The 2020 Fathers Day Bluegrass Festival

Mar 30, 2020 | Welcome Column

In 1977 a good friend and I drove up to Grass Valley on Fathers Day weekend to what we THOUGHT was a blues festival. Turned out to be a bluegrass music festival and that mistake turned out to be far and away the most profound misunderstanding of my life. It simply changed everything in my life. Each year there after the music of Bill Monroe and the others burrowed into my core; and I NEVER ever missed a Grass Valley festival in all those years; 43 festivals in 44 years. And this year would have been 44 of 45. But that was not meant to be.

By February it became apparent that instead of attending the Forty-fifth Annual Fathers Day Music Festival I would be sitting at home nursing a new complete knee replacement back to health. (Yes, I could have delayed the surgery until after the FDF, but I’d have ended up spending the majority of the event sitting back at my camp.

Well, I’m finally old enough to know that pretty much nothing ever happens the way we think it will. Unless yer head’s in the sand, you’re painfully aware that the Grass Valley Festival may…MAY…not happen this year because of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Our ten members of the CBA board have been dealing with the issues for weeks now, and next week at their April monthly meeting a decision will be made about FDF ’20. It’s an awful decision to have to make, and if it’s decided to pull the plug, the work required to make that happen will be complicated and grueling. Please join me in thanking the board of directors for their work.

And know this: if the 2020 festival is in fact cancelled, the 2021 Fathers Day Bluegrass Festival will be the best ever.

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