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By Gene Axton

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Remington Ryde performing at a previous incarnation of the Pocono Mountains Bluegrass Festival.

Scott Eager was born into bluegrass. Eager’s father played with one of the pioneers of the genre, “The King of Bluegrass” Jimmy Martin, while Eager himself has gone on national tours as part of a bluegrass band. Contributing to the scene with his music wasn’t enough though—Eager began scheduling bands and running the stage at the Pocono Mountain Bluegrass Festival in 2000 and he’s acted as the festival’s sole promoter since 2011. The festival opens for the 19th time on June 26,

“I think (attendees will have fun) even if they’re not into bluegrass music,” Eager said. “All the people that come are very nice and friendly. I would say that we’re not the biggest bluegrass festival but we try to be the friendliest. We do our best to try and cater to the people as far as keeping the music real and traditional for the most part, but we go out of our way to try and accommodate people and try to keep the people’s interest in mind when we book bands.”

Eager said Ron Penska started the Pocono Mountains Bluegrass Festival. The event expanded from one day to three after Penska departed, and when Eager began working with the festival he was one of three promoters. Now, a job for one man, Eager is confident in his role.

“I’ve been playing bluegrass music all my life,” Eager said. “I have a lot of background in bluegrass music and a lot of history. I feel that I know what I’m looking for as far as quality goes. I also look for bands that are going to draw people into the festival. We have an excellent fiddle player, Travis Wetzel, who grew up in southeast Pennsylvania. He’s a top notch bluegrass fiddle player—it just doesn’t get much better.”

Remington Ryde, another band playing the festival, is based in central Pennsylvania. The band started 12 years ago and tours nationally, with shows in Arizona, California and Canada under their belts. Singer Ryan Frankhouser said the band has played many major bluegrass festivals throughout the United States, but the Pocono Mountains Bluegrass Festival remains one of their favorites.

“We always enjoy coming to that festival,” Frankhouser said. “We feel at home there. The people are nice and it’s one of our favorites to play—it’s a beautiful area. I highly recommend it—the whole stage area is covered and we have a wonderful time.”

Frankhouser’s mention of the covered stage and friendly people echoed Eager’s description of the event as three days of rain or shine bluegrass that lets festival attendees share a pleasant experience with pleasant people. Eager’s goal is to celebrate bluegrass music and help spread the bluegrass gospel. He does that by allowing campers to use one of the two covered pavilions to camp away from the sun. He does that by letting people 17 and under in free so they can be exposed to authentic bluegrass music and formulate their own opinion of the culture. He does that by giving amateur bluegrass musicians an opportunity they may not otherwise get.

“On Friday night at our festival we have what’s called a ‘Midnight Camp Site Bluegrass Jam Contest,’” Eager said. “The people who camp for the weekend and play, bring their instruments and get together and jam, so to speak. We go around and look for the best jam and the winners play on stage Saturday at noon. It encourages people to play music around the camp site but also, for a lot of them, they don’t get to play on the stage. It gives them an opportunity to perform on stage.”