It's time for Positively Kansas.

Coming up, a major Kansas event that draws visitors from around the world reaches a historic milestone.

But is its future now in doubt?

We'll take a look.

Also, meet the Doogie Howser of Kansas lawyers.

He's barely old enough to vote.

Plus, in our Kansas Wild Edge Report, we'll see why prairie chickens are not just good eating.

They're also fun to watch.

And Kansas is ground zero for watching them.

Im Sierra Scott.

A half hour of information and inspiration is cued up and ready to roll on Positively Kansas.

Is this a swan song or just a temporary decrescendo?

That's what organizers of Winfield's Walnut Valley Festival are pondering.

For half a century, this weeklong event has attracted bluegrass music, performers and fans from around the world.

But now, as Chris Frank shows us, a few tough years could put the historic festival's future in doubt.

One, two, Ready, go.

Welcome to bluegrass.

Thank you.

This is our 50 year anniversary.

50 years is quite a milestone for Winfield's Walnut Valley Festival to celebrate.

Come on over here, sweetie, and I'll be glad to help.

I'm glad you came.

Winfield is a destination in mid-September for thousands of national and international fans of acoustic music with a bluegrass, folk or country flavor to it.

There are fans here like Laurel Kern of Tulsa.

This is my crews first, So I was here nine years ago and it was amazing and I loved it so much.

Loved it so much, she says.

But I had to wait a few years to bring the rest of the family, including five, six and 12 year old children.

Couldn't wait for the kids to be old enough to hang out and listen to the music every night, and play, and... Winfield has a population of about 12,000.

But during the third week of September, the population can more than double.

The music lovers make their home for the week and some even two weeks on the Cowley County Fairgrounds.

Photos from above help give an appreciation for the population density here.

This speeded up drone video shows what's called land rush.

It occurs before the start of the festival when campers are allowed to drive to their campsite.

Now, attendance varies every year, typically 11 to 15000 plus, occasionally 16,000 fans line up to attend.

Hi, darling.

You got the pass?

Yes.

Folks like Becky Hrabik from Malaysia keep coming back.

This is her 15th festival year.

She sums it up in simple terms.

Great music.

Great pickin.

Just hanging out with friends.

Oh, the summer Time is comin.

And now a bit more on what Winfield is.

There are four main stages where well-known bluegrass artists have performed over the five decades.

The list of stars performing here, numbers in the hundreds.

Dixie Chicks.

It is so lengthy.

I risk mentioning a few at the expense of offending fans for not mentioning others.

Alison Krauss and Union Station.

Merle Travis.

The Dixie Chicks.

John McCutcheon.

40 Appearances.

Dan Crary.

24 years.

Steel Wheels.

Ten times.

Linda Tilton.

34 appearances.

Doc and Merle Watson.

And the list goes on and on and on.

After all, there have been 50 live festivals here.

Walnut Valley also has eight National and International Instrument playing championships, attracting worldwide contestants.

Before Alison Krauss won her 27 Grammys, she won the fiddle contest here at the age of 13 in 1984.

So Winfield has helped launch careers.

So a lot of artists who've gone on to prominent careers have had early chances at Winfield to really show their stuff.

This all started in 1972 with a very long-- well, too long of a name.

It was called the Walnut Valley National Guitar Flat Picking Championships Festival.

After some variations on the name.

They settled on the shorter and easier name, the Walnut Valley Festival.

And even regulars like ten year veteran Sean Jones of Austin, Texas, simply referred to it as Winfield.

It's just a great tradition.

And, you know, a lot of admiration for the people that got this going and try to explain it to people that don't come here.

They don't understand.

So I say I'm going to a family reunion because if I say music festival, it just doesn't convey what it really means.

And Walnut Valley is like a family reunion to frequent attenders.

May I see your wristband?

There is a local pride among those who've worked the festival over the decades.

You're about to enter the best festival ever on earth.

Enjoy yourself.

These three are credited with founding the festival.

Stuart Mossman on the left, Joe Muret in the middle, and Bob Redford on the right.

Eventually, Redford bought out Mossman and Murets festival ownership shares, making Bob and Kendra Redford the sole owners.

50 years.

It's a long time to be running the music festival.

50 years is an achievement worth celebrating, says executive director Bart Redford, son of festival co-founders Bob and Kendra Redford.

First and foremost, a real feeling of pride and in terms of the people that have been working to carry this on for years and years and years.

