Dunegrass Festival moves to Benzie County
By Jacob Wheeler
Sun editor
At the close of its second decade, the Dunegrass Music Festival now has a new home.
The popular northern Michigan folk and bluegrass festival is leaving Leelanau County, where it was born to the late Mike Vanderberg in Empire in 1993 and exploded last decade to feature nationally known acts. Dunegrass 2011 will be held August 5-7 in Benzie County — in a field west of Lake Anne, at 4648 Holbert Rd., to be exact. (See map below):
Dunegrass organizer Ryan Lake chose this out-of-the-way location because it offered 100 sprawling acres, which will allow for two stages plus an acoustic pickin’ area. No longer will Dunegrass have to contend with village quiet hours, finicky neighbors or urban density.
“It’s a beautiful piece of property, and I’m excited about it,” said Lake. “We’ll have a lot of trees on site, and room to walk to campsites. We have an amazing family and quiet camp nestled against the forest.”
Lake admitted though that the exodus from Empire (last year Dunegrass was held on the Empire Eagles’ property on M-72, east of Empire) is a bittersweet departure from the festival’s roots. Unlike in past years, the festival grounds are a long way from Lake Michigan, which means that swimmer-bound shuttles will head for the Lake Anne state campground instead.
Donna the Buffalo will headline Dunegrass 2011, as well as returnees My Dear Disco, Rootstand and the Macpodz. Local favorites Song of the Lakes and K. Jones & the Benzie Playboys are back, as are popular Earthworks musicians Seth & May (newly married, and fresh off the Run Across Ethiopia this past winter), Luke Winslow-King and Susan Fawcett.
Lake is optimistic about the festival’s future. At press time, organizers had sold twice as many tickets as they had at this time last year.
“We were at Bliss Fest (in mid July) and everyone was talking about Dunegrass,” said Lake. “We’re feeling stronger now that we’ve gone through all of this. We feel good about it.”
Pre-purchased weekend tickets are available for $75 per being ($30 for kids age 13-17), and that price includes camping. Tickets cost $90 at the gate. Visit www.DunegrassMusicFestival.org for more information.
