When I first heard about the Dawg Daze of Summer Festival in Lone Jack, Missouri (July 26 – 28, 2012), I knew I needed to go. There are a multitude of reasons for this, some being: The largest swimming pool in Missouri is there, the band selection is awesome, there are hiking trails and it’s on my birthday! You probably don’t want to go to this specifically for the last reason on my list, but the first three are golden!

Del Yeah is back and bigger than before….and this time it’s hitting the Midwest!  After very successful 2010 & 2011 labor day weekends, Del McCoury music is excited to announce the 3rd annual ‘Del Yeah’ weekend - a multi-day, multi-venue ‘happening’ taking place over Labor Day weekend.. The idea of Del Yeah is to create a festival atmosphere in an outdoor setting or otherwise non-traditional venue complete with impromptu jams and unscheduled collaborations.

The Afropunk Festival is returning to Brooklyn’s Commodore Barry Park for the 8th Annual Afropunk Festival on August 25-26.

The inaugural Catalpa Festival is striving to be a pioneering New York festival, unique in its programming, atmosphere and aesthetic. With as much an emphasis on site artistry, interactive experiences and experimentation as the musical entertainment itself, Catalpa is filling what we see as a gap for an event quite beyond the ordinary in New York City.A meeting point for creativity, Catalpa will feature over 40 performers from many musical genres including Blues, Rock, Hip-Hop, Electronic, Reggae and Indie.

We're in Montreal. Lots of banging on casseroles and getting naked! Life is certainly crazy, but our festival is HAPPENING this year, from September 19th to the 23rd. POP Montreal Festival is Serious, it's a totally curated affair, that will entertain, enliven and educate the hip and the needy. Get ready for a lot of mind blowing vibrations.

Dark Star Orchestra has been gearing up for their inaugural Dark Star Jubilee Festival, taking place in Thornville, Ohio, August 31st - September 2nd, 2012.  In prepartion for the Jubilee, DSO has compiled a Dark Star Jubilee FAQ:

What are the camping options?

Camping Option

Stern Grove Festival will be celebrating their 75th Season of Concerts this year as well. In celebration of their anniversary, Preservation Hall Jazz Band have been commissioned to compose and perform a piece of music. The song will reference the festival's tradition of “the waving of the pink section,” in which audience members wave the SF Chronicle's Sunday Datebook in the air.

The Infamous Stringdusters’ Silver Sky tour swings through rural Pennsylvania June 22 and 23 at elseFest in Wagontown, Chester County, outside Philadelphia. elseFest is a two-day bluegrass, jamgrass and acoustic music festival.

Raucous world-roots string wizards, CFMA winners and JUNO nominees, Sultans of String thrill their audiences with their global sonic tapestry of Spanish Flamenco, Arabic folk, Cuban rhythms, and French Manouche Gypsy-jazz, celebrating musical fusion and human creativity with warmth and virtuosity. Fiery violin dances with rumba-flamenco guitar while a funk bass lays down unstoppable grooves.