25th Annual Joe Val Bluegrass Festival
February 12-14, 2010
Sheraton Hotel Framingham,
Framingham, MA

 

2011 Joe Val Bluegrass Festival

Festival Ticket and Hotel Reservation Process

News Flash: All the hotel rooms at the Sheraton Framingham sold out 7 minutes after sales opened, and the waiting list has grown long enough that we have halted additions to that as well. However, we have reserved several rooms at our nearby overflow hotels - please check them out on our hotel page.

 

Festival Tickets and Hotel Room Reservations will begin
on Tuesday, November 17 at 7pm EST

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY BEFORE CLICKING ON THE TICKET and HOTEL RESERVATION LINK AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE!!!!

New Procedures for Hotel Rooms for 2010!!!

Similar to Joe Val 2010, we have instituted a special procedure for festival ticketing and hotel reservations. Please understand our interest in providing fair service to all, with priority to those who provide ongoing support for the BBU's mission.

Ticket sales and hotel reservations open on Thursday, November 18 at 7pm EST. A current BBU membership is a requirement for reserving a room at the Sheraton Hotel.  Click here to renew your membership or join today before tickets go on sale. Don’t lose your reservation because your membership has expired!

Friday- and Sunday-only tickets will go on sale after January 15th based on availability. Saturday-only tickets will go on sale February 1, if available. All festival attendees must be ticket holders. Don't wait to purchase tickets at the door for anyone in your party as the festival will likely sell out, and these tickets may not be available.

Hotel rooms at the Sheraton and overflow hotels are available at a rate of $95 per night for up to four people per room. Remember, Monday after the festival is a holiday, so stick around Sunday night.

We strongly suggest making your reservations on Thursday, November 18 at 7pm EST. In 2010 the hotel rooms were sold out in seven minutes. Room reservations are on a first-come, first-served basis. There is no mail-in option for reserving hotel rooms. Plan in advance to have Internet and E-mail access on November 18 at 7pm EST.

You will NOT be asked to enter a membership number or your membership expiration date.  However, we will check that all room requests have come from current members.  If you are not a current member, your room request will not be honored.  Check the mailing label on your most recent Bluegrass Breakdown for your membership expiration date.

There is a minimum two-night stay at the Sheraton (Friday and Saturday) and a 72-hour cancellation clause. The Sheraton is reserved for weekend ticket holders only.

Click below to purchase your festival tickets.  You will be taken to a page where you are offered the choice of a picking room or a non-picking room. Once you have made your choice, you will be taken to a screen where you can purchase one festival ticket bundled with the right to reserve a hotel room. There is a limit of one room per member. You will also have the option to purchase additional weekend tickets.  You will need your credit card, E-mail address, and a telephone number where you can be reached during the next 72 hours.

When you complete the ticket transaction using your credit card, you will find that the purchase is complete, or that you are on the waiting list, or that the room option is sold out.  If you are on the waiting list or sold out, you will be taken back to the ticket page to reconsider your order.  You can then discontinue the transaction and you will not have purchased any tickets.  If you still want tickets, you can purchase them without the room, but understand that ticket sales are final. Some people on the waiting list will get a room, but others will not. Do not purchase additional tickets if you do not want to attend without a room at the Sheraton.

If you have successfully purchased the ticket and the right to a room, Sheraton personnel will call you during the following 2 or 3 days at the number you provided to finish the reservation including any additional nights, bed type, special requests, etc. Patrons will be called in the order of their purchase.  If your purchase of a ticket bundle went through, you will get a room, so please be patient.

We have implemented this new procedure so that 1) patrons won’t end up purchasing tickets only to discover that hotel rooms are sold out and 2) to avoid the problem last year where patrons overwhelmed the hotel’s online registration system.   By limiting the number of bundled tickets to equal the number of available rooms, and having the hotel contact patrons directly by phone to finalize the reservation, we are trying to improve the process to be as fair and efficient as possible.

Retain and print your ticket confirmation and bring it to the festival for wrist band exchange. Since we use Acteva.com as our ticketing system, you will ultimately see the name Acteva on your credit card statement, not the Boston Bluegrass Union.

For all questions regarding ticket sales or membership status, contact membership@bbu.org . For questions about hotel rooms, contact hotelrooms@bbu.org

Everyone here at the BBU is looking forward to the 26th Joe Val Bluegrass Festival. We appreciate your patience and understanding with the ticketing process as we strive to make it a fair and easy process for all.

 

click here on Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 7pm EST to enter the Acteva ticketing system and begin the festival ticket purchase and Sheraton Framingham hotel reservation process