Hot Weather. Hotter Music. Hot August Music Festival
One of the best one-day festivals returns to Oregon Ridge Park in Cockeysville, Maryland, on Saturday, August 17, as Hot August Music Festival makes its 27th appearance. And this year’s lineup once again is filled to overflowing with incredible bands and musicians of all stripes.
It probably will be a Hot August afternoon and evening at Oregon Ridge, as patrons sit on the gentle ski slope, with the main stage and side stage below. Children under 12 are free, gates open at 11 a.m., and you can bring chairs, blankets, small tents, and easy-ups. You may also bring small, soft coolers and non-alcoholic beverages.
IMPORTANT from the website (link below):
You can bring in as much water as you want. There will be no water filling stations. Baltimore County has determined that the water in the bathrooms is not potable. Please do not plan on using this water to refill water bottles.
Back to that lineup, topped by four of the hottest acts on the scene, starting with hometown heroes Pigeons Playing Ping Pong. These boys have been making Baltimore proud for years, romping at their own DomeFest and at events as varied as the Peach Music Festival and Jam Cruise, blasting out their “High-Energy Psychedelic Funk.”
There are few bands hitting with the juggernaut force of Brooklyn power funksters Turkuaz. The nine color-coordinated members get a dance party started, and, to paraphrase, a Turkuaz party don’t stop.
Billy Strings presents a tsunami of psychedelic bluegrass and jamgrass and newgrass. He and his band have thrilled audiences at traditional bluegrass fests, jam fests, and funk tests alike. Believe your ears.
Those three are, in relative terms, newcomers compared to Melvin Seals & JGB, as in Jerry Garcia Band. For 40 years, Seals and company have been playing amazing music, much of associated with Garcia in addition to lots of other soulful music. And they are delighted to announce that the great guitarist John Kadlecik will be joining them through the fall.
The rest of the lineup is just as smoking hot. Blues guitar slinger Samantha Fish will burn it up, as will North Mississippi Hill Country drummer Cedric Burnside, grandson of R.L. Burnside. And The Lil Smokies play some superb progressive bluegrass from Jam Cruise to LOCKN’.
Bluesman Larry McCray will impress on guitar, as will new star Vanessa Collier, a fine funky soulful vocalist and sax player. The Travers Brothership have been garnering rave reviews everywhere they go with their funky Asheville jams, and The Dirty Grass Players and The Old Part of Town fill out the lineup.
Those early-bird prices go away after Thursday night. Jump on ’em now!
