The festival website http://www.woodyguthrie.com/main2.htm
During his lifetime, Woody's left-wing politics made him damn unpopular in his home state. But since 2001 a Woody tune has been the official state folk song. (Oklahoma covers all bases with an official song, an official folk song, an official country and western song, and an official children's song.) It's not one of his political songs. "Oklahoma Hills" was actually a hit on the country charts back in the 1940s performed (and co-written) by Woody's cousin, Jack Guthrie, who was as All Music notes "one of the most important and influential country singers of the mid-'40s."
Of course, around the time of Woody's birth, Oklahoma was a hot bed of Debsian radicalism. Ironically, Woody's pop was an anti-Socialist agitator and Woody was named after Woodrow Wilson. The Rostow brothers, Walt and Gene, were named after Whitman and Debs.
I'll be attending on Saturday and promise some photographs and a report on my blog.
Stuart Elliott http://newappeal.blogspot.com/