User:Delicedemonpere/Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival

GREY FOX BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL is an annual four-day outdoor music festival held in the Catskill Mountains region of upstate New York. Held in July on the Walsh Farm in Oak Hill (Greene County), NY, Grey Fox is a popular gathering place for bluegrass enthusiasts from throughout the U.S., Canada and around the globe.

NOTABLE PERFORMERS

Known for presenting a wide range of bluegrass music styles, Grey Fox typically features award-winning traditional, contemporary, newgrass and jamgrass bands. Over the years bluegrass legends such as Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, Ralph Stanley, Jimmy Martin, Kenny Baker, Jethro Burns, Josh Graves, John Hartford, Hazel Dickens, Lilly Brothers and others have performed on the Grey Fox stage. Second and third generation bluegrass artists including Hot Rize, Allison Krauss, Tim O'Brien, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, The Seldom Scene, Doyle Lawson, Del McCoury, David Grisman, The Whites, Ricky Skaggs, Bela Fleck, Marty Stuart, Chris Thile, Austin Lounge Lizards, Riders in the Sky and many others have been on the festival's lineup.

The largest bluegrass festival in the Northeast United States, Grey Fox is often credited with the introduction of young and upcoming bands to the region's bluegrass community. Such "new" bands have included Chris Thile & Nickel Creek, King Wilkie, the Gibson Brothers, and The SteelDrivers, all of whom went on to win IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year awards. A young Allison Krauss performed on her 18th birthday at the festival.

COMMUNITY

Each summer, approximately 5000 campers and up to 2000 day visitors travel to Oak Hill to participate in the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival. In 2008, bluegrass fans from 37 states and 14 countries attended Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival. Most fans spend the weekend on site at the festival in tents, RVs and campers, while others commute from nearby accommodations or home. Fans come to hear world-renowned performers, to play in jam sessions at their campsites, to reunite with friends and family or to meet fellow music fans. Approximately 500 volunteers per year from around the globe help run the event. Volunteers provide set up, traffic control, parking, ticketing, first aid, food preparation, credential checking, clean up and other services. About 50 vendors are purveyors of food, beverages, clothing, jewelry, musical instruments, arts and crafts.

HISTORY

The festival now known as Grey Fox began as the Winterhawk Bluegrass Festival in 1983, and was held on the Rothvoss Farm in Ancramdale, New York until 1999. In 2000, the name of the festival was changed to Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival. Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival continued to be held at the Rothvoss Farm in Ancramdale until the sale of the farm in January, 2008. At that time, Grey Fox moved to the Walsh Farm in the tiny, historic community of Oak Hill, New York, approximately 30 miles southwest of Albany, New York and 20 miles west of Catskill, NY (approximately 45 miles west of its original home). The Walsh Farm is located at 1 Poultney Road, Oak Hill, NY 12460. The event uses roughly 100 acres of cleared fields on the 200-acre Walsh farm. The main camping area is bordered on the north and east by the Catskill Creek, a notable New York fishing stream.

The Rothvoss Farm in Ancramdale, NY was also the birthplace of the Berkshire Mountain Bluegrass Festival, which began in 1976. Several musicians and bluegrass fans who still attend Grey Fox were at the first Berkshire Mountain Bluegrass Festival when a thunder storm hit the site. At that time, lightning struck Buddy Merriam -- one of the attendees -- knocking him unconscious. Merriam, a young mandolinist from Long Island, regained consciousness to find Bill Monroe, the Father of Bluegrass, hovering over him, asking if he was okay. Merriam was forever changed by this experience and went on to lead his own bluegrass band that plays the music of Bill Monroe plus original compositions in the Monroe tradition. More than 30 years later, Merriam also hosts Blue Grass Time, a weekly radio show on WUSB FM in Stony Brook, New York.

EDUCATIONAL ENDEAVORS

Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival has long been committed to preserving bluegrass music through education. The festival offers hands on workshops in guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin and bass for amateur musicians at its Grass Roots Learning Tent and beginning lessons for novices at the Slow Jam Tent. In 2008, the International Bluegrass Music Association presented seminars for regional professional and semi-professional musicians at Grey Fox given by an assemblage of industry experts including event producers, record label executives, publicists, media professionals and successful touring artists. These workshops were the first seminars presented by IBMA on site at a festival.

