Wallowa County Old Time Fiddlers Contest will celebrate its 35 th year June 11 and 12 at Cloverleaf Hall in Enterprise.

Willie Carter of Lebanon, first place winner of the senior division of the state contest held in May, will be among this year’s judges. “Those chairs get awfully hard and uncomfortable after awhile,” Carter said about the difficult part of being a judge instead of a contestant. “Even when you enjoy what you are doing, you need to get up and stretch once in awhile.”

Carter will be joined on the judges panel by Dorothy Campo of Yakima, Wash., and Jody Domschot, La Grande. Domschot , a competitor in the Enterprise contest in years past, will judge here for the first time though she previously judged in Weiser, Idaho, at the National Old-time Fiddlers Contest.

Each tune in the contest will be scored on the three basics of traditional old-time fiddling: danceable music, rhythm and timing , and tone quality. Each contestant plays three tunes in each round, so that makes a total of nine scores a fiddler receives from each judge in each round.

“It’s no wonder that judges have numbers instead of sugar plums dancing in their heads,” joked Nancy Trump, contest coordinator.

She noted that listeners like herself and the judges aren’t always in agreement on the winners. “I know what I like to hear, but the judges and I don’t always agree since they are looking for specifics and I’m just enjoying the music.”

Fiddling on June 11 begins at 7 p.m., when the Wallowa County and senior divisions compete.

The first round preliminaries get underway June 12 at 1 p.m. and the finals start at 7 p.m. Saturday fiddlers compete in Small Fry, Junior-Junior, Junior, Intermediate, Open and Championship categories. A total of $810 in cash prizes and 45 trophies will be awarded.

Children under 12 are admitted free during all three shows. Admission for Friday night’s and Saturday afternoon’s rounds is $3 for adults and $2.50 for senior citizens; Saturday night admission is $3.50. Saturday lunch and Friday and Saturday dinner will be available to fiddlers and the public.

The fidders contest is sponsored by the Wallowa Valley Arts Council and a number of northeast Oregon businesses.

Call Charles or Nancy Trump at 541-886-7885, e-mail cntrump@uwtc.net or visit www.fiddlerscontest.org for more information.