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The first annual LivelyLands is about to kick off, Aug. 25-27, at the 5-acre Lively farm off Bow Road, just one mile south of Big Glen Lake. Headlining acts include Austin favorite The Deer and northern Michigan songster Seth Bernard.

One of this area’s most gentle and reliable characters, the musician-artist-builder and all-around excellent person, Tom Keen, passed away on March 16. Most of us remember him best as the ruddy, good-natured guitar player and singer with the Cabin Fever Bluegrass Band that has played for years on the big sun deck at Boonedock’s.

The Dunegrass Festival will change its name to “Sleepy Bear Music Festival”, organizer Ryan Lake told the Glen Arbor Sun. The popular northern Michigan summer music festival will roll out the carpet again August 10-12, 2012, on the Harm family’s property near Lake Ann.

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.

All summer long, Absolute Michigan is giving away free tickets to 23+ Michigan festivals and events. With passes to everything from big festivals including Electric Forest, Common Ground and Maker Faire Detroit to more intimate events like Hiawatha and Dunegrass, Festival Summer is a showcase of the incredible diversity and range of events that Michigan offers.

The Dunegrass Festival — which since the early 1990s has been held the first weekend of August, either in Empire or on the Empire Eagles Field on M-72 eight miles east of town — has officially announced its move to Benzie County.

Local television personality Vic McCarty reports on The Ticker that the Dunegrass Festival is growing big once again — just three years after the popular Empire music festival outgrew its training wheels and all but careened off a cliff under the misdirection of Stephen Volas and Grassroots Productions.