So for 50 years, acoustic music fans have been filling these grandstands here at the Cowley County Fairgrounds.

Now, you'd think with the Walnut Valley Association eclipsing the golden anniversary, they know what they're doing and should have another ten or 20 year run in them.

Not so fast, says Bart Redford.

They're dealing with an economic drought, and the future is somewhat in doubt.

Is there going to be a 51?

There's going to be a 51.

We're already committed to that.

Where we go after that is an open question, we're at a point where, you know, we've got to make it in order to continue on.

You know, I mean, no festival out there, no venture, you know, that you can think of continues operating at a loss indefinitely.

Well, you heard Redford say operate at a loss.

Celebrating the 50th, he says, was costly.

We spent more than we usually do in order to have a lineup that embodied, I guess, the spirit of 50 years of Walnut Valley Festival.

But he says the fewer than 11,000 in attendance didn't cover the costs.

So Redford says they dipped into reserve funds to make ends meet.

Redford acknowledges low attendance threatens the future of the festival.

There wasn't a festival here in the pandemic shut down year of 2020, which is why 2022 became the 50th year rather than 2021.

Absolutely, because of the pandemic year, the year that there was not an in-person festival.

Instead, they held the Walnut Valley Virtual Festival.

Redford says he's grateful there was government COVID relief money then.

Otherwise, office staff would have been furloughed, and the reopening year of 2021 saw attendance under 8000, which is lower than years the festival dealt with flooding.

We're still building back after COVID.

A lot of venues are, but at the same time, it's combined with high costs.

The inputs have really risen, you know, for us.

Early bird tickets were $80.

They are $100 in 2023.

Redford says gate costs are going to be up as well due to inflation.

The Festival Association has dealt with financial issues since the beginning in 1972.

They planned a budget of $10,000.

They spent almost $20,000.

They made back almost $10,000.

Seth Bate authored the book Winfield's Walnut Valley Festival.

The book is part of the 50th celebration.

It tells the festival history in detail, with chapter contributions from several who've contributed to the festival's success.

Bate and Redford say the festival is now embraced and accepted by most in the Winfield community.

But both say it wasn't that way in the beginning.

Early on, there were a lot of people who were skeptical and a few people who were openly opposed to the idea that this festival bringing in all these countercultural elements, was here in our small community.

Redford says theyre well past that early skepticism.

People were really concerned about a huge crowd out there, a bunch of hippies.

You know, from their perception out there and skinny dipping and, you know, being on grounds and.

A community of thousands, like a city of thousands, will have participants of various cultures.

But what unifies everyone here is the music.

Camping trailers are strategically parked to form spaces for musicians to gather and make music.

You can find single players, groups, a few or as many as this orchestral sized group of nearly 30 musicians making music.

I mean, music is it's just a big circle of friends.

We may disagree on a whole lot of things, but we can agree on what tune to play.

Although sometimes we don't agree on what key to play it in or how many times to play it.

But that's minor dispute.

You know.

Even those who've come here year after year are amazed with the festival's longevity.

Being a history geek myself, I just I'm fascinated with just the stories of how where it came from and how we got to where we are now to where it turned into just a few guys that were pickers here in town and a guitar builder here in town to this international mega festival here in the middle of Kansas, USA.

And and the fact that we all come here, we deal with the heat and the Porta-Johns and and everything else that goes with the festival.

It's it's fun.

It's just it's an opportunity just to come.

And let your hair down and just kind of escape reality for a little while.

Perhaps a handful of people can boast of being at all the festivals.

Kenny Cornell of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma is one of those.

50 times.

Well, 51, if you want to count the one at the University College.

You've been to all of Them.

Every one of them.

Cornell doesn't question where he's going to be the third week of every September.

It's just changed my life.

Cornell is an example of someone who didn't play a musical instrument before attending the festival, but later he picked up a guitar and learned so he could fit in with all the pickers and players here.

Had some success.

You got to write with the big boys and have a big good cut by George Jones or Tammy Wynette.

And that made me enough money to stay there until I spent it all.

Cornell and others say the festival experience isn't complete until one has spent time around Stage five.

Well, Stage five is it's actually a 1954 Chevy, one and a half ton truck and we built this stage on the back of it.

And mainly it's for amateur musicians who really probably never, ever get an opportunity to play up at the main stages.

And so it's just an outlet for them to be able to come in and play and share music with mainly their peers, not all their peers, you know, the other folks that are just enthusiasts.

