The Return of the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival

Twenty years after the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival won the award for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s (IBMA) Event of the Year in 2006, the festival is returning to the Boston area in 2026 after having been on hiatus since the COVID pandemic. This year, the Boston Bluegrass Union’s (BBU) flagship event is not only celebrating its return in 2026 (after being dark for 6 years), it is also marking the 40th anniversary of the first Joe Val memorial, the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Boston Bluegrass Union and the 100th year of Joe Val’s birth (1926-1985). So, the event in 2026, which will be held the weekend of February 12-15 at the Sheraton in Framingham, Massachusetts, will be an opportunity to mark many milestones in the history of New England bluegrass. History The Joe Val Bluegrass Festival grew out of two benefit events that were held for Joe Val, one in 1984 and the next in 1985. At the time, Joe Val—who was one of the most popular bluegrass act