By MATT LINDSEY

MADRID – After a quarter century of camping and live music, the Madrid Bluegrass Festival is no more.

The festival was started by Bud Rupert over 25 years ago and was taken over in 2005 by Tammy Hawkins. All 25 festivals took place at the community park grounds.

“It started out as a two-day small gathering with some tents in the first couple years,” Hawkins said. “In the last 15 years, the community park was filled and campers would often show up a week early.”

Hawkins, who was involved with the festival all 25 years, said the decision to end the musical gathering was a combination of a declining number of campers, concert attendance and a desire to move on from the festival.

“I felt like after 25 years it was a good time to do it,” she said.

Hawkins had hope someone would step into her role and take over the festival, but she knew it was a big commitment for someone to take on.

“It is a lot work and it took a lot of volunteers…but we could have used double the volunteers,” she said.

The festival was always held on graduation weekend and with volunteers and committee members getting older, many had obligations to their children and grandchildren instead.

“Taking away just a couple volunteers has a big impact,” she said.

Gate attendance and the number of campers had steadily declined over the past few years.

The number of campers in recent years was about half, and the overall attendance for the festival itself was down almost half as well, she said.

“The Canadian dollar affected attendance the last three years,” she said.

Proceeds from each year’s festival went into funding the next one.

Any proceeds went into enhancing the park, including funding benches and helping to pay for the gazebo, Hawkins said.

With attendance down, Hawkins said it booking bigger, better bands became more difficult.

“I feel bad it has to end,” she said.

The festival had grown over the years to include more than live music. Fireworks, musical workshops, fishing derbies and 5K runs were all added to the festival to keep people entertained during the weekend.

“I have a lot of good memories, made new friends that became family…but it’s good to move on,” Hawkins said. “I hoped someone would of taken it over but I know it takes a lot of work.”