Music Festivals and Airstreams

[mandolindave]

Graves Mountain Bluegrass festival must be one of your haunts. It is a beautiful location, has a cool hiking trail, and some historic spots of interest. An old stone Civil War supply route running through it. Quite a few Civil War reenactment people go there. AND flat camping areas.

[FloydCoVa]

Just got back from Grayson Highlands State park/ Wayne Henderson guitar festival , great time!

[dvb]

https://redantspantsmusicfestival.com/

I will be leaving from the Orofino, Idaho RALLY to attend if anyone wants to meet up and caravan somewhere- Looks lovely!

[DonnyK]

I'm heading to North Adams, Mass next week for Wilco's Solid Sound Festival along with the '73 Safari. Looking forward to it.

[LY007]

Saw a handful of Airstreams at Bonnaroo last week.

Was impressed with this:

[Mollysdad]

By sheer accident I was staying in Red Lodge, Mt. when they held the state fiddling championship at the High School Auditorium!
OMG! Real America. The auditorium was like 50 years ago with the basketball backboards suspended from the ceiling, a stage on one end, and about 8 rows of bleachers on each side.
Boys in new blue jeans and girls with pettycoats, cowboy hats, and they could PLAY! A dog or two being chased by a four yr old.
It restored my faith in America!
One of those serendipitous moments.

[Adiredneck]

Old Songs Festival next weekend in Altamont (near Albany), NY


https://festival.oldsongs.org/


Great folk/traditional festival of music, songs, dance & crafts!

[SteveSueMac]

Through July 7, 40% discount tix for the show and camping at Blackbear this year! Use promo code STARSANDSTRIPES

https://www.blackbearmusicfest.com/tickets

[SteveSueMac]

Wow! Black Bear has been AWESOME! Probably 5X more attendees this year! So psyched to be here! Fall in New England - cool nights, decent days - no need for AC. GREAT festival!

Here’s Johnny Longo for you!

[OTRA15]

Thanks for the report. I was aiming to go to the festival, but was hit by a reckless driver running a stop sign a month or so ago. The van is still in the shop.

Peter

[SteveSueMac]

Originally Posted by OTRA15

Thanks for the report. I was aiming to go to the festival, but was hit by a reckless driver running a stop sign a month or so ago. The van is still in the shop.

Peter

Sorry to hear that. Hope you’re ok!

Before we leave we’re getting next year’s tickets like we did last year. Fall music fest in the quiet corner of CT - great Americana tunes, great weather if you’re a fan of a fall nip in the air, and great foliage all around you. Highly recommended!!

[OTRA15]

Thanks, an easy trip for us on the Port Jeff ferry. Maybe next year.

Peter

[Tomzstream]

We usually try to go to the Fall Americana Festival at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park, this year relabeled Roots Revival, but our TV is in the shop indefinitely due to the UAW strike (see my parts shortage post in the TV forum).

We hadn't bought tickets before the fest and lucky we didn't because it was quite expensive and we would have been out several hundred dollars. I wonder how many folks have similar stories. That said, the lineup at Suwanee was quite good this past weekend and wish we had found a way to go. Insead, we road tripped up to Charlottesville for the 10th annual Festy. Seems a lot of the regulars from Festy went to Suwanee instead!

The Festy "Experience" is nothing like it used to be, formerly situated in the Shenandoah Valley 35 miles from Charlottesville, at the same site as the Lockn fest for those of you familiar with it, the Festy is now in downtown C'Ville in a small (very small) Art Park. The stage is in a hard surface parking lot. Ugh! And to make things worse, there is an MC that starts barking at you to move your chairs out of the area around 6 PM everyday, to make room and insure that the revelers don't trip over you. lol The event is sponsored by a microbrew pub right next door. The food was very limited, but the beer was good.

The musical lineup was OK, but nothing like it used to be with a complete absence of the regulars and the former supporting band, the Infamous Stringdusters. Not sure why they moved it to an urban area, but we won't be going back. We ended up spending more on Hotels on the way up and in town than we ever would have camping at Suwanee, and the only reason we chose this one to try, was I had received free weekend tickets from Della Mae who played on Saturday. They had been voted best band at last year's Festy, among a stellar lineup, and were obliged to play this year by invitation. Have my doubts they will choose to be here next year, given the change in venue. They enjoy a good camping fest as do many bluegrass musicians.

[OTRA15]

Originally Posted by Tomzstream

. . .
. . . our TV is in the shop indefinitely due to the UAW strike
. . .

Thanks for this . . . maybe the strike is affecting our repair too? Will check with the body shop.

Festy looks good: https://thefesty.com/

"Maybe next year . . . ," he says once again.

Peter

[TouringDan]

Originally Posted by Tomzstream

We usually try to go to the Fall Americana Festival at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park, this year relabeled Roots Revival, but our TV is in the shop indefinitely due to the UAW strike (see my parts shortage post in the TV forum).

We hadn't bought tickets before the fest and lucky we didn't because it was quite expensive and we would have been out several hundred dollars. I wonder how many folks have similar stories. That said, the lineup at Suwanee was quite good this past weekend and wish we had found a way to go. Insead, we road tripped up to Charlottesville for the 10th annual Festy. Seems a lot of the regulars from Festy went to Suwanee instead!

