The day the music died?

More like the day the music got rained out.

For the first time in the 26-year history of the Kansas State Fiddling and Picking Championships, Mother Nature – and her sudden infatuation with drenching rains – canceled all of the planned bluegrass music Sunday at South Park.

“We didn’t really have a place indoors lined up that would accommodate the thing,” organizer Jim Jeans said. “We’re making the best of a catastrophe.”

Jeans and other organizers planned hours of fiddling and picking competition this weekend. For only the third time in the event’s history, performers from across the country were greeted with showers rather than the usual scorching heat.

For the first two shower-filled shows, organizers had an indoor venue to turn to. Not this year.

So Jeans said he and several other out-of-town performers did what they could, heading to the Americana Music Academy, 1419 Mass., to jam after the competition officially was canceled.

The competition hadn’t started when the rains began, so Jeans said he returned entry fees and told longtime sponsors that their money would carry over until next year, which will be the next opportunity for competitors to take the stage.

“We really can’t practically reschedule the thing because of the times in the park,” Jeans said. “We’ll just go for next year.”

Jeans and his buddies weren’t the only ones making the best of a soggy time.

Minutes after the rain let up, Larry Lintner drug his banjo case out and slid it onto the hood of his old GMC truck at the north end of the park.

The Ottawa native has been coming to these competitions for years – since about 1985, he figures – and man, he said, the rainout sure was a bummer.

“You know, people practice trying to get their songs down,” he said. “It’s a shame.”

But oh well, Lintner figured. He was here already with his buddy Joe, so he might as well get some tunes in.

He pulled out his banjo – it was an odd contraption with a guitar neck he got for five bucks at a garage sale – and Joe got his guitar, and they broke into some old bluegrass tunes.

“Might as well,” Lintner said. “We’re here.”