New Combo Festival for 2012!

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Looking for something to do between the High and Dry or Bower’s Mansion bluegrass festivals and fall Strawberry? Want something bluegrass oriented with an additional focus on quilting and workshops, in a nice venue with all the amenities you want, easy freeway access, plenty of nearby shopping, is VERY reasonably priced and features some of the best regional bands available for three different states? Well I have an event for you then.

The Siskiyou Strings and Threads Bluegrass Festival in Yreka, California. This event will be held the week of August 20th – 26th, 2012. Yreka is located right off Interstate 5, 90 miles north of Redding, California and 50 miles south of Medford, Oregon. It is a town with a population of 7000, has 3 supermarkets, a wide variety of small and medium sized shops and by the time the festival takes place the local Wal-Mart will have be transformed into a Super Wal-Mart providing a place to get what you need 24 hours a day.

There are many outdoor activities available, including fishing, hiking and biking. Also, at that time, the blackberries will be ripe and it’s quite easy to pick enough of those to make as many pies as you want. I can even point you in the direction of the Upper Klamath River where you can catch native trout to start the morning and then pick a gallon of berries before you head back to the festival. Average temperatures here for that time of year are 87/48.

The Siskiyou Golden Fairground sits at the south end of town and is very easy to get to. In fact, if you get off the freeway from either the north or south lanes, at the South Yreka off-ramp, and turn east, you will be looking directly at that venue. What does the fairground offer you? A great many things! How about this:

1) An RV park with 130 sites featuring 30 amp electric and water, contained in a
grass area.
2) Shaded camping areas for tents or tent trailers featuring more electric
hook-ups.
3) Handicap camping areas close to the stage.
4) 4 sets of bathrooms.
5) 2 sets of showers.
6) Shaded seating for the audience.
7) VERY easy access from, and to, town and the freeway.

The fairground also features wonderful opportunities for quilters. There are three very large, air conditioned buildings that you can use for that aspect of the event. Each is a minimum of 3000 sq. ft. One building has a full commercial kitchen, and the fairground manager says it fine for you quilters to use if you’d like to set up doing lunches. Stage music will be in each building.

So, who’s playing at the festival? As of right now I have 9 bands lined up, with the possibility of more to come. Representing the State of Oregon are: The Urban Monroes, Brokentop, Sugar Pine and Siskiyou Summit. From Nevada we will have Wild Horse Drive. And from California we will feature Susie Glaze and Hilonesome, The Central Valley Boys, Snap Jackson and the Knock On Wood Players and Rock Ridge. Not only are these folks great performers who put on a wonderful show, they are full of pickers who will be out with the crowd when they’re not onstage. Speaking of jamming, Paul Dorris will have his large jamming tent there and available all week.

You will be happy to know that John Senior Sound will be getting the notes from the stage to your ears. John and his crew are some of the very best in the business and I am very pleased they have decided to join us for this event.

How about workshops, you may ask? We have you covered there as well. We will hold multiple 1 ½ hour workshops Thursday through Saturday covering various instruments and vocals. We are also happy to say that Sid Lewis will be there with his Jamming 101 class! Workshops will be held Thursday afternoon/evening, Friday morning/lunch break and Saturday morning/lunch break. You will get to spend time learning from various instructors. The cost for all of these workshops? Nothing…your festival admission ticket entitles you to attend any or all of these classes free of charge: including the Jamming 101 class.

Speaking of charges, what will it cost you to attend this event? Advance sale adult admission tickets will be $40 and teens will be $20. Kids 12 and under are always free of charge. Camping will be $15/night. If you bring an RV, and your kids want to set up a tent, you will NOT be charged extra for their tent.

What about pets…can you bring them? Absolutely! Same simple rules apply as Susanville: keep control of them, clean up after them, no pets in the audience area (we’ll have a place for you to sit with them just outside the audience
area).

So there you are: a new event with a little something for everybody that is very affordable. Hope to see you there!

Gene Bach