Arlington resident takes over longest running US dulcimer festival

Published 1:30 am Friday, May 8, 2026

ARLINGTON — An Arlington resident took over coordinating duties for the longest continuously running mountain dulcimer festival in the United States. In the process, she found a dulcimer maker right in her hometown.

Retired Lakewood School District music teacher Beverly Hoback, 73, has attended the Kindred Gathering Dulcimer Festival since 2001 with her son Joel Hoback, 33, who has autism and lives with her. This year, she volunteered to lead the event after founder and Port Townsend resident Robert Force decided to step away. The festival first began in 1975.

Arlington residents John Ellis, 74, and his wife Teresa Ellis, 66, of Sunny Day Dulcimers, will attend for the first time this year. John Ellis started making mountain dulcimers after he retired from a 36-year career with the Seattle Fire Department.

The festival will take place July 17-19 at Alton L. Collins Retreat Center in Eagle Creek, Oregon. Rooms are available for rent at the retreat center, but registration is required before May 31 or until all rooms are taken. Those interested in attending the festival can text their name and email address to 425-330-5146 to register or for more information.

“I was just sort of the only person who said, ‘OK, I’ll do it,’” Beverly Hoback said during a trip to Ellis’ workshop Thursday. “I was really worried that it was going to die out when Robert Force retired.”

Mountain dulcimers, also called Appalachian dulcimers, are fretted string instruments that originated in southwestern Pennsylvania and western Virginia, built by the immigrants from Scotland and Ireland. It is believed to be one of two stringed instruments that originated in North America, along with the 5-stringed banjo.

It is unrelated to the hammered dulcimer, which originated in the Middle East.

Hoback described the original Kindred Gathering as a “bunch of hippies who would get together on a farm and camp out.”

At first, the number of Kindred Gathering attendees grew each year. However, as people grew older, fewer made the trip.

Hoback first decided to attend the festival because she thought it would be a fun weekend trip, she said. “I owned a dulcimer for years, but I never really played it.”

She kept going back with her son, she said. They would often hike rather than attend workshops, and she would play guitar at one of the two annual concerts.

“It was a weekend of fun, friendships and incredible music,” Hoback said. “It’s only been in the last few years that I’ve really started learning how to play dulcimer.”

Now, as the festival coordinator, Hoback hopes to help grow the event so more people will attend, she said.

“I will feel like a failure if I don’t have at least 40 people,” she said. “Fifty would make me happier.”

Through her efforts to market the festival, Hoback found Ellis and his wife, who were both instantly excited to take part, Ellis said.

“I told her right then and there, ‘Yes, we will be there,’” he said. “I would love to do that.”

Ellis said it was an “honor and a privilege” to be the sole dulcimer vendor at the festival. He hopes to have five or six instruments ready for sale.

Ellis will also teach a workshop on the dulcimer’s history. Other workshops include opportunities for beginners to learn to play, to learn a user-friendly music notation called tablature, embroidery and an intro to clog dancing.

“People do workshops on guitar or people bring percussion instruments,” Hoback said. “It’s really a folk music festival, but heavily emphasizing dulcimer.”

There will also be opportunities for attendees to create their own workshops during the festival, she said.

Outside of vending, Ellis takes custom orders that take about 3-4 weeks to make if he has no other work.

“If I have to shop for wood and have it shipped from, you know, Wisconsin, then it’s going to take longer and be pricier,” he said.

John and Teresa Ellis will take road trips around the country and load up their bus with upward of 700 pounds of wood, Teresa Ellis said. They have found many obscure saw mills to work with, she said.

“You’ll see a dirt road with a sign that says there’s a saw mill at the end of it,” Teresa Ellis said. “We’ll turn down it not knowing what to expect.”

John Ellis had been a woodworker for most of his life before becoming a luthier, or someone who makes stringed musical instruments, he said. He learned from watching tutorials for “hundreds of hours” on YouTube, Ellis said.

On average, Ellis’ dulcimers cost around $350.

As coordinator of Kindred Gathering, Hoback is proud of how inexpensive the festival is, especially compared to other dulcimer events, she said.

“It’s just a fantastic way for people who don’t have an arm and a leg to come and learn the dulcimer — perform in a very supportive environment,” Hoback said. “And over the years, when you come year after year, you do develop these deep friendships, and so you come for the friendships too.”

The only cost for attendees is room and board at the retreat center, she said, which is less than $400 and includes six meals.

As of Thursday, there are still two ADA-compliant rooms available. There are also two campsites within 15 minutes. Both offer tent and RV sites.

Kindred Gathering rotates each year between locations in California, Oregon and Washington. Next year, it will take place in Washington, to be coordinated by Hoback again.

Taylor Scott Richmond: 425-339-3046; taylor.richmond@heraldnet.com; X: @BTayOkay