Festivals

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New Bedford Folk Festival

New Bedford Whaling National Park New Bedford Historical District, New Bedford , MA

The Zeiterion Theater presents the 24th Annual New Bedford Folk Festival from Saturday July 6 through Sunday July 7, 2019 with an impressive lineup of the best in contemporary, Americana, traditional, blues and Celtic folk music. This year the festival includes Grammy Award winning Cajun band  BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet, Dar Williams called “one of America’s very best singer-songwriters” by The New Yorker, folk, jazz, and pop songstress Susan Werner, blues masters Chris Smither and Guy Davis, old-time and American roots music trio Molsky’s Mountain Drifters featuring Grammy-nominated fiddler Bruce Molsky, cutting edge Celtic band Bua and many more. The festival runs from 11 AM to 9 PM both days and is located in the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center and throughout the 11 blocks of historic downtown New Bedford and the Whaling National Historical Park in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

$12 – $140

Alice Gerrard: You Gave Me a Song-New England film premiere

Old Woods Hole Fire Station 83 Water Street, Woods Hole, MA

Alice Gerrard, an 84 year old, old-time music pioneer attempts to preserve traditional music through her performances and lessons. Her unpredictable journey is an inspiration for those around her. You Gave Me a Song is a film about getting older, but never giving up your passions. The Woods Hole Film Festival presents its New England premiere with director Kenny Dalsheimer at the Q&A.

$12 – $14

Green Mountain Bluegrass & Roots Festival

Green Mountain Bluegrass & Roots Festival 410 Hunter Park Road, Manchester, VT

A four-day music festival featuring a variety of bluegrass, roots and Americana music from both icons of the industry and innovative up-and-coming artists. Featuring a main stage, dance tent, camping, and more , plus a magical Green Mountain setting!

$20 – $120

The 5th Annual Oldtone Roots Music Festival

Cool Whisper Farm 1011 Co. Rd 21, Hillsdale, NY

The 5th Annual Oldtone Roots Music Festival: Preserving American Music Musicians and Festival Attendees Dedicated to Preservation through Participation September 5-8, 2019 1011 Co. Rd 21, Hillsdale, NY 12529 [email protected]    www.oldtonemusicfestival.com HILLSDALE, NY. The Oldtone Roots Music Festival features three stages with traditional music performances, dances, workshops, contests, and children’s activities. The founders’ goal is to preserve American roots music and dance with an intimate and interactive festival that includes opportunities to engage with main stage artists in workshop settings. Jamming in the campground late into the night is encouraged. In the evenings festival goers and artists dance under a tent that perches over a spectacular view of the rolling upstate NY farm valley of Matt and Lisa Schober’s Cool Whisper Farm. It is not unusual to find main stage performers dancing in the dance tent or jamming late into the night in the camping areas. Caleb Klauder of the Foghorn String Band has this to say about Oldtone 19: “I’m going to the Oldtone Roots Music festival because their hearts are in the music and the music there has soul.” The festival is unique amongst Roots music festivals for its popularity with the artists themselves as well as the attendees, who can often be heard talking about the “Oldtone vibe”.  Well known cajun Artist Jesse Lege (Bayou Brew) stated; “If I had to pick one best festival, and I have traveled to many, near and far....Oldtone is the biggest, most relaxed, friendliest little festival you’ll ever spend a weekend at... like having it in your own backyard.” The festival has a core of returning popular Oldtone veteran artists: the Foghorn String Band, Tuba Skinny, the Down Hill Strugglers, Jesse Lege & the Bayou Brew, Run Mountain, Tamar Korn, Travis Stuart, and theRusset … Read More »

Lowell Banjo and Fiddle Contest

Boardinghouse Park 40 French St., Lowell, MA

The 39th Annual Lowell Banjo and Fiddle Contest (Platinum sponsored by the BBU) will be held on September 7th, 2019 in Boarding House Park, in Lowell Massachusetts with workshops at 10AM, organized jams at 11AM and the contest beginning at noon.  Informal jams happen all day long.  For more details visit: http://lowellsummermusic.org/page.php?wpage=root/eventdetail.htm&Event=LSMS-E67225  

Free

FreshGrass Festival

MASS MoCA 1040 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA, MA

FreshGrass is a wonderland of traditional and cutting edge bluegrass and roots music, tucked appropriately into a 19th-century factory turned 21st-century museum in the Berkshire mountains of northwestern Massachusetts. An opportunity for enthusiasts to both appreciate and participate, FreshGrass is family-friendly and brimming with the brightest talent not just on our four stages, but also in our galleries, brick-lined courtyards, and grassy fields. MASS MoCA is one of the world’s premier centers for making and showing the best art of our time. The museum’s vast galleries and multiplicity of stages — both inside and out — offer artists unprecedented opportunities to make and present large-scale sculpture, inventive theater, roots music writers, ‌and big new musical ideas that will confound expectations…and delight you.

$3 – $350

Fiddle Hell

Westford Regency Inn Westford, MA

Fiddle Hell features over 500 workshops, jams, and concerts taught by roughly 100 teachers, and covers dozens of traditional music styles!  

JamVember 2019

Sheraton Framingham 1657 Worcester Road, Framingham

JamVember is a weekend-long "non-festival" focused on jamming, jamming, and more jamming... with over 100 workshops and jams hosted by over 50 amazing musicians and teachers, and one big difference from usual festivals: no stage show to distract from the picking. JamVember 2019 will be held the weekend before Thanksgiving, November 22nd, 23rd & 24th, at the Sheraton in Framingham, MA.

Joe Val Bluegrass Festival

Sheraton Framingham 1657 Worcester Road, Framingham

Join the Boston Bluegrass Union and celebrate the legacy of the late Joe Val with three big days of indoor bluegrass at the Sheraton Framingham Hotel.  Great bands, two stages, jamming, workshops, vendors, master classes, Kids' Academy....it's a full and fun weekend of everything bluegrass.  

TBD

Sunday Gospel at Joe Val w/Southern Rail

Joe Val Bluegrass Festival Sheraton Framingham, Framingham, MA

Lush Gospel harmonies, irrepressible good humor and sparkling guitar, banjo, mandolin and bass.  Check out Southern Rail's eagerly anticipated Sunday morning Gospel set at the Joe Val Festival!   See you at 11 am!