But there's always lots of musicians in the audience here.

And they are well received here.

(singing) Well, that's what makes Winfield.

There's nothing better than this place.

Lit up at night.

About 10:00.

And things are bouncing and happening and people are just having a great time.

And well all go together.

But along with all the good times, the successes and friends made, there are the challenges and questions about the future.

Redford says.

They think about ways to cut costs without hurting the experience.

And there are questions about an aging demographic.

Despite seeing so many parents bringing their children here.

There's a lot of younger people who are sort of growing into our audience.

But the bulk of it, you're right, you know, they're in their fifties, sixties, seventies.

Redford knows.

A new generation has to embrace this festival in order for it to survive.

It's something that we've really struggled with.

We've made an effort, I think, if people have been paying attention.

Our lineup has changed a bit over the last several years.

It's a younger lineup that old timers like Kenny Cornell has confidence, will carry on this tradition.

And it has been passed on.

They are killing it over there.

I mean, these kids are playing just it's phenomenal how good how good they are.

Still, the numbers have to show up at the gate.

But this has been a prolonged drought, you know, for us.

And we're you know, we're optimistic.

We're putting together our lineup right now, and we're really excited about some of the people we're bringing in.

But we've got to see people down on grounds if we're going to continue.

There's been a downward trend in attendance since the peak year of 2002, but the pandemic hurt more than even the flood years when the campgrounds were underwater and the festival had to be relocated.

And like a farmer dealing with a prolonged drought.

Eventually rain has to come to make a crop, and the numbers here need to rise to continue this musical tradition.

But as I said, we we can't weather the storm for, you know, another two or three years.

It's you know, at some point we just have to say we had a good run.

And what folks here don't want to hear is the sound of silence at the Cowley County Fairgrounds, the third week of September.

This is Chris Frank, for Positively Kansas.

Planning is well underway for at least the next Walnut Valley Festival.

It's traditionally held every year during the third week of September.

Some people are late bloomers.

Others get out of the gates quick in life.

This next story is about a Wichita attorney who's barely old enough to vote.

Anthony Powell shows us how this young barrister is handling the high stakes, high pressure business of law.

Who graduates from Ulysses High School and Harvard undergrad in the same week.

Braxton Moral, that's who!

Watching the 20 year old work as a civil litigation attorney at the prestigious East Side Wichita law firm Depew Gillen Rathbun & McInteer you have to remind yourself that it wasn't long ago he was in high school and that when the hired by the firm, he couldn't legally go out with the other attorneys and have a drink.

People think I'm just a young looking attorney.

He's the youngest lawyer in the United States.

Neil Patrick Harris stars as Doogie Howser.

Yes, he's heard the Doogie Howser references.

Growing up in tiny Ulysses, Kansas, Braxton displayed innate intelligence at a very young age.

He was so inquisitive with an insatiable thirst for learning.

Once I started getting going in kindergarten, first grade, second grade, they would move me up for a class here, a class there.

And it would go from from there.

Skipping grades, taking college classes in the sixth grade.

It was all part of Braxton's childhood, but not just any college classes.

He got accepted to Harvard during high school and took online classes and summer classes on campus.

His extraordinary accomplishments drawing national media attention.

Ulysses, Kansas is a long way from anywhere.

The closest Wal Mart is an hour's drive.

But in this inconspicuous Prairie Town, lives standout high school Senior Braxton Moral.

After getting his high school diploma and the Harvard degree in the same week, it was on to Washburn University for Law School.

He passed the bar in early 2022.

Whats up, Braxton?

Hi, how are you?

I'm not as awesome as you, but like you're.

Congratulations.

You're just extraordinary.

So where were you when you found out that you passed the bar?

Braxton went on to work for his firm in August of 2022.

He's loving it so far.

I wouldn't call it stressful, but it's certainly it's a career where you had to be more engaged than you know.

I don't have a very good reference point because I've really never done anything else.

Braxton does admit to having some shortcomings that keep him grounded.

Forgetting to poke holes in food Im cooking so it, blows up in the microwave, forgetting to pay attention when Im pouring stuff so it pours all over the floor, that sort of thing.

So you are mortal after all.

I can't reveal the secrets, but.

In case you couldn't tell, despite his very impressive accomplishments for someone of any age, let alone his, Braxton's a very humble guy.

But there's plenty of other people here in this law firm that don't mind talking him up a bit.