The Festy "Experience" is nothing like it used to be, formerly situated in the Shenandoah Valley 35 miles from Charlottesville, at the same site as the Lockn fest for those of you familiar with it, the Festy is now in downtown C'Ville in a small (very small) Art Park. The stage is in a hard surface parking lot. Ugh! And to make things worse, there is an MC that starts barking at you to move your chairs out of the area around 6 PM everyday, to make room and insure that the revelers don't trip over you. lol The event is sponsored by a microbrew pub right next door. The food was very limited, but the beer was good.

The musical lineup was OK, but nothing like it used to be with a complete absence of the regulars and the former supporting band, the Infamous Stringdusters. Not sure why they moved it to an urban area, but we won't be going back. We ended up spending more on Hotels on the way up and in town than we ever would have camping at Suwanee, and the only reason we chose this one to try, was I had received free weekend tickets from Della Mae who played on Saturday. They had been voted best band at last year's Festy, among a stellar lineup, and were obliged to play this year by invitation. Have my doubts they will choose to be here next year, given the change in venue. They enjoy a good camping fest as do many bluegrass musicians.

That is unfortunate Tomzstream. I have been to about half of the Festy’s. It is kind of almost too close to where I live. Once I saw this year that it was not at a campground and the Infamous Stringdusters were not backing it, I never considered going. A festival just has to have a great lineup to justify the time and expense of attending.

I would have liked to have gone to the Roots Revival at Suwannee but I just recently went to two great festivals- Freshgrass in Massachusetts and Wide Open Bluegrass in Raleigh, NC.

Dan

[TouringDan]

One of my favorite festivals is Freshgrass in North Adams, Massachusetts. It was on September 19–22 at the Mass MoCA museum. Freshgrass always provides a wide variety of music. Check out the great lineup here.

I got to see some of my favorite groups that I have seen before like the Steep Canyon Rangers, the Gibson Brothers, the Travelin McCourys, Leftover Salmon, Alison Brown, Darol Anger & Mike Marshall (see photo below) and Balsam Range. Freshgrass always provides a variety of music from groups I have never heard. This is the best part of the festival for me. This year there was the Kronos Quartet which played a musical tribute in honor of (what would have been) Pete Seeger’s 100th birthday. There was also Flor De Toloache (Latin), Vasen (Sweden) and Hanggai (Mongolian Folk where John Belushi would have fit right in).

PM me if you are thinking about going next year. I know where to camp, where to sit and know the drill. Here are some photos.

Dan

[OTRA15]

Great update, Dan, thanks. For future reference your Post #152 from May 2018 has a number of helpful follow up comments from SteveSueMac and others:

Originally Posted by TouringDan

Peter

I have been to FreshGrass the last two years. It has been a wonderful experience.
. . .

Hope to make it to a festival next year. Life keeps getting in the way!

Cheers,

Peter

[SteveSueMac]

Absolutely love Fresh Grass! Went last year (Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder was the main draw and so many other great bands!). Didn’t make it this year. Mass MOCA is a great venue - but no camping on site makes it a little bit of a challenge.

Another great one is Green River Festival in Greenfield, MA. Camping at a local fairgrounds with bus rides to the festival about 1.5 miles away.

And of course - Black Bear over Columbus Day weekend in Goshen CT - camping at the fairgrounds and a minute walk to the stages! Slambovian Circus of Dreams, Vance Gilbert, The Nields (last year), KJ Denhert - 35 different acts - just so good! Can’t get enough music fests!!!

[TouringDan]

Originally Posted by SteveSueMac

Absolutely love Fresh Grass! Went last year (Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder was the main draw and so many other great bands!). Didn’t make it this year. Mass MOCA is a great venue - but no camping on site makes it a little bit of a challenge.

Maybe the best place to camp is the city Historic Valley Park CG. It is only a couple miles from Mass MoCA. I tent camped there for the first time this year at their “wilderness” walk in location. It worked out great for me. The manager said they start taking reservations on Jan 1 for next year. I would try to get a reservation here for Freshgrass 2020. It seems to be the best camping option.

Dan

[TouringDan]

The week after Freshgrass is my favorite music festival- Wide Open Bluegrass in downtown Raleigh, NC. This is a 5 day festival. The first 3 days are the “Bluegrass Ramble” where you can enjoy music in 6 downtown venues from 6:00 pm to 1:00 am (and later at the Marriott). You can ramble from venue to venue; a new band plays every hour. I ramble around on my bicycle. Two of my favorite bands were Damn Tall Buildings, a punk grass band from Brooklyn and Fireside Collective, a progressive bluegrass band from Asheville, NC.

The last two days, Friday and Saturday, music is played on 8 downtown stages (free) and at the Red Hat Amphitheatre (admission for the reserved seats). The music is from noon to 11:00 pm. My favorite performances were Balsam Range, accompanied by the NC State symphonic band, and the Molly Tuttle Band. She is a very talented song writer and performer. She really reminds me of Taylor Swift.

I camped 3 nights on the street and then 2 nights in an IBMA parking lot.

Normal camping is available at the NC State Fairgrounds about a 15 minute drive from downtown. The cost is $30/night with a 3 night minimum.

I will be going again next year. Please contact me if you are interested in going. I know where to park, where to sit and I know the drill for this festival.

Dan