Cowboy Festival giddyups through weekend in Cartersville

Since opening in 2003, the Booth Western Art Museum has been all about bringing the art and culture of the West to the South. But the sagebrush spirit is never more palpable at the Cartersville museum than during the Southeastern Cowboy Festival and Symposium, the ninth edition which kicks off Thursday and runs through Sunday.

The event is a sometimes serious, sometimes silly gathering that combines scholarly talks with family-friendly rootin', tootin', blanks-shootin' fun. More than 5,000 visitors, many of them metro Atlantans who make the easy trek up I-75 (less than an hour north of 1-285), are expected for events including:

• A lecture by Navajo painter Shonto Begay, the son of a medicine man and a rug weaver/sheep herder. He studied at the California College of Arts and Crafts and worked for a decade as a National Park Service ranger in Wyoming and Arizona before turning fully to art-making. 7 p.m. Thursday in the Booth Theatre. Meet-the-artist reception, 5-7 p.m. in the Cafe. Both free with museum admission.

• The symposium, this year focused on Native American art, 10:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Friday. Highlights include David Penney of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian speaking on "Historic Native American Objects" at 10:30 a.m., and New Mexico artist Stan Natchez discussing "Contemporary Native American Painting and Sculpture" at 2:30 p.m. Free with museum admission.

• The Cowboy Festival and Western Marketplace, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday, including a reenactment of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Western music and poetry on two stages, humorous Western skits, traditional Indian dance demonstrations, chuck wagon cooking, children's activities and a living history encampment with a pioneer skills demonstration. Admission to festival grounds (includes museum access): $10, $8 seniors, $7 students, $3 children.

• Two concerts by country singer Lynn Anderson, best known for "(I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden" but also a prize-winning equestrian, 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday in the Grand Theatre. $25, $5 ages 16 and under (children's discount for early show only).

• Cowboy Church, a non-denominational service featuring cowboy prayers and Western spirituals, 11 a.m. Sunday on festival grounds. Free.