Winfield’s annual bluegrass festival goes virtual with 7 days of music.

Since 1972, bluegrass musicians and fans from around the world have gathered in Winfield for the Walnut Valley Festival.

Except, of course, for this year, which would have been the 49th annual festival.

But its spirit lives on virtually, beginning this weekend and continuing through next week, in something organizers are calling “Walnut Valley Festival 48.5.”

When plans for the virtual festival were announced in June, performers and fans were “remarkably understanding,” executive director Bart Redford said.

“We were touched, very impressed,” he said. “A lot of the entertainers that we have who come here every year had been getting cancellation calls for months and months at that point. One of the first things they asked us was ‘How can we help?’ ‘How can we support the festival?’ It was very gratifying.”

Fans can get online at wvfest.com for the virtual Walnut Valley experience.

On Saturday and Sunday, the festival is offering a series of workshops via Zoom. However registration is now closed for those workshops. Next week will have five evenings of performances, each beginning at 5:30 p.m. Then on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 19-20, performances will be streamed throughout the days.

Monday will be a best-of concert featuring performances from Vintage Stage 5. Tuesday will feature a virtual music crawl, with several local bands, followed by a video that celebrated the festival’s 25th anniversary.

Wednesday will be an evening concert headlined by festival stalwart John McCutcheon, who has been streaming his own concerts during the pandemic, as well as writing and recording a new album, “Cabin Fever: Songs from the Quarantine.”

“I think it’s one of his best yet,” Redford said. “It’s got things that relate to events that are related to COVID, and just some very timely songs.”

McCutcheon “reached out for us,” Redford added. “He has done a tremendous job of making a pivot onto this virtual reality.”

The night also has a video devoted to Andy May’s Acoustic Kids, a program mentoring young players.

On Thursday, a championship showcase concert will be shown with winners of the 2019 contests in autoharp, finger-style guitar, mountain dulcimer, mandolin, fiddle, flat pick guitar, hammer dulcimer and bluegrass banjo.

Friday, Sept. 18, will feature a New Song Showcase, where aspiring composers submitted their work for review by professional songwriters and artists in 10 different lyric categories. Highlights from Stage 11 at the festival will follow.

The virtual festival also will include a battle of the bands, something Redford said hasn’t been done since the early years of the festival. Nine groups are competing online for votes — $10 per vote — with the winner getting a slot in next year’s festival.

“We’re looking seriously to ask if that is something that can be adapted going forward,” Redford said. “You hear a lot about people changing the way they do things and discovering things that make sense for non-COVID times.”

By the time he announced the virtual version of Walnut Valley, Redford said, many festivals had already decided to go the online route.

“We could look and see what other music festivals had done, what had worked and what didn’t,” he said.

Putting on a virtual festival may be more difficult than having one in person, he said.

“You would think it would be easy-peasy,” Redford said. “It was completely unexplored territory for us.”

There is no cost to view the virtual festival, but a donation button will be plainly in sight, Redford said, with 60% of the money raised going to the performers originally scheduled and the remaining 40% to the festival.

Money for the festival will get it “back on track” for next year, he said.

“We’re not really set up to have two years between one festival and the next,” he said. “We are trying to make sure we get some continuity and we’re looking not only at this virtual festival — which we make sure comes off OK — but get into the hiring process for the next.”

Once decisions were made, planning for the virtual festival went smoothly, Redford said.

“In terms of programs, we got everything we wanted and a little bit more,” he said. “In terms of the way it’s delivered, the platform it’s delivered, there were some forks in the road. Looking back on it, I’m not sure if I would make those same choices. But it was a learning process for us.

“I just keep hoping it’s something where we’ll never, ever have to use this knowledge in the future,” Redford added. “I really hope this is our first and last virtual festival.”

WALNUT VALLEY FESTIVAL 48.5

When: Sept. 12-20

Where: www.wvfest.com. Check for the full schedule of music, kids music camp activities and a virtual arts and crafts show.

How much: Free with donations accepted on the site, with 60% to entertainers and 40% to festival