Even though back-to-school panic may be settling over Livingston residents, there is no need to retire the dancing shoes just yet. Summer festival season in Montana is not over—despite the crisp, cool nights of mid-August.
Area music festivals Summerfest at Sacajawea Park in town, and the Grand Targhee Music and Bluegrass Festivals in Wyoming were local favorites this year, and for those who missed getting out to experience these events, local festival-goers provide festival highlights.
In the coming week, Park County will also host two such festivals in one weekend. August 28 and 29, 2010 are the dates for the Yellowstone Music Festival down at Arch Park in Gardiner and the inaugural staging of the Paradise Valley Music Festival in Luccock Park.
A list of upcoming events to look forward to around the state is available on the Livingston Current website at livingstoncurrent.com for those unwilling to give up on summer fun until the school bells of fall are ringing again.
Summerfest
Livingston’s Summerfest 2010 was a record-breaker for attendance for the third year in a row, according to former assistant director John Gracey, with crowds peaking at upwards of 13,000 at the Sacajawea Park venue. “People literally come from all over the country—Florida, Nova Scotia, Arizona, Washington—there are people that actually schedule their vacations around when Summerfest is going to be, in the few years since we’ve been doing the headlining bands,” Gracey says.
Summerfest includes kids’ activities, a car show, and this year marked the first annual chili cook-off. The three day fest ran from Friday, July 16, through late afternoon Sunday, July 18, featuring local bands Two Story Ranch, and Jamelution, with The Max closing out Friday night. Saturday Absaroka Mountain Thunder, the 30 ot Hix’s alt-country “Electricana”, harmonica infused blues with The Shuffle Bums, and the blues and rock of the Dave Walker Band. Wyoming-based rock band Blackwater followed, and native son Chris Hiatt returned to rock his hometown on the Livingston Saturday night. Sunday held Prairie Wind Jammers’ bluegrass, Cold Hard Cash, a spookily-accurate Johnny Cash cover band, and vocal-harmony driven headliners the Buck Ram Platters, named as an homage to the late smash-hit songwriter Buck Ram for fifties crooners The Platters, who maintain their audience approval and fifties repertoire.
For information on next year’s lineup, keep an eye on www.livingstonsummerfest.com or become a virtual friend on facebook.com of “Summer Fest”—they offer frequent updates of local happenings throughout the year until next Summerfest.
Grand Targhee Music Festivals
The sixth annual Grand Targhee Music Festival incorporates family fun and live music for all to enjoy. An eclectic group of premier performers gather on an intimate stage tucked into the shadows of the Tetons.
On the same weekend as Livingston’s Summerfest this year, the event offered a popular alternative for road-trippers.
Performers at the three-day event July 16 through 18 of 2010 included Moe, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Los Lobos, Shawn Colvin, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, and David Lindley among many others. Highlights included Grace Potter taking the stage Saturday night and bringing the crowd to their feet, and the Michael Franti and Spearhead finishing the weekend with the beat of drum.
The Targhee Bluegrass Festival commenced a few weekends later in mid-August. The bluegrass festival at Targee celebrated 23 years this August. The event included workshops and performances by Bela Fleck, Mollie O’Brien, the Sam Bush Band, Brother Mule, and the Keels. For more information about upcoming festivals for 2011, visit www.vootie.com.
The Yellowstone Music and Arts Festival
Back this year from a one-year hiatus, the Yellowstone Music and Arts Festival is now in its sixth year in Arch Park, at the original north entrance to world-famous Yellowstone National Park. It features music, workshops, food, beer and original art work at a day-long festival.
A group of “100-percent” volunteers organizes and hosts the festival yearly, some of whom form a non-profit board, the Yellowstone Music and Art Festival. The mission of the board is to offer cultural, arts and musical and educational opportunities to the residents of Gardiner and surrounding areas.
New to the Yellowstone festival this year are free music workshops in the morning. Taught by performer Mitch Barrett, 2009 Telluride Troubadour, and his band’s stand-up bassist Owen Reynolds, the workshops are free to the public and all ages. Barrett will be hosting “Building Community through Collaborative Storytelling and Songwriting” and Owen Reynolds will teach “The Role of the Sideman.” The workshops are scheduled from 9:30 a.m. until 11 a.m., after which the performances begin.
“We encourage people to buy tickets and stay all day,” says event organizer Dessa Dale.
Headliners Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband are previous winners of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival’s Best Band Competition and had a top 15 country hit, “Dream Big” in 2005. “Dream Big” was selected as the theme song for NBC’s prime-time show “Three Wishes” hosted by Amy Grant. Event organizers describe their sound as an energetic fusion of bluegrass, rock and country.
