PHOTO PROVIDED The Pennsylvania Heritage Songwriters will perform at the Lock Haven Regatta as part of the 33rd Annual Bear Bash.

LOCK HAVEN — Winners of the 18th Annual Pennsylvania Heritage Songwriting Contest (PHSC) will perform on the Stephen Hill Memorial Stage, on the corner of Water and Jay streets, Lock Haven, at 5 p.m., on the Sunday of Labor Day Weekend at the 55th Annual Lock Haven Regatta.

The performance will be part of the 33rd Annual Bear Bash, an all day concert put on by Bear Country Radio 99.9 FM, the media sponsor for the 2026 contest. The event will be emceed by David Pinelli, the event’s executive director.

Founded in 2008 as part of the Smoked Country Jam Bluegrass Festival to celebrate the State of Pennsylvania, its people, its places and its history in song, PHSC is a non-profit event intended to provide a venue for amateur songwriters to share their talent and artistry while fostering appreciation for, and study of Pennsylvania’s Heritage. In addition to the public performance, the top three finishers are awarded a cash prize of $300, $200, or $100 for their respective places. Entry deadline is July 15.

The contest was created, in part, to become a funding source for the Craig “Bubba” Bowman Memorial Award. Bubba was a celebrated Lock Haven area musician who lost his life in a car crash in 2006. The $500 award was first funded in 2024 through private donation. The recipient is a Central Mountain High School senior who demonstrates promise in songwriting, folk or roots related musical genres. It is hoped that the award can be extended to other schools as funds become available.

Over the years, the event has amassed a treasured trove of songs that will eventually be made accessible through a searchable database.

Popular themes among songwriters have included rivers; the Susquehanna and Monongahela, Hurricane Agnes, the Johnstown Flood, Centralia, the Civil War, Railroads, Coal Mining, Marcellus Shale Development, Legends, Lore and the places songwriters’ love or call home.

In its first year, top honors were awarded to Jim Colbert, of Bellefonte, Pa., for his work “The Fire’s Still Burning,” one of two entries that year about Centralia. Centralia has been the most referenced placename among the entries.

In 2011 Tom Oswald of Mansfield, Pa. took top honors with his topical work “Tioga” a lament for land under siege by natural gas well development.

In 2012 top honors were taken by Tom Smith, of Dedham, Mass., a Pa. expatriate from the Scranton area for his entry “Swallowed by the Hole” recounting the 1959 Knox Mince Disaster near Pittston, Pa., when 12 miners were lost as the Susquehanna River collapsed into the mine.

In 2023, the event released “Pennsylvania Heritage Songwriters Volume 1,” a 15-track compilation of winning songs from the first five years of the contest which will be available for purchase at the Regatta and other PHSC events. As the event progresses, additional recordings will be compiled and produced for fundraising and a Pennsylvania Heritage Songwriters tour of performances in schools, community centers, public libraries and venues will be organized.

To achieve these goals, the event welcomes sponsorship from individuals, civic organizations and Pennsylvania Heritage branded businesses and corporations.

Contest entry information is available through Facebook by searching Pennsylvania Heritage Songwriters, or by emailing music@ecosa.net with PHSC in the subject line.