Country music lovers will gather to honor country legend Hank Williams this year at the 45th annual Hank Williams Festival.
The Hank Williams Festival, sponsored by the Hank Williams Museum, is a two-day event where people can listen to live country music and connect with other country music lovers.
Gerald Hodges, the public relations specialist for the festival, said attendees will be able to experience what Hank Williams would have lived like during his lifetime.
“People that come to this festival will be within a five-acre music park called Hank Wade Music Park. On this park is a large Creole type house that Hank lived in the 1930s… you will be able to live the experience of how Hank sat underneath this house and played his guitar,” Hodges said.
He said the festival will have several vendors and the event will be rain or shine due to cover from the trees and the pavilion festivalgoers can sit under.
Hodges also said the festival got its current location when the City of Georgiana purchased Hank Williams’ childhood home and turned it into a museum.
“Marilyn Watson [who] was with the city of Georgiana purchased the house which is now called Hank’s Boyhood Home and Museum, and which is on the grounds of the festival. And from 1993 until the present time, this has been the site,” he said.
The Hank Williams Festival does not only attract people from the Yellowhammer state. Hodges said the event has attendance that is mostly from out of state.
“45% of our visitors are from the Greenville, Alabama, Georgiana area within was, say 25 or 30 miles. The other 75 or 80% are from outside that area. I meet people every year from all over the country,” he said.
Some festivalgoers even come from out of the country to attend the festival.
“About two years ago, we had to tour buses stop in. And these were some country singers from New Zealand. And they stopped in and we found out who they were. And two of them got up on the stage,” Hodges mentioned.
Important governmental figures such as the German Consulate have also attended the Hank Williams Festival in the past.
“The German Consulate in New York City was up here before last. And he heard Hank Williams when he was a boy. And he wanted to see what it was about. And he brought his entire office down from New York City,” Hodges explained.
The festival will have big names such as George Jones, The Oak Ridge Boys and Ray Price along with local artists such as Starla Jones among many others performing.
“Perhaps one of the biggest events will be a lady named Starla Jones. She is from the area. She's a math teacher, a local math teacher. And at 6 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, whatever you're doing, you need to come down and listen to her because if you're a southern person, your hair will rise,” Hodges said.
However, Hodges said even without the big names, the Hank Williams Festival would still be a success because of the local talent Alabama has to offer.
“With or without the big name entertainers, there would be a festival it would be a great festival, because we'd have local and regional bands, so many of the people that you'd be surprised how many good bands are, you know, that we have in Alabama,” Hodges said.
The Hank Williams Festival is May 31 and June 1. More information on the festival is posted on the website.
