-time American Fiddle Finale performer.
- Cookie Segelstein, Klezmer musician returning to Fiddle Tunes.
- Dan Gellert, Old-time American Fiddle Finale performer.
- Dawn Beaton, Cape Breton fiddler in the matinee.
- Desiree Champagne, Cajun and Creole Dance performer.
- Don Roy, Old-time American Fiddle Finale performer.
- Guy Bouchard, Quebec evening concert performer.
- Jesse Lege, Cajun and Creole Dance performer.
- Joseba Tapia, Basque Fiddle Finale performer.
- Joseph Decosimo, Tennessee afternoon concert performer.
- Joshua Horowitz, Accordionist making his first Fiddle Tunes appearance.
- Kim Johnson, Old-time American Fiddle Finale performer.
- Mark Rubin, Acoustic bassist in the klezmer performance.
- Matt Kinman, North Carolina afternoon concert performer.
- Moses Nelligan, North Carolina afternoon concert performer.
- Paul Williams, Old-time American Fiddle Finale performer, as named by the newspaper.
- Rich Hartness, North Carolina evening concert performer.
- Vivian Williams, Old-time American Fiddle Finale performer.
- Xabier Leturia, Basque Fiddle Finale performer.
- Yvon Mimeault, Quebec evening concert performer.