The free annual event took place on Saturday and Sunday, March 21 and 22 at Sahuaro Ranch Park in Glendale from 10 a.m. to 5 p. m. Over 200 performers on 6 stages, free public workshops styles from Folk and Bluegrass to Cowboy Poetry and Storytelling and jam session were part of what the two-day to offer.

Bette Sharpe/Glendale Daily Planet no. 2844.

Cathy Barton and Dave Para performing on the Foreman’s House Pouch on Saturday, March 21, 2015 at this year’s Glendale Folk and Heritage Festival. Dave Para played leaf and wowed the crowd.

Cathy Barton is a protégé of Roy Acuff, Jimmie Driftwood, and Grandpa Jones. A master of the frailing banjo style, she is a multiple winner of the Tennessee old-time banjo championship. She introduced the hammered dulcimer to the Walnut Valley Festival at Winfield, and holds a master’s degree in folklore.

Together, Cathy and Dave have celebrated the musical traditions and folk-life of Missouri and the Ozarks in festivals, clubs concert halls, schools and studios across the U.S. and Europe. Their audiences are as diverse as their repertoire. A versatile duo, Cathy and Dave play several stringed instruments, including hammered and fretted dulcimers, banjo, guitar and autoharp, as wee as "found" instruments like bones, spoons, mouthbow and leaf.

 Note they are performing next to the quilt made by Debbie Garvey to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the festival, which was last year. The quilt is made from the signatures of the musicians that played at the festival last year. It is a special treasure now as Joe Bethancourt has passed on.

Bette Sharpe/Glendale Daily Planet no.2861.

Rick Nester and others perform, learn and enjoy the music under a shady tree in Sahuaro Ranch Park on Saturday, March 21, 2015 at the Glendale Folk & Heritage Festival.

Bette Sharpe/Glendale Daily Planet no. 2862.

Rick Nester hails from New York and cut his teeth on folk music played in coffee houses in the 70s, doing rock and pop covers, and was soon playing Irish music as well. He met Pete Seeger when a friend invited him to go sailing on the "Woody Guthrie". That day there was no wind. So the musicians rowed to Poughkeepsie and Pete and Rick performed on stage at small festival. Rick became a member of the Hudson River Sloop Singers and began playing on traditional boats. Now a ship’s captain with a 100 ton Master License from the Coast Guard as well as a Grammy winner for his The River Flows Both Ways.

Bette Sharpe/Glendale Daily Planet no. 2866.

Musicians made music using a variety of instruments, including a washboard.

Bette Sharpe/ Glendale Daily Planet no. 2870.

Buckshot Dot was one of the Arizona Culture Keepers who performed and amazed on Saturday, March 21. Here she is performing in the Fruit Packing Shed.

Marshall Trimble, Arizona’s Official state Historian,

 Ted Ramirez, "Tucson’s Official Troubadour",

 Ted Newman ("Playing", and Lucky Me"

Marshall Trimble, Arizona’s Official state Historian, Ted Ramirez, "Tucson’s Official Troubadour", and Ted Newman ("Playing", and Lucky Me" were 2 of his early titles) all are among Arizona’s Culture Keepers—saving Arizona’s culture, history and traditions through music, poetry and stories.

Bette Sharpe/Glendale Daily Planet no. 2891.

Bob Frank (California Songwriter) performs next to the quilt made by Debbie Garvey to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the festival, which was last year. The quilt is made from the signatures of the musicians that played at the festival last year. It is a special treasure now as Joe Bethancourt has passed on.