All food vendors are non-profit organizations in the Gardiner area, as the festival committee seeks to support other non-profits in the area, and ticket proceeds are funneled back into the non-profit group hosting the festival for future events and workshops. Interested volunteers may work four hours, with option of two non-consecutive shifts or in set-up and take-down in exchange for free tickets. For more information on how to volunteer, e-mail Info@yellowstonemusicfest.com. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased online. For more festival information or to buy tickets, visit www.yellowstonemusicfest.com.
The music schedule is as follows:
11 a.m. Jenny Golding, event founder and
folksy singer-songwriter
11:45 a.m. Russ Chapman Singer-songwriter with Southern bent, performs Civil-War era songs
12:50 Thermal Grass Bozeman-based bluegrass
2:20 Kevin Dooley Celtic and blues influenced singer-songwriter
3:25 p.m. Mitch Barett, 2009 Telluride Troubadour and workshop host
5 p.m. Jeffrey Foucault Singer/Songwriter
6:40 p.m. Calle Mambo, Ten piece Salsa band from Jackson, Wyoming
8:30 p.m. Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband
Website: www.flickr.com/groups/yellowstonemusicfest/pool/show/
The Paradise Valley Music Festival
The inspiration for the Paradise Valley Music Festival was the brainchild of a few local parents who also love music: builder Mike Long and established singer-songwriter Sean Devine. Devine’s previous experience throwing a folk festival at Luccock Park led him to imagine another show at the venue, and with local event organizers Tom Garnsey and Joanne Gardner fleshing out the details and lineup, the stage was set for a Paradise Valley party. Profits from the festival are slated for improvements to regional rural schools.
The opening set of the Festival at 12:30 p.m. is Montana songwriter Ben Bullington, whose songs frame “moments of the delicacy and poignancy of everyday experience,” and just as easily cross over to wryly document the absurdity of those random frat-boy drive-by yelps in the night or rampant political hypocrisy. Sean Devine then performs with his band Two Story Ranch, showcasing his own haunting ballads and rollicking musical vignettes alongside guitarist Kevin Toll and cellist Kyle Brenner.
Early afternoon, look for the upbeat bluegrass jam-vibe and noodle-dance-invoking Infamous Stringdusters, described thusly by promoters: “The live Stringdusters experience is anti-formulaic, groove-friendly, and mind-expanding—not your granddaddy’s bluegrass. Unless your granddaddy was Jerry Garcia.”
Acclaimed mandolinist and Grammy-nominated composer David Grisman will bring his quintet’s eclectic blend of musical influences describable only to the uninitiated as the “dawg” music genre—synthesizing elements of folk, swing, bluegrass, Latin, jazz and gypsy music to craft a unique groove made for dancing barefoot in the forest.
Comedian and part-time local resident Rich Hall will be emceeing the event, interspersing the acts with his own droll commentary, but he also dons a Confederate-flag dew-rag and a painfully provincial persona to become cut-up and country singer, Otis Lee Crenshaw.
Crenshaw fans will be delighted to hear the message from beneath his truck-home: “He is excited to be performing on the same stage as David Grisman and James McMurtry. Otis is equally excited to be performing songs from his new album Live at the Apollo which (in its only review, The Ardmore (Oklahoma) Echo)...describes as ‘an album that clearly smacks of someone owing someone else a favor,’” says Rich Hall.
“Otis will be performing a brand new song written specifically for Livingstoners which is a musical criticism/comparison of the free popcorn served by various hardware outlets in town. The song has left other audiences baffled but may have found its rightful audience here.”
Songwriter James McMurtry closes out the event, pulling no punches with his lyrical assault on the political-economic landscape of modern America. “We Can’t Make it Here,” his swing at the burgeoning economic crisis and governmental negligence of 2004, propelled him further into notoriety and a widespread grassroots recognition amongst fans of his frank and colorful stories of the personal intersections of cultural, economic and political meltdown.
The event is very family friendly: children under 12 may attend free with their parents, and a free lunch will be served for kids from noon until 2 p.m. in the Luccock children’s activity area.
Cars will be parked at the bottom of Luccock Park road and shuttles will be available to transport concert-goers to the intimate venue of the Park. Loads of local food vendors will be dishing up the grub along with obligatory festival food like kettle corn and fresh-squeezed lemonade. Alcohol will not be sold at the event. Backpacks are allowed, but organizers request no coolers or glass bottles, and that pets please be left at home, as they will not be permitted at the Park or the parking area.
Tickets are available for purchase at the website: www.paradisevalleyfestival.com or at www.golivingston.com, or by phone at (406) 222-3322. Ticket prices are 42 dollars in advance or 48 dollars on the day of the show; if purchasing at the site, payable by cash or check. A Will Call table for ticket pickup will be set up at the August 25 Farmer’s Market, also the site of a drawing for two free VIP tickets being raffled for Western Sustainability Exchange. For campsite reservation (Pine Creek Campground is full, but other arrangements are still available) and other information, email info@paradisevalleyfestival.com or call the number above.
