Memorial Day weekend, means Fiddles, at the Homestead National Historical Park

BEATRICE – A National Park hosted a well-known event over the Memorial Day Holiday weekend.

The Homestead National Historical Park held its Tallgrass Prairie Fiddle Festival, featuring competition in Junior and Senior Divisions, a fiddle workshop, picking and band competitions and a performance by The McGovern Stringband.

The annual event is sponsored by the Coffin Family Foundation to demonstrate fiddling as a source of entertainment for those who homesteaded across the U.S. 

The holiday weekend festival is also supported by the Friends of the Homestead, the Hevelone Foundation and Nebraska Humanities.  

The event is held just before the Homestead National Historical Park will host annual Homestead Days activities, coming up June 19^th through the 22^nd. 

2025 Tallgrass Prairie Fiddle Festival Results

Homestead National Historical Park – May  24, 2025

Junior Division

1^st Place                                     Cyndi Christensen

                                                        Omaha, NE

2^nd Place                                    Sophia Liang

                                                        Omaha, NE

3^rd Place                                     Charlotte Handelman

                                                        Lincoln, NE

Senior Division

1^st Place                                     Anne Nagosky

                                                        Omaha, NE

2^nd Place                                    Elya Constable

                                                        Blue Rapids, KS

3^rd Place                                     Hadley Bakan

                                                        Cook, NE

Picking Division

1^st Place                                     Michael Rye

                                                        Lincoln, NE

2^nd Place                                    Ben Hansen

                                                        Lincoln, BE

3^rd Place                                     Ben Rasmussen

                                                        Omaha, NE

Band Division

1^st Place                                     Rattle Snakes and Pearls

                                                        Lincoln, NE

2^nd Place                                    Wild Primrose Fiddle Band

                                                        Omaha, NE

3^rd Place                                     Lovestruck Revival

                                                        Lincoln, NE