Your Membership in the Northern California Bluegrass Society supports local bluegrass music in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Monterey Bay Area, and in all of Northern California. It also means getting you ready for the upcoming bluegrass festival season!
Gene Bach, the Scott Valley Bluegrass Festival promoter, has announced that the event is CANCELLED. The festival had been set for July 18-20 in the town of Etna, off of I-5 in far Northern California.
The popular small-town festival was held for 10 years but was then on hiatus for the next 10 years. The festival was to be revived for 2024, but a nearby threatening wildfire smoked it out. Now the 2025 revival effort has been ended as well. The event will not return.
Bach is well known in California for starting the Susanville Bluegrass Festival (still ongoing under new ownership) and the Etna festival. He also started the Twin Bridges Bluegrass Festival in Montana.
The annual NCBS Gathering Membership & Volunteer Party will be held on Saturday, July 12, 2025 in Santa Cruz.
The 31st Annual Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival! Enjoy!
The Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival will be held Thursday-Sunday August 7-10 at the San Benito County Historical Park in Tres Pinos. The 31st festival is a benefit for the Northern California Bluegrass Society.
The Northern California Bluegrass Society accepts donations to support area bluegrass and is a California Not-For-Profit Corporation with Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3) status that is also known as the Santa Cruz Bluegrass Society.
The NCBS/SCBS Tax ID No. is 94-2907716.
Mail-In Donations: NCBS/SCBS, PO Box 390846, Mountain View, CA 94039-0846.
Here are the March & April upcoming events of interest to Northern California bluegrass fans:
MARCH
8 – CBA Sonoma County Folk & Bluegrass Festival, Sebastopol Community Cultural Center, Sebastopol.
29 & 30 — Bela Fleck With Antonio Sánchez & Edmar Castañeda, Presidio Theater, Presidio of San Francisco / Golden Gate National Recreation Area, San Francisco. (NCBS welcomed)
APRIL
15-20 – CBA Spring Campout (& California State Old Time Fiddle Association Open Fiddle & Picking Contest), Lodi Grape Festival Fairgrounds, Lodi.
24-27 – Merlefest, Wilkes Community College, Wilkesboro, NC.
25-28 – Walker Creek Music Camp, Walker Creek Ranch, Petaluma. (NCBS welcomed)
26 – Pickin’ On The Polk, Polk Street, San Francisco. FREE.
Volunteers are needed for the August 7-10, 2025 Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival! Join your Northern California Bluegrass Society friends as we put on the best festival of the year!
Details are with the Volunteer Form on this website.
The Workshop Teacher Application for the August 7-10 Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival is available on this website. The workshops will be held on Friday & Saturday, August 8 & 9. Applications are due on March 30, 2025.
Save The Date: The annual NCBS Gathering Membership & Volunteer Party will be held on Saturday, July 12, 2025. More information will be announced soon.
