After a Half-Century, Country Music Jamboree Returns to Monroe Theatre in Woodsfield
WOODSFIELD – The Monroe Theatre is reviving an old country music festival after more than 50 years since it was last held on the theater’s stage.
Tickets for the Country Music Jamboree are nearly sold out. The event is set to take place at 6 p.m. today. Mick Schumacher, a county commissioner and member of the Monroe Arts Council, said only a few of the 300 tickets remained available as of Thursday.
“It’s going to be a good show. We’re really excited to see how it goes,” he said. “This will be our first packed house since COVID, so hopefully that will be a sign that things are going back to normal.”
Schumacher said eight performers will take the stage during the three-hour event including Sue Williams, Shortline Junction, Cole Winland, Gage Joseph, Jimmy Williams, Nephew Haddon, O.R. & W. Engineer, and Kadelan Griffith.
“The performers are going to do a little bit of a comedy routine in between sets,” he added.
Plans for the show have been underway for the past few months since members of the arts council discovered old newspaper articles about the former jamborees that were held each month.
“After doing research this past winter on the theater, we found the information on the jamboree. We didn’t even really know about it until then,” he said. “We’re just trying to bring back something that happened in the past to the theater now.”
Schumacher said the jamboree has not been held at the theater since the early 1960s. Sue Williams performed on the theater’s stage during the final jamboree that was held decades ago. Williams will again grace the stage to perform at the revived jamboree, he said.
“We are bringing her back to play now. She’s kind of ushering this back for us,” he said.
In its heyday, the theater would hold the jamborees each month and would feature a variety of local performers.
For more information or to obtain tickets for shows, call 740-213-5757.