Paradise Valley Music Festival Schedule:
12:30 – 1:15 Ben Bullington
1:30 – 2:30 Two Story Ranch and Friends
2:45 – 4:30 Infamous Stringdusters
5:00 – 7:15 David Grisman Quintet +
7:30 – 7:50 Otis Lee Crenshaw
8:15 – 10:30 James McMurtry
—LC Staff
Area Summer 2010 Music Festivals
08/18/10-08/23/10
Crow Fair and Rodeo
Crow Agency
406-638-3896
The ninety-second Annual Crow Fair Celebration it is one of the largest gatherings of the year for the Apsáalooke Nation and is considered the largest modern-day American Indian encampment in the Nation. Deemed the “Teepee Capital of the World” because of the approximately 1,200 to 1,500 teepees in the encampment. Event includes a Pow Wow, run and walk, rodeo and horse races and a parade.
Website: crowfair.crowtribe.com
08/18/10-08/22/10
Montana Cowboy Mounted Shooting Competition Finals
Three Forks
406-763-4456
Part exhibition, part Wild West show, part competition. Authentic cowboys and cowgirls compete on horseback in a timed shooting event with 45-caliber single-action pistols for real wild West entertainment. Concessions, seating and parking is available.
08/20/10-08/21/10
Manhattan Potato Festival
Manhattan
406-284-4162
Friday night is a barbecue dinner. Saturday is a day of celebration held in downtown Manhattan in honor of the potato industry surrounding this community. The day includes with firemen’s breakfast, parade, arts and crafts vendors, lawn mower races, car show and town dance.
08/21/10-08/22/10
Huntley Project Threshing Bee
Huntley
406-967-6687
The annual Huntley Project Threshing Bee in Huntley features events for the whole family including steam and gas threshing, a stationary engine display, gas tractor and steam engine plowing, hay baling, binding, a saw-mill, wood planer and shingle mill, working blacksmith shop, and a tractor pull competitition.
08/21/10
Montana State Chili Cook-off
Manhattan
406-284-4162
The Montana State Chili Cook-off is held in Manhattan. First place in Red, Green and
Salsa advance to the World Chili Cook-off. Substantial price money for each
category.
08/27/10-08/28/10
Blues Fest
Virginia City
406-843-5700
The two day Blues Festival in Virginia City goes throughout the weekend with the Iron front Band, Kenny James Miller Band and a Sunday brunch with Steve Hulse Trio.
Website: www.baleofhaysaloon.com
08/28/10-08/29/10
Old Settlers Days
Clyde Park
406-686-4796
Old Settlers Days is an old-time family celebration. The two-day festival features a parade, bake sales, vendor selling, foot race, barbecue, dance and fun and games for everyone. On Saturday, there will be a Fireman’s breakfast at 7:00 a.m. and other during the day include conversations with “Old Timers”, logging events and a car show; foot race (2-mile and 6-mile course) on Sunday. Prizes/medals awarded. Talent show is free to the public and anyone can join in singing, poetry, story telling, music and whatever.
08/28/10-08/29/10
River City Roots Fest
Missoula
406-543-4238
An arts and music festival showcasing Downtown Missoula. A unique public/private partnership, this event celebrates
Downtown’s success and provides an opportunity to highlight some of Missoula’s
most recently-developed attractions.
Musical entertainment will feature Robert Earl Keen, the Infamous Stringdusters, the Broken Valley Road Show and the Gourds.
Website: www.rivercityrootsfestival.com
08/28/10
MonDak Harvest Fest
Sidney
406-433-1916
The MonDak Harvest Fest is an antique tractor and pickup pulling contest. Also
included is a kids’ pedal pull and motor bike training. A show and shine car
show is held in the afternoon.
Regional Fairs and Rodeos
08/13 - 08/21, 2010
Montanafair
Billings, Montana
Location: Metra Parke
Contact Phone: (406) 256‑2410
Website: www.metrapark.com
08/20 - 08/22, 2010
Chouteau County Fair
Fort Benton, Montana
Location: Fairgrounds
Contact Phone: (406) 622‑5505
Website: www.chocofair.com
08/26 - 08/29, 2010
Lincoln County Fair
Eureka, Montana
Location: Fairgrounds
Contact Phone: (406) 296‑3471
Website: n/a
08/28/10
Dixon Melon Day
Dixon
406-246-0045
Dixon Melon Day provides fun for the entire family. Activities include a Parade, one, two and three mile, run/walks, food booths, old time kids and adult games, live entertainment, silent auction, farmer Olympics, horseshoes, little buckaroo rodeo and the best melons in western Montana.
08/27 - 08/29, 2010
Jefferson County Fair and Rodeo
Boulder, Montana
Location: Fairgrounds
Contact Phone: (406) 225‑4025
Website: www.goldwest.visitmt.com/listings/9155.HTM
