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08/28/2023

Sisters Folk Festival 2023 Preview: All you need to know about this year's festival

By BOB HOWARD // This year’s festival begins on Friday, September 29.  Seven stages host 33 artists and over 90 performances. This year’s headliners are John Craigie, Donna the Buffalo, Darlingside, Steve Poltz, Alex Cuba, Nick Shoulders, and Gina Chavez. Check out the whole  2023 Lineup and listen 2023 Spotify Artist Playlist

The population of Sisters, Oregon will triple during the last weekend in September. The Sisters Folk Festival sells out every year. Only six weeks from the opening, weekend passes are still available, but not for long. Tickets . 

The town of Sisters is a central Oregon gem, nestled in the heart of the central Oregon Cascades.

Gary Furlow, Director of Productions at Artichoke Music, has been going to the festival every year since 2008. “The setting is magic.  Sisters is a warm, caring community.  Musicians who come to town are energized by that feeling… it’s in the pine-scented air.”

This year’s festival begins on Friday, September 29.  Seven stages host 33 artists and over 90 performances. This year’s headliners are John Craigie, Donna the Buffalo, Darlingside, Steve Poltz, Alex Cuba, Nick Shoulders, and Gina Chavez. Check out the whole  2023 Lineup and listen 2023 Spotify Artist Playlist

For 26 years since 1996, the Sisters Folk Festival has brought artists from all over the world to a three-day celebration of American roots music, from blues to bluegrass to everything in between and around.  Many greats have graced the stage since the first Festival, including Ian Tyson, Tim O'Brien, Jesse Winchester, Natalie MacMaster, Bruce Cockburn, Ray Wiley Hubbard, Eilen Jewell, Mary Gauthier, Dave Carter, Ruthie Foster, Eric Bibb, The Wailin' Jennys, The Milk Carton Kids, CJ Chenier and the Red-Hot Louisiana Bandot Hot LouisianaH…But it certainly doesn’t stop with the headliners, the artistic team goes deep to find the emerging artists before they explode onto the national stage including Molly Tuttle, Mandolin Orange, now Watchhouse, Billy Strings, Kingfish, The Accidentals, and Darlingside among many others.

What makes Sisters so special is how the fest continues throughout the year. This small town of 2,200 produces more music per capita than any town we know anywhere in the U.S. The Sisters Folk Festival is a cultural arts organization bringing the best of American Roots music to Oregon and beyond.

Over the years, the festival has grown to support education programs and music programming throughout the year. Today, in addition to the three-day festival, they support or produce:

• Year-Round Concerts
• Big Ponderoo - a brand-new music festival bringing progressive bluegrass Americana music to two stages in June and Camp Ponderoo - a summer, immersive bluegrass jam camp, 
• Summer Creativity Camps - Seven week-long sessions of fun-filled art, music, theater, and science camps open to youth entering grades 5 – 9.
• School Programming:
  • Sisters Middle School Creativity Club
  • Sisters Middle School Outlaw Strings
  • Sisters High School Americana Project - The Americana Project is a study of the roots of folk music in our culture. The students are provided the opportunity to learn the basics of playing the guitar and songwriting, while they gain an understanding of how music has formed and shaped historical, cultural, and social events in America.
  • Sisters High School Luthier Program - The Sisters Americana Community Luthier program is one of only two instrument-building programs in public high schools in the country. 
  • Scholarship for Graduating Seniors
• Americana Song Academy - Immersive experience that offer master classes on songwriting from prominent professional musicians.

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