Fresh Grass Festival 2015
Mark Your Calendar for September 18th-20th,
By: Philip Kampe - Oct 02, 2014
It’s only 350 days to the 2015 Fresh Grass Festival that will take place at MASS MoCA (North Adams, Ma) next year. The dates of September 18th to 20th, 2015, are etched into my calendar.
Since I barely knew what Fresh Grass meant before attending the three day event, I knew I would be in-store for a lot of surprises. And that certainly was the case.
Every nook and cranny at the museum was filled with true to the bone bluegrass musicians playing what they are best at, their unique, yet, traditional version of bluegrass music mixed with Celtic, Cajun and whatever style of music that achieved their goal.
Dads, with their kids, some as young as six years old, were strumming away in the corridors and hallways of the old mill. Crowds gathered and joined in to become part of the foot stomping music that made its way around the museum grounds.
Yes, the headliner entertainers were on the various stages, but, the heart and soul of the Fresh Grass festival occupied the makeshift locations that the bands chose to electrify the passerby’s.
Not only were the entertainers everywhere, but, acknowledging the arts, the museum was open and free to tour during the concert hours. To witness art and music at the same time is an obvious ‘high’ to the many that attended.
There were 26 acts on two stages, as well as hourly acts on secondary stages. One of the acts on the secondary stage was ‘Twisted Pine’, a charismatic band with an award winning banjo player and future star, bassist and vocalist, Adam Moore. ‘Twisted Pine’ is a name to remember.
Experiencing acts like the ‘Carolina Chocolate Drops’, ‘David Grisman Sextet’ , ‘Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn’ , ‘Emmylou Harris’ and the ‘Duhks’ help make Fresh Grass the ‘Woodstock for banjo players’.
I can barely wait 350 days until the 2015 version of Fresh Grass premiers at MASS MoCA.