New features add to Family Music Festival & Fair

The Family Music Festival & Fair, now entering its 8th year, is a very popular attraction for families in Jackson County and the surrounding area. This year, doors will open at noon on Feb. 1 at Jackson High School, 544 Wildwood Ave. Activities will continue throughout the day.

In the 2004 version of the annual festival, the JSO is teaming up with award-winning children’s author Anna Celenza and will present Austrian composer Joseph Haydn’s “The Farewell Symphony” with narration from Ms. Celenza’s recent children’s book of the same title.  

The festival also will feature performances by the Jackson Youth Symphony, Jackson Chorale, Jackson High School Jazz Ensemble, Mojo Phoenix, The Jackson Banjo Club, Witness 4, and Jackson Area School Choirs.

In addition to the live entertainment, the event will feature hands-on music exhibits, musical instrument demonstrations and trials, make-and-take crafts and early childhood music presentations. Local face-painting artists, balloon artists and Ronald McDonald will make appearances as well.

Concessions provided by McDonald’s Restaurants and the Jackson High School Band Boosters will be available throughout the event. The Jackson Symphony Guild’s jewelry sales committee also will be on hand to display and sell donated jewelry to benefit the JSO.

In addition to the music festival, the JSO and Jackson County Intermediate School District have teamed up to promote literacy as a part of the project. More than 700 Jackson County classrooms, grades 2 through 6, have been invited to participate in a poetry contest on a theme of “Farewell.”  

All elementary schools in Jackson County have received a copy of Anna Celenza’s book, The Farewell Symphony, along with a CD of the musical work by Haydn. Prizes will be awarded in each grade category and winners will receive a classroom visit from the author, signed copy of the book and complementary tickets for the classroom, families and teacher. The author will read winning poems during the concert performance.

“This should be the biggest and best festival that we have had,” said Nancy Kyro, volunteer since the fair’s inception and past chairman. “The JSO and the Guild are very proud to be able to combine efforts for literacy with our music festival event.”

Tickets are $2.50 for children 12 and under; $5 for adults; $10 for families of four or more. For more information, please call the JSO office at 782-3221 or visit www.jacksonsymphony.org.

Sponsors for the Family Music Festival & Fair are: the Jackson Symphony Guild, Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Jackson County Intermediate School District, Jackson Area McDonald’s Restaurants, Baker College and News/Talk 970 WKHM.