Tubman Museum opens Kazoo Exhibit on National Kazoo Day
The exhibit celebrates more than 150 years of kazoo history featuring rare and historic kazoo/archives from around the world.
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The Kazoo returns home to Macon for National Kazoo Day as the Tubman Museum celebrated with the opening of the Kazoo Exhibit on Tuesday.
According to a news release, The Kazoo Exhibit is a special pop-up Black History Month exhibit customized for Macon and the Tubman Museum by the original designer/curator of the National Kazoo Museum & Factory of Beaufort, South Carolina.
The exhibit celebrates more than 150 years of kazoo history featuring rare and historic kazoo/archives from around the world.
According to Gary Wheat, President & CEO of Visit Macon, inspired by the African horn-mirliton or onion flute, the kazoo was originally created in Macon by freed slave Alabama Vest in the 1840s and debuted as an instrument at the Georgia National Fair in 1852.
“It was something born out of our program,” Wheat said. “You know, we have so much media interest in the stories of Macon and the history of Macon through our organization, and a lot of the writers that have been covering Macon and interviewing us and seeing Macon and reading the stories always inquire about Alabama Vest and the kazoo, and they love the Macon connection.”
If you want to see the Kazoo Exhibit, it will be at the Tubman Museum until the end of March.
World record attempt for largest kazoo ensemble
“We’re also excited, on March 28th we’re going to try to set the Guinness record for the largest kazoo ensemble at the Atrium Health Amphitheater,” Wheat said. “So we need 5,191 people to show up. We’ll give you a kazoo, and we’re going to break the record and bring it home from England where it has been since 2011. It belongs here in Macon because this is a piece of Macon history.”
“We’re just so thankful to Cherry Blossom Festival for working with us, the Great American Chamber of Commerce and of course, our friends at the Otis Redding Foundation and the Tubman Museum for making it a reality,” he said.
Tickets will go on sale next week for $5. The attempt will take place during the Cherry Blossom Festival. Gates open at 4 p.m. and the attempt will start at 6 p.m. with a performance from a surprise guest after. All proceeds will go to the Otis Redding Foundation.
“We need 5,191 of our closest friends, but we’ll take 10,000,” Wheat added. “We even bought 10,000 kazoos for you and five of your closest friends.”
If you want to purchase tickets, click here.
