More than 300 people attended the fifth annual Joel Sweeney and the Banjo Festival last Saturday.

The festival highlighted the banjo instrument and Joel Sweeney’s influence on the banjo as we know it today. It was hosted by the Appomattox Court House National Park and the Appomattox 1865 Foundation.

The event featured reenactors, live music from the Civil War period, and an educational walking tour of the newly restored Charles Sweeney cabin.

“By preserving that cabin, we’re preserving a little bit of that history,” said Bob Moeller, park volunteer and board member of the 1865 Foundation. “This is where Joel spent some of his life in that cabin. This is where his family lived. That is the tie to the banjo. The people that you have up there on the porch — it’s a big deal to some of them, these dedicated banjo people, that they are here playing where the banjo originated. And that’s why this festival is so important, and that’s why preserving the Sweeney cabin is so important.”

The banjo itself carries a multi-cultural history, according to park volunteers and friends of the Appomattox 1865 Foundation. Moeller said the banjo has its roots as an African instrument.

David Wooldridge, tour guide at the festival’s Sweeney cabin walking tour, regaled park visitors with the history of the banjo and Joel Sweeney’s hand in popularizing the instrument. Wooldridge answered questions about the banjo and dispelled some of the myths surrounding Sweeney’s affect on the banjo we know today.

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