If I had been in his shoes, you wouldn't be able to get through.

I wouldn't be able to get through the door.

My head would be so big.

But he just is very humble.

Randy Rathbun is a partner at Braxton's firm.

Rathbun knows Braxton family from doing some work for them.

He remembers Braxton at age ten.

I mean, the first time I met him, he came up to court with us and he just was fascinated by the whole project.

I mean, he was just sitting there listening and afterwards he just peppered me with questions.

Rathbun knew there was something very, very special about this kid.

I watched him debate in high school, and he would have been like, you know what, 13 year old kid arguing with seniors and he just was tearing them apart.

And despite him being so young, Rathbun didn't hesitate a bit when he made Braxton an offer to come work for him.

He's a workhorse.

I can't keep enough work on his desk.

He's always asking for more.

Rathbun says he often has to remind himself of Braxton's age.

He probably goes home after work and plays video games.

Like I play a lot of video games.

As for the future, Braxton sees himself practicing law for many years.

But he's also got a passion for politics.

Please remember where you heard it first.

I'll tell you what, I'm running for president in 2040.

I'll tell you right now.

You can you can put that on the marquee.

And with all that, he's already accomplished.

President Moral doesn't seem out of the question at all.

For Positively Kansas, I'm Anthony Powell.

His parents say they started noticing their son's abilities when he was just two.

He understood concepts way beyond his age.

And by age five, they say his vocabulary was so sophisticated he could have mature conversations with adults.

Kansas is tops in the nation for a lot of things, but did you know it's the number one state for watching Prairie Chickens in the wild?

That's what photojournalist Mike Blair says in this week's edition of Kansas Wild Edge.

It begins like a dream.

Strange sounds, fragments of motion, focus that never quite settles before it's jumbled again In the murky darkness, there's no hard reality, only strange impressions.

But light gradually builds and with it perception.

No dream after all, this is a dance, a rare but beautiful April ball that occurs only in the last great grasslands of America.

And its dancers are birds, tawny, striped, all but invisible when immobile in the prairie grass.

But that's seldom the case when morning sunlight first touches the dancing ground.

It's courting time for prairie chickens.

It's called a lek, this special meeting place where males jump and display.

It's noisy and boisterous and hens are drawn from a mile or more away.

But don't look for leks just anywhere.

They're always near prime nesting habitat.

And that means high quality, unbroken grasslands all around.

Prairie country.

The lek itself is usually marked by short grass, where bowing males can show off their moves to best advantage.

But even then, the cocks often vault high in the air, in a display known as flutter jumping.

Spring males hop into the air again and again, calling and fluttering in an odd, clumsy looking exhibition that serves as a visual attention getter above the waving grass tops.

And along with raucous sounds, this visual flash draws distant hens to the party.

Looming is the trademark sound of the prairie chicken lek.

These male calls can be heard for a mile or more on a still day.

Cocks inflate large vocal sacks to amplify their calls.

While calling, they raise horn like feathers called pinnae, nod and stamp their feet and then dance forward to accent their calls.

Booming occurs whether or not hens are present.

But it's more urgent when females are shopping a mate.

The Midwest has two prairie chicken species.

Greater prairie chickens live in tall and mid grass situations.

Lesser prairie chickens prefer arid short grass, western prairies.

Though lekking activity is similar for both species, physical traits and calls are not.

Greater Prairie chickens, more common and slightly larger, have yellow gular sacs and produce a hollow sound, not unlike a human blowing across the top of an empty bottle.

Lesser chicken males have red gular sacs and they produce a bubbling call.

Their booms are described more as gobbling.

Squabbles are frequent on the lek.

While hands are absent, males constantly challenge each other along invisible lines, often sitting beak to beak and scolding their warnings.

Fights are usually brief, but sometimes they go on for minutes.

Birds peck each other, pull feathers, and chase each other on foot.

Aerial battles are usually momentary, and slow motion reveals far more contact than is evident to the eye.

Declining grassland habitat threatens these once common birds, and birders may travel long distances to see those that remain.

Meanwhile, Kansas now boasts the largest prairie chicken population in America.

Trade some hours of sleep, arrive on a lek before daylight and you'll see and hear one of nature's finest dances.

I'm Mike Blair, for Positively Kansas.

Well, that's a wrap for this week.

If you have a question or comment.

Im Sierra Scott, thanks for watching.

We'll see you again soon.