A festival to honor local legendary musician Otha Turner returns next month.
The 73rd Annual G.O.A.T Picnic is set for Aug. 25-26 at the Northwest Shrine Club building located at 8647 U.S. Highway 51 North in Coldwater. The event is free, and all ages are welcome.
The two-day festival will include several food and art vendors and the best talents from Hill Country Blues. The event pays homage to perhaps the greatest fife and drum musician of all time, the late Otha Turner of Tate County who passed away in 2003 at age 95.
Turner began hosting Labor Day picnics in the late 1950s by butchering a goat and cooking it in an iron kettle, while his band provided musical entertainment. The picnics began as a modest neighborhood and family gathering to eventually draw music fans from all over the world.
Musical artists scheduled to appear at the G.O.A.T Picnic include RL Superbad, Jones and Webster, Griffin Winton, Jason Freeman, Rising Stars Fife and Drum, Comin Up Muddy, Lady Trucker, Proud Hound, RL Boyce, Kenny Brown and Cedric Burnside.
