MUSIC : The Hills Are Alive, Again : Paramount Ranch will be the host for the Topanga banjo-fiddle contest and folk arts fest.

The traditional sounds of bluegrass, folk and country music return to the mountains and for ests above Los Angeles on Sunday as musicians, dancers and fans converge for the 34th annual Topanga Banjo-Fiddle Contest and Dance & Folk Arts Festival.

It’s true that the annual event hasn’t actually been based in Topanga since 1969, leaving the festival bouncing from one venue to another through many of the years since. But its present location in nearby Paramount Ranch, just outside Agoura in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, has served as a fitting home since 1990.

“We all felt like we were finally back home again,� longtime spokeswoman Dalia Keyser says of the event that has at various times been presented in the open athletic fields of UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, El Camino College, Santa Monica College and elsewhere. “We were in the mountains again. A football field just isn’t the same thing.�

The festival began its life in 1960 as simply a banjo and fiddle contest, but the years since have seen dance, folk art, storytelling, cowboy poetry and other activities added to the mix. Now the festival has three separate stages, offering dueling banjos and fiddles, demonstrations of various international folk dances, and such professional bluegrass performers as the Grateful Dudes Bluegrass Band, Andy Rau, the Gap Tooth Mountain Ramblers String Band, Ed Lowe and Tom Sauber. And since random jam sessions have become a tradition at the event, visitors are encouraged to “bring your instruments.�

Michael Mendelson of the Gap Tooth Mountain Ramblers has been competing and performing at the festival since 1972.

“It feels like home,� says the guitarist, who is a Santa Barbara computer systems analyst by day. “People sometimes come across the country just for this. Some people you see only once a year, but you’ve known them for 20 years.�

The banjo-fiddle contests award prizes of as much as $150 each for a variety of categories, from solo performers to bands, beginning to advanced. Notes Keyser: “Some of the advanced players are very, very advanced.�

A folk art section will present 30 booths of weaving, ceramics, jewelry, wood carving and other crafts.

Visitors can also roam Paramount Ranch, which serves as a location for the TV series “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.�

“It’s just like another world when you’re out there,� says Keyser of the park, which should be covered with blooming wildflowers, and is just 10 minutes from the Ventura Freeway.

The music and folk art of the festival have proven popular over the years, she adds, because “these days people are kind of looking for something like this to hold on to, something that has been around a long time and endured. . . . It represents peoples’ roots.�

The festival has a faithful audience, usually totaling about 5,000 every year.

Even during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, nearly 4,000 fans came, although two judges had to bow out. “We got surprisingly good attendance, I think because we were probably the only show in town that went on. Everything else was canceled.�

WHERE AND WHEN

* What: 34th Topanga Banjo-Fiddle Contest and Dance & Folk Arts Festival.

* Location: Paramount Ranch, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, outside Agoura.

* Getting there: From the Ventura Freeway, take the Kanan Road exit south, then turn left on Cornell Road. Follow it until you see the gate on the right for Paramount Ranch.

* Hours: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.

* Price: $7 general, $2 for youths 12 to 17 and seniors over 65, free for children under 12.

* Call: (818) 377-5076.