Nashville Folk Festival and Gibson Original Acoustic Instruments will be giving away a new Gibson A-9 Mandolin during the weekend of September 12 and 13 at the first annual Nashville Folk Festival which will be held at the old Jordon Farm in Wilson County Tennessee. The Mandolin Celebration give-a-way is through the generosity of Gibson and is the brainchild of festival founder; recording artist, musician and recording studio owner Tabby Crabb of Lebanon, TN. Crabb came to the Nashville area twenty years ago with Mickey Gilley and The Urban Cowboy Band to play Hew Haw and just stayed. "I loved passing through the Cedar trees along the interstate when we would pass through Wilson and thought I'd like to live around here someday," Crabb states. He and his family moved to Wilson County in 1990. The idea for a folk festival at the farm has been in the works since the 1990s but it wasn't until Crabb met Dr. Robert Cogswell who is a folklorist with the State of Tennessee that the idea really started taking shape and with the help of Gypsy Carns, Jim Calvin and Andy May Nashville Folk Festival Inc. was formed as a non profit entity and the festival made some headway toward reality as site preparation work and finding just the right entertainers and artists began in 2002. All the acts have connections to the Nashville Tennessee area and either live here or work out of here. "It's all about being local or having local connections," Crabb states. The all acoustic line up features bluegrass, old timey and contemporary folk based music and includes these fine area, regional, national and international artists: Jim Calvin, Gypsy Carns, Mark Dyer, Curtis McPeake, Andy May, Cindy Kalmenson, Clive Gregson, Richard Ferreira, Toni Catlin, Suzanna Spring, Dutch, Tirk Wilder, Michael Kelsh, Rod Picott, Tom Roznowski, Jon Byrd, Sara Beck, Chris Crofton, Tucson Simpson Band, Joe Nolan, Celeste Krenz, Dave Cannon, Melmac Lickers, Buddy Ingram, Digger Lou, Larry Newgent, The Hedges Family, GeorgeBlack, Toby Steele, Johnny Bellar, 80 year old story teller Gladys Crabb. The festival is family friendly and spans two days opening at 2 PM on Friday and going till just after dark. On Saturday the festival starts in the morning performances around 10 AM and continues through around 9:30 pm with the presentation first Nashville Folk Festival Lifetime Achievement Award. Epiphone Musical Instruments joins Gibson in their sponsorship of Nashville Folk Festival 2003 and the festival directors will be presenting a new Epiphone EP-200 to a lucky ticket holder on Saturday afternoon. Please visit the website for details at http://nashvillefolkfestival.com Tickets will be limited to 300 and are available through the website or by calling sponsor Flatwood Studio at (615) 444-0171. Festival proceeds go to the artists themselves, Nashville Folk Festival Inc. for festival operation and the Lifetime of Achievement Award and to Friends of Cedars of Lebanon State Park (FOCOL).