The Venue

Nancy Cardwell is passing the baton for the IBMA Foundation. She has been a lifelong supporter, educator, and player of bluegrass music and is in no way losing her passion for the genre. After ten years, the IBMA Foundation Executive Director feels it is the right time for her to take another path in her…

Building Bridges Through Bluegrass Photos by Elliot Siff My journey began with a text from mandolin legend Christopher Henry: “Do you want to teach mandolin in Nepal?” I said yes. Less than a week later, I was on a plane headed for Kathmandu with my mandolin case in hand. It happened very fast for me…

A Bluegrass Adventure This is a story about how a two groups of young people learning to play bluegrass music connected across 2,003 miles to share 13 banjos, 4 mandolins, 6 guitars, and 20 fiddles. In September 2024, immediately after the IBMA Business Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina, the world was just beginning to hear…

In most of the Bluegrass world, the beginning of festival season generally happens sometime around Memorial Day. In northern Colorado, however, everyone knows that it begins over President’s Day weekend. That’s when the Midwinter Bluegrass Festival takes place. Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, once again the Midwinter Bluegrass Festival takes over a hotel in…

Finds Success and Fills a Niche By all measures, the Blue Ox Music Festival is a young musical gathering. Now going into its 12th year, the festival will return once again on June 25-27, at the Pines Music Park in beautiful Eau Claire, Wisconsin, located between Chippewa Falls and Osseo. The gathering is more proof…

Written by Dale and Darcy Cahill Over the past thirty years of attending bluegrass festivals, Dale and I have witnessed festivals evolving beyond rough camping and one-stage events. Some of the innovations grew out of attendees’ suggestions and others from promoters trying new ways to attract larger audiences and add even a small amount of…