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Event Preview: Lake Erie Folk Fest, Feb. 25

We've had a bit of a warm-up recently in Northeast Ohio. What better way to enjoy unseasonably nice weather than to hit up a music festival? If you're in the area, you're in luck. The second annual Lake Erie Folk Fest is Saturday, Feb. 25, at the Shore Cultural Center in Euclid, Ohio.

Among the free workshops, mini concerts, kids' activities, open jamming and the Grand Finale Concert, attendees will find plenty of old-time and banjo-centric fun.

Mark Olitsky will host two clawhammer banjo workshops, one for beginners and one for intermediate and advanced players. If you're a bluegrasser, don't worry. Paul Kovac will host host a pair of workshops to wet your appetite.

Dave Rice, Christina Tanczos and Joel Specht will host an old-time jam in what was once an orchestra practice room at the Shore Center, which was once a high school. If you're looking for something less structured, open jams will also be scattered throughout the building in various rooms, nooks and hallways.

Olitsky will join old bandmates Bob Smakula and Kevin Enoch for a reunion of the infamous Able Brothers during the evening Grand Finale Concert. That's three banjo luminaries for the price of one! Olitsky plays banjo in this trio, with Smakula on fiddle and Enoch on guitar.

And those are just the highlights. Check out the full schedule at the Lake Erie Folk Fest website. Tickets for the concert are $10, but the daytime activities are free.
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