The New England Fiddle Contest

In 1974, Peace Train founder Paul LeMay pulled together an old-time fiddle contest on the weekend before Labor Day. So successful was the event that it became an annual tradition, drawing crowds of 65,000-70,000 spectators during the late '70s and early '80s. After the 1984 event, there was a 15-year hiatus, during which time the gleeful squeals of fiddling were not to be heard in Hartford. In 1999, the New England Fiddle Contest returned to Bushnell Park through the efforts of a revitalized Peace Train Foundation. Still a grassroots event, the festival relies upon sponsorships and donations to make the park come alive each year with fiddlers from Canada to the Carolinas.