Josiah Colle from Batesville, AR, took second place in the contest, winning a Mark Wilcox #34 Fiddle represented by Beautiful Music Violin Shop of Lawrence, KS. A chemical engineer, Colle said that he has been coming to Winfield for over ten years, and had finished in third place in a previous fiddle contest. He said that he plays mandolin and guitar, and may feel confident enough to enter the guitar championship in five years or so. His favorite thing to do in Winfield is spend time in the camps and watch The Steel Wheels perform.

Professional banjo player, Trevor Smith, Austin, TX, finished in third place at the Winfield bluegrass banjo competition. This was his first time to attend the Walnut Valley Festival. He said that he has heard about Winfield his whole life – the quality contests and the great campground jam sessions. He said that there are a lot of very high-caliber jams and the musicians are very polite and use good etiquette. Smith is a member of the Wood & Wire band, and grew up playing classical piano.

On the advice of his mentor and taking advantage of his last university break, Takumi Kodera, Tokiwadai, Hodogaya, Japan, flew to Winfield to enter the National Bluegrass Banjo Championship. Hiro Arita, his teacher and mentor, won the competition in the 1980s and encouraged Takumi to take part in this year’s competition. A civil engineering student at Yokohama National University, Takumi participated in the Fresh Grass Contest two years ago, and placed second at the Hakone Sunset Creek Bluegrass Festival.

In just his second time competing at Winfield, Hudsen Doucette, Waller, TX, claimed the top prize in the National Bluegrass Banjo Championship. A musician who plays in his family’s traveling band, Doucette said that he fell in love with the banjo when he was 11. “I heard a guy play the banjo at our church, and I was fascinated with it,” Doucette said. “I had played guitar earlier, but the banjo just blew me away. That was my instrument.