Standing Stone State Park hosting the 43rd annual National Rolley Hole Marbles Championship and Music Festival Saturday to preserve a centuries-old localized folk tradition.
Standing Stone State Park’s Jonathan Williams said the tournament has been a fixture at the park since 1983. Williams said the game is passed down through generations and maintains a strong family atmosphere among the competitors.
“It does just keep the story alive,” Williams said, “Rolley Hole itself is a traditional folk marble game and it’s really only played in the Middle Tennessee, Northern, I’m sorry Southern Middle Kentucky area.”
Williams said the competition takes place on a yard measuring 40 feet by 25 feet made of sifted loam soil. The surface is prepared until it has the consistency of baking powder, allowing players to see the tracks left by the marbles.
“And it’s light enough after it’s sifted, you can roll a marble across the yard and you can actually see the impression,” Williams said.
Williams said 16 teams have entered the two-versus-two tournament which requires players to navigate a course of three holes. Teams must travel up and down the yard to complete 12 holes while using defensive strategies to prevent opponents from ricocheting their marbles across the yard.
“They can put various backspin, sidespin, so it’s a little bit like pool as well,” Williams said. “They can hit the marble in a way to send their opponents’ marble one way and ricochet themselves either in the opposite direction where they need to go or at times they just need to sit where they was and the backspin allows them to do that as well.”
Williams said the event includes flint marble making demonstrations where crafters create the marbles used in the games. The festival also features a British Marble Tournament, Georgia Rolley Hole, and youth divisions for a game called Ringer.
“Also during it all we have various arts and crafts for kids and marble hunts as well, and think of a marble hunt as kind of like an Easter egg hunt but with marbles,” Williams said.
Williams said the connection between marbles and music in the area dates back to marble makers like Bud Garrett who wrote songs about the game. The festival will host live bluegrass and old-time music from 10am to 6pm near the Rec Hall.
“So it has a long history, marbles and music going together and this event has been featured various national and across the globe media over its 43 years,” Williams said. “It’s been featured on almost all the local news stations, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, National Geographic, Smithsonian Institute, even in the Charles Schulz Peanuts comic strip National Rolley Hole and Standing Stone was mentioned in it as well back in the 90s.”
Williams said the park will provide a shuttle service from the park office and the area below the dam to help with event parking.
