Tres Pinos
– If taking up your banjo or mandolin and jamming with friends
and strangers into the wee hours of the morning is your idea of
fun, clear your date book for the weekend because the Good Old
Fashioned Bluegrass Festival is back at Bolado Park for three days
of camping, friends and music with a twan
g.
Tres Pinos – If taking up your banjo or mandolin and jamming with friends and strangers into the wee hours of the morning is your idea of fun, clear your date book for the weekend because the Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival is back at Bolado Park for three days of camping, friends and music with a twang.
“It’s a real low-key event because we don’t worry about booking big-name bands from the East Coast or anything like that,” said Mary Kennedy, editor of Northern California Bluegrass Society publication Bluegrass By the Bay. “We’re all about promoting local bands and the local music scene.”
Each year more than 1,000 bluegrass enthusiasts and fans from around California meet up in Tres Pinos for the bluegrass society’s signature event, which this year features 25 professional bands playing hour-long sets and 20 amateur groups playing between acts over the course of the weekend. The music starts at 3pm today.
“Basically, you’re going to get to hear and see some quality bluegrass onstage nonstop during this festival,” Festival Director Rich Evans said.
On top of that, festival attendees regularly hook up for “jam sessions” – small, informal performances that are almost entirely improvised – so don’t be surprised if some of the best music you hear isn’t even on the stage.
“When you start to get into bluegrass, you build this repertoire of songs that people will know all around the country,” Kennedy said. “And you get into these jam sessions and start to learn songs that your friends have written or picked up somewhere else. It’s very dynamic, and it’s always changing.”
Festival attendees who don’t want to miss out on the after-hours music can camp in their tents or RVs for an additional fee, and a small FM radio station will be set up to broadcast bluegrass tunes all over the park.
“Everyone’s very friendly and happy to be there,” Evans said. “It’s a great place to meet people.”
Bluegrass can trace its roots back to English and Irish folk music that took on a life of its own when those tunes were brought to America, Kennedy said. With the later introduction of ragtime, blues and jazz, bluegrass developed a style that was easy for beginners to learn and very catchy. Recently, modern bluegrass music has surged in popularity not just in the United States, but around the world as well.
“They had 30 big bluegrass festivals last year in Japan alone,” Kennedy said.
Gate price for an adult three-day ticket including free camping is $70. There are discounts for seniors and youth, and children ages 12 and under get in for free. One- and two-day tickets are also available. Limited RV hook-ups cost $15 per night.
Danielle Smith covers education for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or [email protected].
