The sixth installment of the Virginia Key Grassroots Festival of Music & Dance is scheduled to take place February 21-28, 2017. This year, the event will not only take place on its traditional Key Biscayne home, but will also feature mainland satellite happenings in Wynwood and Midtown, and on North Beach. Grassroots festival mainstays Donna the Buffalo, The Blind Spots, and Big Mean Sound Machine join Miami’s Locos Por Juana and FABI as early headliners announced; more acts are soon to be revealed.
So far, there are official events planned at The Wynwood Yard (56 NW 29th St, Miami, FL 33127), Concrete Beach Social Hall (325 NW 24th St, Miami, FL 33127), Lagniappe House (3425 NE 2nd Ave, Miami, FL 33137), and the North Beach Bandshell (7275 Collins Ave, Miami Beach, FL 33141). The full schedule will be released shortly, but tickets to all events an on-site camping are now available online at http://bit.ly/VKGR2017.
“We’re proud and excited to be back for a 6th year,” says festival organizer and spokesperson Selena Hodom. “I’m looking forward to producing yet another successful winter event and continuing the Grassroots tradition here in South Florida.”
The organization is looking to get back on track after underwhelming ticket sales for the recent Shakori Hills festival, which was interrupted for a day by a Hurricane Matthew's strike on North Carolina in early October 2016. In spite of the weather, the festival highlighted scores of bands, including a contingent from Miami that included Elastic Bond, Electri
The Virginia Key edition will once again showcase non-profit political, social and environmental activist organizations, and host music and dance workshops, yoga and a Kid’s Village. Also returning: the beer garden & vinyl lounge, sustainability expo, the Zen Village & Healing Arts pavilion, and live art.
For more information, please visit http://
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ABOUT GRASSROOTS
The original Finger Lakes Grassroots Festival of Music & Dance began in 1990 as a benefit concert to support a local AIDS organization in Ithaca, NY. Encouraged by the success of that night, a decision was made to create an annual festival dedicated to raising money for the fight against AIDS, while supporting arts and education.
With the help of countless volunteers, the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival has become an internationally-recognized event with a focus on traditional and contemporary roots music and dance from all over the world. For four days every July, the festival hosts more than 60 performing groups on four stages at the Trumansburg Fairgrounds in Central New York near the university town of Ithaca.
Twelve years later, the Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music & Dance was launched on a 75-acre farm in rural North Carolina near the triangle cities of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. Twice a year, in April and October, thousands of people attend the event to revel in great music, sweat it out on the dance floor, celebrate the arts, and build community.
The site has since become the Shakori Hills Community Arts Center, a non-profit organization created to strengthen the community through music, arts and education.
The festival winters at the Historic Virginia Key Beach Park, just off the coast of Miami, FL. This year’s edition is the sixth incarnation of the Virginia Key Grassroots Festival of Music & Dance, featuring local and national acts.
For more information, visit GrassrootsFest.org
