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The La Conner Guitar Festival is back after a two-year hiatus caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Beginning Friday, May 13 and ending that Sunday evening, music enthusiasts from La Conner and well beyond will gather in Maple Hall and the Civic Garden Club to experience the festival’s world-class luthier exhibits, workshops and concerts.

Luthiers are craftsmen that build or repair guitars and other stringed instruments.

Single day tickets and weekend passes can be purchased online or at the door. The box office at Maple Hall will open 9:30 a.m. Friday. General admission will give you access to the 54 luthier exhibits and vendors on display at Maple Hall and its mini concerts held upstairs.

The workshops and concerts at the Civic Garden Club are an additional cost. The 90-minute workshops will have special instruction from industry professionals on skills including fingerstyle playing, chord building and alternative tuning.

The full concerts, from Tim Farrell and Paul Asbell, along with special guests, are Friday and Saturday night, 7-9 p.m.

Additionally, free concerts will be held at the Waterfront Café and Santo Coyote all weekend.

The Guitar Festival started in 2017, organized by Brent McElroy and his late wife, Shirley Makela. McElroy, a self-taught luthier, has been creating guitars for over 25 years. His workshop and business, McElroy Guitars, is based in Shelter Bay.

“One day in late 2016 Shirley came up to me and said, ‘I think we should have a guitar festival here in La Conner.’” McElroy explained. “She gave me a week to think about it. Obviously, I said ‘let’s do it,’ and the rest is history.”

In previous years, the festival had close to 1,400 attendees. McElroy hopes for a similar turnout next weekend.

He said they had 2020 completely scheduled and ready to go when COVID-19 hit, and they had to cancel. This year’s festival will be the fourth edition and people are excited about it.

With so much to see and hear, ticketholders will have a tough time choosing which events to attend.

“You should see the guitars, that’s the cake,” McElroy stressed, “the rest is icing.”

McElroy said he thinks most of the town’s merchants thought it would be discontinued after Shirley died suddenly in 2021.

“The festival was Shirley’s baby. It brought her such great joy,” He said. “There was no way I was going to quit on her.”

Even though putting on this year’s Guitar Festival has been extremely difficult for McElroy, he is determined to continue, building on Shirley’s love for the luthier community and La Conner.

“It is Shirley’s legacy, and I will continue with it for as many years as I have left in me.”

Information:

laconnerguitarfestival.com