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Today at bluegrass festival

Today's lineup at the 19th Annual Missouri River Bluegrass and Old Time Music Festival at Cross Ranch State Park west of Washburn:

Pfliger Sisters/Center Community Band, 1 p.m.

New North String Band, 2:30 p.m.

Blue Hazard, 3:30 p.m.

Simple Infant Men, 4:30 p.m.

The High 48s, 5:30 p.m.

Stoney Run, 6:30 p.m.

New North String Band, 7:30 p.m.

Blue Hazard, 8:30 p.m.

The High 48s, 9:30 p.m.

Main stage tickets $18

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CROSS RANCH STATE PARK - The tightly braided harmonies whistle through the towering cottonwood trees.

Assemblies of stringed instruments blend together and weave among each other like the winding path of the nearby Missouri River.

For the 19th straight year, the Missouri River Bluegrass and Old Time Music Festival has returned to the Cross Ranch State Park just west of Washburn.

The festival kicked off Thursday and concludes today with a full day of main-stage performances.

The first two days of the festival include bluegrass workshops - instructional sessions where campers are taught bluegrass method by some of the musicians that make up the festival's feature act.

"It's two days of instruction on an instrument working up to a large group gathering," said Evie Andrus, assistant director of the bluegrass camp. "It's a chance for people to hone their skills on their instrument and be able to learn more about a music that isn't prevalent in North Dakota, but is growing in popularity. It's a good opportunity for those that have a basic knowledge that are looking to take it up a notch."

The second day concludes with a number of live performances, followed by today's full lineup of live music and other activities.

The festival's headliner is award-winning Minneapolis bluegrass band The High 48s, with a number of other local and regional acts

joining them on the bill.

Music begins at 10 a.m. with an open stage, with scheduled acts starting at 1 p.m. The High 48s close out the show with their second performance of the day at 9:30 p.m.

The High 48s, who have performed at the Norsk Hstfest and are scheduled to appear at this year's North Dakota State Fair, feature original compositions played in a traditional style.

Joining the High 48s on the main stage today will be Blue Hazard, made up of four Minnesota teenagers, the New North String Band and Minot pickers Simple Infant Men.

The instructional sessions conclude with a group jam, with all the campers joining in on a pair of songs they worked on in the instrumental workshops.

Jamestown's Linda Tesky joined the banjo workshop for the sixth straight year.

"It's one of the few places I can get instruction," she said. "It's a smaller festival and more personal. The teaching is better because of the smaller groups."

Tesky's band, Spiritwood Creek, performed Friday at the festival.

The camps originally started with just guitar instruction, but soon expanded to cover all of the instruments played in traditional bluegrass bands, including fiddle, mandolin and bass.

"It's kind of unusual to have a class that size," said High 48s fiddler Eric Christopher of teaching the classes. "It's a great opportunity to give individual instruction and a lot of the people in the classes are camping right across the road from us, so we have an opportunity to get together (after the sessions)."

The inaugural festival started when former Cross Ranch ranger Jesse Hanson tried to come up with an idea to draw more campers to the park.

After hearing some local bluegrass acts, Hanson contacted the North Dakota Bluegrass Association to book acts for the initial festival. Much to his surprise, over 1,000 people showed up as the campsites swelled with music fans.

Excessively hot weather and rising gas prices have hurt the turnout the past few years, but festival director John Andrus is hoping the moderate temperatures and lower gas prices will change that.

"I'm hoping we'll get a nice crowd with the good weather," he said. "Hopefully, it'll be a good growing year."

The festival includes a number of events for children, including a guided tour of the Missouri River.