A Passion for Promoting
Nearly seventy-eight years after Earl Scruggs first joined Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt, Chubby Wise, and Howard Watts on stage at the Grand Ole Opry—and defined bluegrass music as we know it today—the music is still thriving. To a large extent, the continued success of the bluegrass genre is due to the hundreds of bluegrass festivals that are held annually around the globe. The community, comradery and friendships developed at these events through the music played on stage, and the music performed in the campgrounds, combined with the family-oriented atmosphere—and sharing of music, food, camping, and good company—keep festival attendees coming back every year and sustain their love of bluegrass music.
Sadly, this past year has seen some well-loved and long-lasting bluegrass festivals close their doors, but on the upside, several new festivals have held their first event to great success. The COVID pandemic created complications for all event promoters during the past few years, but most have met the challenges induced by the pandemic and are pressing forward. In our January 2023 issue Dale and Darcy Cahill wrote an article that addressed some of those challenges from the viewpoint of several promoters of popular bluegrass events. In that article we learned that promoting a festival is absolutely a labor of love requiring a deep passion for multi-day event production and promotion. It is exactly that passion that propels Danny and Christa Stewart, of Danny Stewart Productions.
To promote, organize, book, manage and host one large multi-day bluegrass festival is, to say the least, a lot of work. Danny and Christa Stewart currently do all of that for five annual bluegrass festivals (in four different states) and several bluegrass cruises (leaving from different ports) each year! Try to wrap your head around more work than you can imagine in one year and multiply that by about seven and you understand life at the Stewart home. In 2023 they are promoting and hosting the Bluegrass On The Beach Festival in Lake Havasu City, Arizona; two Withlacoochee Bluegrass Festivals (one spring and one fall) in Dunnellon, Florida; the Little Roy and Lizzy Music Festival in Lincolnton, Georgia; the NEPA Bluegrass Festival in Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania, and the Ultimate Bluegrass Cruise, sailing to the Caribbean out of Port Canaveral, Florida. In previous years, they have hosted up to three cruises in a year and plan to add their Alaska Cruise back into the schedule in 2024. That is amazing work—and great for bluegrass music!
Background
Danny Stewart grew up near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and his parents performed in an “old-school” country band (mom a singer and dad on guitar) called Country Cousins during the late sixties and into the nineteen-seventies. His mother’s brother, George Campanile, was a banjo player who had a bluegrass band. Danny’s father played the bass in that band. Uncle George lent young Danny an old Kay mandolin when he was thirteen years old and taught him to play his first chords. Danny said, “I got hooked, and here we are forty some years later.” Shortly after picking up the mandolin, he started to attend a Tuesday night jam held by his uncle in Holmes, Pennsylvania.
As a teenager, Danny was playing in amateur bands. When he was nineteen he put the mandolin away for a few years, but picked it back up when he was in his early twenties and started attending festivals and jam sessions while also performing in regional bands. He became a construction contractor—first in the Philadelphia area, then in Scranton—and supplemented his construction income by playing music in bands on the weekends. Some of those bands included Second Wind, Chester Johnson and the Foggy Mountain Grass, Louis Seltzer and the Appalachian Mountain Boys, and Remington Ride.
A Passion For Promotion
When Danny and Christa’s son (Danny, Jr.) graduated from high school in 2006, they hosted an event for him at Lazy Brook Park in Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania. Walking around the park, they thought, “This would be beautiful place for a bluegrass festival!” By 2008 the couple was hosting their first bluegrass festival at the park. The NEPA (North East Pennsylvania) Festival is now in its sixteenth year. The event brings in top bluegrass acts in June each year. The 2023 lineup includes The Kody Norris Show, The Crowe Brothers, Jr Sisk & Rambler’s Choice, Little Roy & Lizzy, Dave Adkins Band and more.
When Danny’s band, Remington Ride, was booked to play on Valarie Smith’s last bluegrass cruise, Danny and Christa had such a great time, they decided to start their own bluegrass cruise in 2012. Their 2023 cruise marks their eleventh year. They have hosted bluegrass cruises from Florida, Long Beach, California and Alaska (leaving out of Seattle). The acts on the first cruise included the Spinney Brothers, Little Roy Lewis and Lizzy, Marty Raybon, Remington Ride and Larry Stephenson. By that time their son Danny, Jr. was a member of Larry Stephenson’s band (Danny, Jr.—an ETSU graduate—is now a member of the Navy’s bluegrass band Country Current). The first cruise was successful…then things really took off. They doubled their attendance for the second cruise and before the pandemic they were hosting as many as 930 people per cruise. Bands who were involved in their January 2023 cruise included Monroe Crossing, Seth Mulder & Midnight Run, Crying Uncle Bluegrass, Dave Adkins Band, Danny Paisley, Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike and Mark Miklos. Additionally, the event includes “Mike & Mary’s Gospel Sing & Jam.”
With the continued success of their events, Danny and Christa decided to quit their jobs and start promoting bluegrass events full-time in about 2011. Danny said, “I played in local and regional bands for years. But then my passion shifted from playing to promoting. I didn’t want to be a road warrior anymore…I wanted to build the party and let the people come to me. I loved picking and I loved being on stage, but I didn’t like the traveling. We believe in ourselves and we have faithful customers and people who support what we do.” That belief in what they could accomplish, combined with the support from friends and fans, gave them the confidence to become full-time bluegrass festival promoters.
