The Desert Bluegrass Association has found a pretty welcoming home at Maranaβs Gladden Farms, where it will host its annual Desert Bluegrass Festival this weekend.
It will be the groupβs 12th year of putting on the festival in Gladden Farms, this time on the soccer fields of the community park, 12205 N. Tangerine Farms Road, off Interstate 10. The festival has been ongoing since the early 2000s, including several years when the association hosted a festival in the fall and one in the spring.
Hereβs what you need to know about the festival, from the where and what to the lineup:
When: Friday-Sunday, March 8-10; the music starts at 3 p.m. Friday and runs until 7, but itβs a an all-day affair Saturday (9:45 a.m.-6 p.m.) and Sunday (9 a.m.-4 p.m.).
The cost: It’s free on Friday and $25 each day Saturday and Sunday, or $40 for a festival pass covering both days. If you’re one of those folks who like to make a weekend out of your music festival fun, you can tent camp on the park’s soccer fields for free. It’s $50 for RV parking without any hookups and $20 to set up a tent in the RV area. All camping requires purchasing a weekend festival pass. To reserve a camping spot, visit desertbluegrass.org.
The venue: Bring a blanket, chairs or one of those inflatable couches and get comfortable on the sprawling, lush green expanse of the Gladden Farms soccer fields, which the town opened in June 2022. The fields host all levels of youth soccer, as well as other community events.
Hundreds turn out for the Desert Bluegrass Festival, which is being held Friday, March 8, through Sunday, March 10, at the Gladden Farms Community Park soccer field.
The parking: First come in the parkβs lots and surrounding areas or, new this year, pay $10 a day for secure VIP parking close to the soccer fields through desertbluegrass.org.
Family fun and some: Look for the special kids zone where they will have activities for children including crafts and games. Thereβs also arts and crafts booths, food vendors, workshops, contra dancing, jam sessions and the popular Friday band scramble: Bring an instrument and throw your name in the bucket for the chance to be randomly picked to join a band, of strangers. Once youβre in the band, you have a few minutes to pick a name and a song before you face the audience.
The music: Friday kicks off with Tucson bluegrass/honky tonk band Nick McBlaine & Log Train at 5 p.m. followed by the band leading a contra dance at 6.
Saturdayβs lineup opens at 10 a.m. with the high-energy contemporary bluegrass quartet Alpine Divide, followed by Ten Dollar Wedding, Cadillac Mountain, Monsoon Sky, The Storytellers and HillBilly Fever all laying the groundwork for the headliners, Mike Mitchell Band. They are probably coming the furthest for the Desert Bluegrass Festival; the band is from the tiny town of Floyd, Virginia, population 450.
Mike Mitchell is bringing his namesake band from Virginia for this weekendβs Desert Bluegrass Festival in Marana.
Open Mic Gospel kicks off Sunday at 9 a.m. before the Old Pueblo Bluegrass Band opens the lineup at 11 a.m. The Storytellers, Mike Mitchell Band and HillBilly Fever make encore appearances Sunday afternoon but not before Tucsonβs newest bluegrass band makes its festival introduction.
Not that Tucson bluegrass fans havenβt heard about The Notorious No-Gig Girl Band, a quartet of friends who met at a Desert Bluegrass Association workshop and decided to break pandemic protocols and get together in parks and play together.
Notorious No-Gig Girl Band, from left, Jennifer Johnson, Suzette Sommerer, Karen Dismachek and Louise Courtney are on the lineup for the 2024 festival.
βWhatβs particularly special about this group is that we all came to bluegrass, and most of us to our instruments, rather late in life,β fiddler Suzette Sommerer said in a written release.
Sommerer has a reputation, according to the bandβs bio on the Desert Bluegrass Association website, of doing whatever the heck she pleases with her fiddle, while bass player Jennifer Johnson delivers a strong beat and βraucous good humor.β Karen Dismachek, who plays fiddle and guitar, is known for laying down a mean groove against the quiet backdrop of Louise Courtneyβs soft-spoken banjo.
With a legion of fans, mostly the under-four set they played to in those pandemic-era park days of long ago, The Notorious No-Gig Girl Band developed a style that Sommerer describes as βquirky,β with tight harmonies and growing musicianship.
For more information on the festival, visit desertbluegrass.org.
