Blakeley Park Bluegrass Festival Features Top Bands, Guest Artist

Four of the top bluegrass bands on the Gulf Coast will perform at the annual Blakeley Bluegrass Festival Saturday, October 4 at the state park near Spanish Fort.

Spectators set up their chairs in the shade of centuries old oak trees and relax to continuous live music at Washington Square , which was the center of the historic old town of Blakeley in the early 1800s. Food and soft drinks are available from the Blakeley Park concession wagon at modest prices.

Blakeley State Park has been sponsoring the Bluegrass Festival for most of the past 20 years on the first Saturday of October. The Festival provides family-friendly outdoor entertainment while preserving America 's native bluegrass music and spotlighting talented musicians of the area.

The first phase of Blakeley Park 's new, modern campground is now open. Wilderness RV campsites with full utilities are available to musicians and visitors to the Bluegrass Festival this fall for the first time. An older campground is popular with overnight visitors with tents or pop-ups.

Blakeley is a 2,000-acre historic and natural state park crisscrossed by miles of trails. Historical features include archaeological sites of Indian villages, an early French plantation, the 1813 town of Blakeley that served as Baldwin County 's first county seat, and extensive earthworks on which the last battle of the Civil War was fought April 9, 1865 .

Huge, old live oaks and many other trees are among its natural attractions. Unseen by visitors, but protected by the park are rare and endangered plants including wild orchids found nowhere else in Alabama . Blakeley Park also makes accessible the wild and scenic Tensaw-Mobile River Delta with eco-tours aboard its boat.

Pets are welcome on leash and under control. Radios and portable television sets are allowed with use of earphones. Admission to the Bluegrass Festival is $10 for adults, $5 for children 6-12 and under 6 free. Credit cards are accepted for admission and camping fees.

All proceeds from the Festival go to the operations of the park. For more information on the Festival go to www.blakeleypark.com or call (251) 626-0798. For campground reservations call (251) 626-5581.

Blakeley State Park is located on Alabama Highway 225 about 4.5 miles north of its intersection with U.S. 31 near Spanish Fort.

Saint Patrick's Day Celebration

A boat tour of the Tensaw-Mobile River Delta and a dockside lunch at the Blue Gill, a Causeway seafood restaurant, is how 48 partygoers in the area chose to celebrate St. Patrick's Day Monday. Pictured docking the Blakeley State Park boat,the Delta Explorer, at the Blue Gill dock are, (front to back) Captain Garrett Hatcher and Park Supervisor Tim Gilchrist.(Photo submitted by Jo Ann Flirt)