The Grey Fox Educational Fund is a 501(c)3 non-profit educational entity established to support the festival's educational efforts as well as the Grey Fox Bill Vernon Memorial Scholarship, which is awarded to qualifying college-bound students pursuing careers in music, music management or related fields. Recipients of the scholarship have been banjoist Bill Evans; bassist Amanda Kowalski; multi-instrumentalist Casey Henry; cellist Rushad Eggleston and others.

The Grey Fox Bluegrass Academy for Kids is also supported by the Grey Fox Educational Fund. The academy, established in 1999, teaches approximately 100 school-aged children to play, sing and perform traditional bluegrass music during the festival. Brian Wicklund, a master fiddler, teacher and author of the American Fiddle Method instruction series, has been the academy's artistic director since 2000. Classes in banjo, fiddle, guitar, mandolin, double bass, cello and dobro are offered, along with vocal harmony. Two academy students have gone on to study at colleges with acoustic music programs: Zach Mongan (banjo) is a student at East Tennessee State University and Etienne Cremieux (fiddle) is currently studying at Berklee College of Music.

DISTINCTIONS AND AWARDS

In October, 2009, Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival was named Bluegrass Event of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA). The award was presented during the annual IBMA World of Bluegrass convention in Nashville, Tennessee. Prior to winning the 2009 IBMA Bluegrass Event of the Year Award, Grey Fox was a nominee/finalist four times. Previous winners of the award for the best bluegrass event world-wide have been the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival (MA), Telluride Bluegrass Festival (CO), Merlefest (NC), The European World of Bluegrass (NL); Wintergrass Bluegrass Festival (WA), Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass Festival (ME), Huck Finn Bluegrass Festival (CA), Grass Valley Bluegrass Festival (CA) and others.

Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival is the setting and subject of the 86-minute 2003 film BLUEGRASS JOURNEY: A DOCUMENTARY FILM PORTRAIT OF THE CONTEMPORARY BLUEGRASS MUSIC SCENE "...a performance documentary celebrating the artistry and community of contemporary bluegrass music... Musically depicting many of the traditional roots and branches of the genre, BLUEGRASS JOURNEY uses on-site footage, interviews, and extended performances... Featuring some of the most celebrated practitioners of this traditional-sounding but still evolving musical form... Performances by such bluegrass luminaries as the Del McCoury Band, Peter Rowan, Tim O'Brien, Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas, Rhonda Vincent, Nickel Creek, and many others, depict why [bluegrass] has exploded in popularity in recent years..."

In July 2005, performances and interviews with top artists were filmed by BBC World News as part of its Destination Music television special, a series that aired in 2006. BBC World News writes: "Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, NY: Destination Music travels to Ancramdale, America, this week to be initiated into the world of bluegrass. Set in the mountains of upstate New York, Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival has been a firm fixture on the bluegrass music circuit for the last 29 years. Grey Fox features some of the top bluegrass artists in America who mix blues, soul, country and even gospel to produce a truly distinctive sound. Sam Bush discusses the need to push the boundaries of the bluegrass sound and talented quintet Psychograss talk us through their jazz-like approach to performance."

The producer of Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival is Mary Tyler Doub, of Owings Mills, Maryland. Ms. Doub, a founding member of the International Bluegrass Music Association in 1985, served as IBMA Chairman of the Board from 1991 to 1995. She currently chairs the Board of Directors of the International Bluegrass Music Museum (Owensboro, KY) and is on the Board of the Bluegrass Music Foundation.

2010 ARTIST LINEUP

The annual lineup at Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival is often referred to as a Who's Who of Bluegrass Music. The 2010 artist lineup is an all-star lineup that includes Sam Bush, Kathy Mattea, Tim O'Brien, Del McCoury, David Grisman, Doyle Lawson, Railroad Earth, The Gibson Brothers, The Greencards, Crooked Still and many other award-winning Main Stage, Masters Stage, Dance Tent, Grass Roots and Family Stage performers.