The Friday NIght Jamboree is all about having fun and it doesn't matter what age you might be.

Young, old, middle-aged or young adult -- the proof that the Jamboree is an eternal event can be found in the faces of those who dance, those who play the music and those who just come to watch.

This young lady was all smiles last Friday but you will find such joy on any Friday night at Floyd's most famous musical venue.

Inside the country store, the dourness that comes from politics, Presidential elections, far off wars, high gas prices or a faltering economy fades away with the sounds of bluegrass and taps on dance shoes.

The Jamboree didn't exist when I grew up in Floyd but after four years back it is hard to remember when it was not part of the life and culture of the county. During the many years that I traveled the country and world, people would ask: "Where are you from?" When I said "Floyd, Virginia," many of them would do a double-take and tell me about the time they came to Floyd and visited the Friday Night Jamboree.

"It's put Floyd on the map, that's for sure," Hubert Robertson, former owner of the Country Store, told me in 2002 when Amy and I began filming the first documentary on the Jamboree.  The Jamboree has been featured in magazines and newspapers all over the world. A film crew from Germany visited last month and the Jamboree is featured on The Smithsonian's web site right now and will soon be in the institution's magazine.

Ah, the joy of it all.