Festivals
Every summer music festival season brings a slew of new concepts and destinations for “festivarians” to pick and choose from. You have to marvel at the fact that so many continue to thrive year after year considering the number of options that are out there. In Colorado alone, thousands of tourists from everywhere come to enjoy countless summer music festival options. Maybe you made it to Rockygrass in July and rejoiced in the revival of a flood-ravaged site miraculously sprung back to life with true roots community effort.
Summer is coming to a simmer while plans at Hangtown Halloween Ball are just heating up.
For bluegrass fans it doesn’t get much better than YarmonyGrass: picturesque Colorado weather, great friends, and top-notch picking in one of the most beautiful parts of Colorado. From August 15th to the 17th, bluegrass lovers gathered at Rancho Del Rio for the ninth annual YarmonyGrass festival, and the results were more than pleasing.
Rancho Del Rio
Nice Spring weather. Check. Tucked away in the scenic foothills of Virginia. Check. Easily accessible. Check. Polite and accommodating staff and police. Check. Well laid out stages and concessions. Check. Lightning bugs and even the tail end of a meteor shower. Check. Festival go-er friendly priced tickets. Check. Wide variety of talented performers. Check. The Infamous Stringdusters. Check. Anders Osborne. Check.
As Labor Day approaches and people across the country begin pulling out their warmer clothes, Seattle is gearing up for one last bash in the form of Bumbershoot. Spanning three days in the heart of Seattle Center, this will be the 43rd year for the music and arts festival that never fails to provide a sense of comfort as the summer comes to a close.
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Once again The Werk Out music festival impressed me beyond belief. This is the second year I have attended this event at Legend Valley in Thornville, Ohio, and I can’t imagine missing this music festival. Legend Valley has always had a very special place in my heart. It is near Buckeye Lake, a venue the Grateful Dead frequented in their later years.
If achieving a balance in diversity is a music festival’s key to success, then Dave Frey and Peter Shapiro have truly created the most dynamically integrated festival experience of all time. The Lockn’ Music Festival isn’t another colossal gathering from bandwagon fans there to see a couple of big name headliners mixed in with who-else-knows.
South Fork CO, a tiny town tucked away at 8200 feet in the San Juan Mountains, has always been a stop on the way to somewhere else. Starting life as a stage coach station in the 1880s, the town only grew slowly in the aftermath of the silver strike in nearby Creede and the extension of the railroad. Finally in 1992, it was officially incorporated as a town, the youngest in Colorado. But South Fork and Creede have always drawn musicians and others who sought the tranquility of these rugged mountains and the swift moving waters of the Rio Grande, which begins a few miles from Creede.
The Phases Of The Moon Music + Art Festival proudly announces the addition of Grace Potter & The Nocturnals to the inaugural event taking place September 11-14 at Kennekuk County Park outside Danville, IL. Following the recent cancellation of all tour dates for Bob Weir & Ratdog, who were scheduled to perform at the festival on Friday, September 12, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals have graciously stepped in to fill the spot.
“Buy a flower crown, they’re tacky!”
As soon as I heard the guy selling flower crowns charmingly belittling his own product, I knew I was exactly where I was supposed to be. Despite the cool fog that hung over the weekend, taking in the towering eucalyptus trees that encase Golden Gate Park, I felt warm. Back at Outside Lands for my third year, it almost instantly felt like I was home again.
