It all began in 1997 when a group of passionate volunteers gathered with one mission, to honor Woody Guthrie’s music and philosophy that every person has worth, none more or less than another. Thus began the journey of creating a national destination from Woody’s hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma.
The inaugural 1998 festival included Guthrie’s son Arlo Guthrie, British folk-punk-rock artist Billy Bragg, Ellis Paul, Jimmy LaFave, Joel Rafael, and The Red Dirt Rangers along with headliners Tom Paxton, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Peter Keane, Tom Skinner and Kevin Welch. For the first festival, the Woody Guthrie Coalition commissioned Native American …