Dr. Elmo Shropshire of "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" fame. Asa Kalley and Oz Whichman from Smoky Valley were attendees strummin' it up. Fiddler Tom Flagg, from Las Vegas, joined the performers. Carl Brusehaber and the Roadrunners on stage at the festival. Michael Rennie, Danni Wagner and Patrick Sean O'Brien were all smiles. Danni Wagner and Patrick Sean O'Brien dance a jig. Photos by HORACE LANGFORD / PVT. Advertisement

"It's windy," Chad Valencia, of Las Vegas, said at Pahrump's first annual Bluegrass Festival Saturday, March 15.

Valencia hadn't planned on attending the festival but saw what was going on at the VFW and decided to pull over with his baby and wife to check it out.

Even though cowboy hats went flying at times, that didn't stop the 300 people Dan Schinhofen, who hosted the event, said attended.

Schinhofen based the attendance on a car count and said that number was "a conservative estimate."

The wind also couldn't keep Joe Baudoin, his daughter, Carla, and his wife from making the hour-long drive up from Las Vegas just to hear some of their favorite music.

"This is great," Baudoin said. "It's just the type of music we like. It's not screaming and hollering, it's not jumping and jiving, it's just good clean music."

The Baudoins had come just in time to take part in judging the band scramble at noon by contributing their applause following a rousing fiddle contest.

Although the Boy Scouts pulled out of the festival at the last minute, people could still chow down on K-7 pizza, get information about community organizations like Homeland Heroes and the Pahrump DAV, all while supporting the VFW by sipping a beer.

Attendees were treated to music from Chris Stuart, Stuck in Reverse, and Dr. Elmo and Wild Blue.

Some of the locals even dusted off their fiddles for the contest.

"It's gone amazingly well," Schinhofen said of the festival, joking, "I wish I could control the weather."

"Thanks to everyone who made it out," he added.