Bill Monroe Festivals Preview

~by Boris Ladwig

Bill Monroe’s Music Park and Campground will host local and national stars this spring as two popular multiday festivals make their return for 2024.

The Third Annual Americana Bean Jamboree, from May 30 to June 1, will include headliner Jordan Rainer, from Nashville, Tennessee, a finalist of last season’s The Voice. Rainer competed on the team of country music superstar Reba McEntire.

Grammy nominee and International Bluegrass Music Association award winner Tina Adair and her band will close out Friday night’s show, while Rainer will headline Saturday.

Other artists who will play on the main stage during the jamboree include Liam Purcell and Cane Mill Road, the Bibelhauser Brothers, and the Darren Nicholson Band. Brown County musician Will Scott, who created the Hill Folk Music Series, will host an open stage jam Thursday.

Scott also booked artists for the Hippy Hill

stage performances. Talent this year is coming from Louisville, Indianapolis, and east Tennessee, as well as this area. The lineup includes Tyrone Cotton, Dietrich Gosser, Kara Cole, Benjamin Fuson & Father Kentucky, Steve Plessinger & Joe Bolinger, Feathered Mason, and Katherine Nagy Trio.

Single-day tickets cost $17 for 7 to 10 p.m. Thursday, $50 for Friday and $55 for Saturday. Gates open at 10 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Tickets are available on the website. Guests also can rent golf carts to get around on the 55acre property, which Bill Monroe, the “father of Bluegrass” bought in 1951.

The 59th Annual Bill Monroe Bluegrass Festival this year will feature first-timers as well as artists who have never played the festival before or are returning after a long hiatus, said Melanie Wilson, publicist for the park and music events.

The lineup for the bluegrass festival, from June 12 to 15, includes Russell Moore and IIIrd Tyme Out as well as Grand Ole Opry stars Darin & Brooke Aldridge and Kentucky Music Hall of Famer and two-time Grammy nominee Dale Ann Bradley.

Tickets for the festival can be bought online and cost between $15 and $50 per day. A four-day ticket sells for $145. Gates are open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The festival draws spectators from near and far and over the decades has been steeped in myth and legend.

There’s the ever-present legend of Bill Monroe himself, “the Father of Bluegrass,” who founded the longest running bluegrass festival in 1967. He purchased the popular Brown County Jamboree in the early 1950s, which had been operating in some form since about 1939, beginning in a big tent and later expanding into a barn structure. The 1967 festival was held at the old barn and during the following year, Bill’s Bluegrass Boys helped clear the land and erect a stage in an amphitheater for the park’s first outdoor festival. The festivals included picking contests, square dancing, and jam sessions. Those jam sessions continue to this day, and Wilson encouraged attendees to bring their instruments.

She said people also should bring their favorite lawn chair and proper attire for sunshine, rain, and cool evenings.

The park, along State Road 135, about a 10-minute drive north of Nashville and about an hour’s drive south of Indianapolis, also offers recreational vehicle and tent camping. The park has 250 campsites and 14 cabins. The park also features a 5-acre catch-and-release fishing lake.

Monroe, whom former President Bill Clinton called an “American legend,” died in 1996. Dwight Dillman bought the park in 1998. The park is now being run by the Voils family.

Wilson said campers and attendees this year can enjoy some new amenities, such as a disc golf course, corn hole, and horseshoes.

It now features a restroom/shower house that is open 24 hours a day, upgraded cabins, a renovated main stage, a renovated museum, and a Wi-Fi Café.

People who have questions can contact the office via email, info@billmonroemusicpark.com , or phone, 812-988-6422 and can visit the website billmonroemusicpark.com .