SIDNEY -- The recreational vehicles started lining up at the Silver Spur Riding Club less than an hour after sunrise Tuesday morning -- and this is two days before the start of the 31st Blistered Fingers Family Bluegrass Festival.

"We had 90 RVs within the first couple of hours," Sandy Cormier said.

Cormier and the rest of her family are the organizers of the festival, an event they founded in 1991 and began to hold twice each summer starting in 1994.

The latest edition, a four-day affair, kicks off at 5 p.m. Thursday when the Goldwing Express perform.

"In Year One, I don't know if there were a couple of hundred people here," she said of the festival. " We have grown over the years. ... They call it coming home to a family reunion when they come here."

Soaring gas prices cut down on the number of spectators who came by RV in the June session of Blistered Fingers. But that certainly was not the case Tuesday, Cormier said.

She said Tuesday's RV turnout was nearly a record.

Cormier said much of the credit goes to the family atmosphere of the festival, as well as the willingness of performers to step off the concert stage and mingle with the audience.

"They will go out jamming with people," she said.

Bluegrass lovers tend to be people who play the music themselves -- and they aren't shy about bringing their instruments with them to festivals.

Walk around the Silver Spur Riding Club grounds and you are likely to see pockets of bluegrass fans playing together in informal jam sessions.

In many cases, Cormier said, the ages of those jamming fans will span several generations, which is another characteristic of the bluegrass scene.

"Everybody is equal in our eyes," Cormier said. "We don't see any age difference. There is no separation. We are all just equal."

The 31st Blistered Fingers festival features more than a dozen performers, including Dale Ann Bradley, the International Bluegrass Music Association's female vocalist of the year.

The Cormiers also are part of the concert lineup, taking the stage as Blistered Fingers.

Colin Hickey -- 861-9205

chickey@centralmaine.com