Topping this coming year’s lineup will be two big debut performers in Phil Lesh and The Terrapin Family Band and The String Cheese Incident. Joining them will be a number of veteran FloydFest performers in Brandi Carlile, Karl Denson and Tiny Universe, Tyler Childers and more.

The big news over the weekend at the 15^th installment of Floydfest was the unfortunate hospitalization and subsequent cancellation of headliner Gregg Allman’s Saturday night set.  But in true Floydfest fashion, the excellent talent evaluators of this year’s five-day festival, dubbed “Dreamweavin’,” had just the type of jam-band superheroes onsite to put together a dream replacement set.

There are a number of outdoor festival sites in the US that have that extra special 'something' that makes people come back year after year.  Florida has Spirit of the Suwanee Park, for example.  What usually sets a festival location apart, for me at least -- is a mix of breathtaking natural beauty, and of course -- the music.. But for me to come back year after year, it's gotta have a little something on top of that.. Something that's a little different.. Perhaps a bit comically-odd, at times. Something one can't quite verbalize.

I almost don’t want to tell you how cool a festival FloydFest has become.. I don’t want to risk ruining it.  Long past the growing-stage of a fledgling hippy-fest; FloydFest, now in her 9th year, is fully-realized and a true contender amongst events in the Central Virginia and mid-Atlantic region.

As is tradition, FloydFest makes deeply discounted tickets (up to 40% off regular gate price) available to their patrons during the month of December. As most returning patrons know, the Holiday season is the best time to purchase festival admission tickets and secure the coveted on-site parking spots. Promoters report ticket sales are up an impressive 65% over last year. The On-site RV parking spots sold out in a record 72 hours since on-sale date. All is not lost for folks wishing to camp in style, as the off-site RV spots, as well as VIP and Souvenir are still available.

New site improvements have already begun for the annual music and arts festival FloydFest, July 23-26, located at milepost 170.5 off the Blue Ridge Parkway near Floyd, Virginia. One major addition to the venue in 2009 is the construction of a timber framed “front of house” structure for the Streamline Stage @ HillHoller. The structure will house sound equipment during the event, and will be designed to complement the beautiful timber framed stage, built in 2007 by event sponsors Streamline Timberworks.

DONNA THE BUFFALO returns for another passionately requested encore, joined by multi-cultural ensemble PANJEA with Chris Berry & Michael Kang (String Cheese Incident), as well as the acoustic sounds of EMMITT-NERSHI BAND (with members of Leftover Salmon and String Cheese Incident) and PETE FRANCIS (of Dispatch) featuring BAREFOOT TRUTH (selected to perform at the Obama official pre-debate Rally on October 15th 2008).

"There's a garish, yellow thing in the sky we've never seen here at Floydfest before," remarked guitarist and vocalist Jeb Puryear of Floydfest veterans, Donna the Buffalo.   "I think we'll call it the sun."  This year, among several additions to Floyd, VA's near perfect annual music festival in the Blue Ridge Mountains, was agreeable weather.  Though the sky remained cloudy for most of the weekend and spilled a slight, ten-minute rain in remembrance of last year's downpour, festival goers celebrated the fifth anniversary of Floydfest with kites, sunglasses and closed um

We often get the question about FloydFest, from folks who haven't heard of the town of Floyd; "Will Pink Floyd be there? Is it a Pink Floyd cover band festival?" No, actually, FloydFest is named after our one-stoplight, two-block town, or rather the special essence of our town, which residents and visitors alike experience as a respite from the restless, hurried activity of our modern society, and the cookie-cutter look and feel of many, if not most, modern places.