Lake Havasu
The bluegrass festival at Lake Havasu in Arizona (Bluegrass On The Beach) had been a successful event for nearly 20 years before the Stewarts became involved. The festival had been run by Larry and Sondra Baker, but as the Bakers became interested in moving towards retirement, they approached the Stewarts to see if they would be interested in partnering with them in promoting and running the festival. In 2018, Danny and Christa joined forces with Larry and Sondra. The Stewarts had attended Bluegrass On The Beach in 2015 and were impressed with the event and its location. They first attended the festival when their son was performing there with Country Current. They met the Bakers and formed a friendship after realizing that the two couples share a lot of the same bluegrass passions.
The lineup for the March 2023 event includes the Henhouse Prowlers, Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper, Southern Raised, Dave Adkins Band, The Tennsessee Bluegrass Band, Seth Mulder & Midnight Run, the US Navy Band Country Current, Kenny Stinson & Perfect Tym’n, Kentucky Sky, and more.
Withlacoochee
The Withlacoochee Bluegrass Festival, in Dunnellon, Florida was run for 25 years by Lonnie Knight, until his death in 2006. It was one of the premier bluegrass events in Florida in the 1980s and 90s. The festival closed for a while, but then was revived by Dave Elliott. Lonnie’s widow, Peggy Knight, had called Elliott in 2012 and asked him to bring back the festival. It returned in November of 2013, but was a smaller event than previous years.
Regarding their involvement in the Withlacoochee festival, Christa Stewart remembers, “About the same time that Larry and Sondra Baker had offered us to become promoters for the Lake Havasu festival, Dave Elliott approached us about Withlacoochee.” Although Elliott turned the festival over to the Stewarts, Danny said, “I still use him as a consultant.”
The first festival that the Stewarts were involved with in Withlacoochee was supposed to be in March of 2022. Christa said, “Everything was in place to happen and then a tornado came through the Ocala and Dunnellon area and we had to postpone that first festival. So, November of 2022 was the first Withlacoochee that we brought back. We had Peggy Knight’s daughter and her husband on site and they were so welcoming and so happy to have the music back. It had been years that things hadn’t happened there.”
Danny said, “Once we built it, it sold itself. There are a lot of people in this area of Florida that remember Withlacoochee as the biggest festival in the whole southeast at one time and everyone wanted it to happen. From a promoter’s point of view, it is an easy sell. It would be like if something like Gettysburg went away for five or six years and then started back up. It would be an easy sell because of all of the people that used to go there.”
Little Roy and Lizzy Festival
The next festival that the Stewarts became involved with was the Little Roy and Lizzy Festival in Lincolnton, Georgia. Danny said, “Little Roy and Lizzy are one of my favorite bands and friends. I’ve known Little Roy since I was probably thirteen years old. They have always been a big part of our cruises. Norman Adams had been running that festival for years and when he retired, he gave the festival to Lizzy Long and Lizzy said, ‘Danny, I want to give this festival to you.’ I said, ‘I don’t want it Lizzy.’ COVID had just come to town and everyone was scrambling. So, I said, ‘I’ll go in it with you as partners.’ So, that is what we did there. She is a great promoter and hard worker.”
Christa added, “We love Little Roy and Bonnie and consider them close personal friends of ours. Lizzy respected Danny enough to approach him. We knew Norman was going to be retiring and we had looked up to Norman and Judy Adams and were friends with them as well. We would tell them, ‘We want to be you guys when we grow up.’ That was our joke.”
The bands that will be performing at the 2023 Little Roy & Lizzie Festival in May of 2023 include, Marty Stuart, Doug Flowers Band, The Baker Family, the Little Roy and Lizzy Show, Hillbilly Gypsies, Rhonda Vincent, Gene Watson, Midnight Run, The Malpass Brothers, Frank Ray and Cedar Hill, Larry Efaw, Retro 78, The Crowe Brothers, and Blueridge Soul.
Bluegrass Cruises
As mentioned previously, 2023 was the eleventh year that the Stewarts have been organizing bluegrass cruises. Their success is such that with the number of people that they are bringing on board the Royal Caribbean ships, the ship allows the bands to perform in the main performance theater. Danny said, “While you are on the ship you can hear your favorite bands playing through a million-dollar sound system.” Jam sessions and workshops are also scheduled, as well as open mic events with a back up band. Danny promotes the event as “going on vacation with your favorite bands.” Not only do fans have the opportunity to enjoy the cruise ship and its destinations with the professional musicians along for the ride, but the Stewarts arrange for the fans and band members to sit together at the dinner tables as well.
Danny said that the cruise packages are so popular that “when they leave the cruise ship, half of the people sign up for the next one.” There are a lot of repeat cruise customers. Danny added, “People from our cruises follow our other festivals as well.”
Festival Magic
Over the years Danny and Christa have gained an intuitive feel for the success of their various festival locations. Christa said, “We have felt the magic going into festival grounds. You either feel the magic or you feel cooties. We have learned that if we feel the cooties, we run!”
Another aspect of all of their festival events is the incorporation of a Sunday service. On Sunday morning they include a gospel sing and jam. Christa said, “We feel that it is important to bring God to our festivals…even on the cruise.” To facilitate this, the Stewarts not only offer the gospel sing and jam, but they invite Mike and Mary Robinson, their “missionaries for bluegrass” to come to their events and lead the Sunday morning event.
Danny and Christa are able to make all of this work because they are a good team and work with a strong and capable group of volunteers. Danny handles all of the band hiring duties and Christa handles the administration, social media, and vendors. Christa said, “We have a great working relationship.” She added, “Success is measured by how you treat your guests.” Judging by the success that they have had in the business of festival promotion, I’d say that they know how to treat their guests quite well.
