Diane Gillenwater outfiddled the competition at last year’s Kansas State Fiddling and Picking Championships in South Park, and she won a silver plate that she keeps on her fireplace.

But winning the event wasn’t the best part about it, she said. The best part was talking with an audience member who approached her after her performance.

“I’m almost sure her name was Ruth,” Gillenwater said. “She grabbed my hand and said, ‘I want you to know you touched my heart with your music.’ … That is what it’s all about.”

Gillenwater, 47, Topeka, returns to this year’s championships as a judge, not a performer. The 23rd annual event, from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday at South Park, features competitions in mandolin, fiddle and flat-picked guitar, among other categories.

In past years, anywhere from five to more than 20 people have entered each category. Organizers hope to fill the park with 700 or more listeners.

Diane Gillenwater, Topeka, the 2002 Kansas State Picking and Fiddling Championships fiddle champion, will help judge this year's contest Sunday in South Park. Gillenwater is a fiddle instructor in Topeka and at Americana Music Academy in Lawrence and hopes to inspire young musicians in folk and bluegrass music.

Gillenwater said the championship filled a need in Kansas for a bluegrass and old-time music event accessible to people who might not be able to attend the famous, four-day Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield. It’s also a chance for her students from Lawrence’s Americana Music Academy to observe how performers draw good sounds from their instruments and keep their nerves under control in front of a crowd.

“I’ve asked almost all of my students already to be there to watch and see how the old-timers do it,” she said.

Lauralyn Bodle, who’s in her third year as director of the competition, said she viewed the event as a way to bring people together. She attended the event every year as a child and watched it grow from a Douglas County “hometown fair”-style event into a statewide attraction.

“There are a number of traditional folk-art things happening in Lawrence, and I think they’re the best kind of community-builders that we have,” she said.

Entertainment editor Jon Niccum contributed to this story.

¢ 2002 fiddling champions¢ Video: Winners in the 2002 Fiddling and Picking Championships