Shoe Fest is thrilled to announce the lineup for its 13th annual celebration, taking place over Labor Day weekend (August 30 – September 1, 2024) at the picturesque Camp Shaw-Waw-Nas-See in Manteno, IL. This year’s festival will feature multiple-time Grammy winner Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, as well as newcomers Ghost-Note and Neighbor. The event will also see the return of long-time favorites Cornmeal, featuring Allie Kral for the first time in 12 years, and the Kyle Hollingsworth Band from The String Cheese Incident.

Let’s look at the creativity and courageousness exposing the truths, the deep meaning underfoot, like bugs after the rain, this past year has been insane. Rearranged and renamed, complaints unrestrained, this is the new normal. I’d wanted to write scripture about Shoe Fest, some sort of article of faith, a declaration of devotion to what made me fall in love with festivals in the first place… Alas, this is my iconoclast blast that shall be touted on Facebook groups across America, the finest in toilet reading material.

Hard to believe that almost 20 short years ago Cornmeal stepped on to the "stage" in the front bar of the Abbey Pub on a blistery cold Chicago winter night. 4 guys and a passion for bluegrass fumbled through some traditionals and early originals. This January we celebrate that legacy and everything in between with a barnstorm of a show including special guests from throughout the many years as a band.

Saturday, January 25th, 2020:

Martyrs’

3855 N Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL

Mardi Gras is Back in Minneapolis with Fat Friday at the Skyway Theatre with sets from Eric Krasno, Black Market Brass, PHO, Cornmeal and many more!

Cornmeal revved the engines for high energy bluegrass in Chicago on New Year’s Eve, 12/31/2015.  They opened up the evening at The Vic Theatre with Edge of the World, an ordinary Cornmeal song with an ambition to fall off the edge of the world to see what happens next.  It was an appropriate choice for the kick off of such a holiday show.  From there, they did some more Cornmeal classics – River Gap and Jenny.  It was a welcome home for th

Jamgrass titans Cornmeal have gone through quite a bit of transition in the last few years. Banjoist Wavy Dave Burlingame and Bassist Chris Gangi bid an amicable farewell to longtime band mates Allie Kral, J.P Nowak and Kris Nowak. It was a sad parting for loyal followers of the band who built an impressive tour following with their explosive energy and authentic chemistry.

The West Coast has had to wait a bit for Cornmeal but the band is excited to be back to show off their new lineup and with a new studio album (the first in 9 years) ‘Slow Street’ freshly released. Check out the West Coast dates below.  A tour 4 years in the making!

Tour Dates:

7/29/15

Reverb Lounge

Omaha, NE

7/30/2015

Cervante’s Other Side

Denver, CO

w/Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

8/1/15

Avograss

Ft. Collins, CO

8/2/15