The Venue

Making Changes to Become Much More Than Just a Main Stage Event Tucked away in the Upper Midwest, just 90 miles from Minneapolis and due west of the massive and beautiful inland sea known as Lake Superior, the small town of Richmond has been the home of the Minnesota Bluegrass Festival for the last 23…

Béla Fleck, Casey Driessen and Bryan Sutton Lead Their Own Music Camps in the Western North Carolina Mountains  The mountain town of Brevard, North Carolina, is located less than a half hour’s drive from Asheville, and while the latter city still provides the bigger music scene known worldwide, Brevard is rising as well. Some of…

Photos By Cassidy Wayant Photography In many parts of the country, the wonderful roots music genre known as bluegrass continues to flourish due to targeted efforts to keep the music alive and flowing into the future. In some states, it is the Junior Appalachians Musicians program that facilitates the teaching of over 1,000 students in…

Photos by Jack Bernhardt It’s 3 p.m on a comfortably warm October 4, 2024. Rita Forrester is hard at work, getting food and concessions in order before fans arrive for the evening’s show featuring Marty Stuart and the Tennessee Mafia Jug Band. Tonight’s concert is part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the Carter Family…

Photos by Elizabeth Harris Photography For the last 45 years Fret Mill Music (www.fretmill.com) has been a continual and stable presence in the Roanoke bluegrass music community. While the internet age now enables us to order anything from anywhere with the click of a button, finding a music shop that still encourages a hands-on approach…

After Hurricane Helene Hit The Mountains, The IBMA Trust Fund and The Bluegrass Community Took Action It is not every day that Chinook helicopters land in the mountains of Western North Carolina delivering much-needed supplies to a disaster zone, but that is what happened when Hurricane Helene struck the Nature Coast of Florida and then…