(Photo | Courtesy of Sisters Folk Festival)
Sisters Folk Festival is announces the final schedule for the annual festival to take place September 6-8. The festival’s 11 intimate venues throughout beautiful downtown Sisters, Oregon have intrigued audiences for more than two decades helping to earn the festival tagline “All the Town’s a Stage.”
This year’s schedule has outstanding performances by 46 artists over three days, plus six Americana Project alumni artists who will perform Saturday, September 7 at the Fir Street Park stage.
Artists in the final lineup for 2019 include: Bruce Cockburn, Peter Rowan’s Free Mexican Airforce featuring Los Texmaniacs, Ron Artis II & The Truth, Le Vent du Nord, Rising Appalachia, The East Pointers, Della Mae, The Hamiltones, Flor de Toloache, Martyn Joseph, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Carrie Rodriguez, Red Dirt Boys, Phil Madeira, Will Kimbrough, Cedric Burnside, Lindsay Lou, Keith Greeninger & Dayan Kai, Lula Wiles, Pharis & Jason Romero, Alex Cuba, Ellis, David Jacobs-Strain & Bob Beach, Kuinka, The Brother Brothers, The Sweet Remains, Johnsmith, Sver, Vandoliers, Beth Wood, The Suitcase Junket, FY5, Susan Gibson, Jeffrey Martin, Kacy & Clayton, Dennis McGregor & the Spoilers, Stand & Sway, Polecat, The Arcadian Wild, Thunderstorm Artis, Sway Wild, Kristin Andreassen, Pete Kartsounes, Anna Tivel and Arouna Diarra & Biko.
“As a festival, we’ve dedicated ourselves to bringing a wide variety of different ‘branches’ of the Americana music tree, from folk to gospel and soul, Celtic and Acadian, old-time, bluegrass, Southern rock, singer-songwriters, Mariachi and more,” said Brad Tisdel, creative director for the Sisters Folk Festival. “The festival is a fantastic cultural and musical experience that is guaranteed to present new artists and new music to our audience every year.”
Every artist — with the exception of headliner Bruce Cockburn — will play more than one set over the weekend, providing an opportunity to catch lots of acts and see artists multiple times. For those who really want to see a particular artist, organizers suggest arriving early to the venue, as venues do get to capacity at peak times.
“The schedule allows for patrons to walk throughout town and sample music in different settings, different styles and in wonderful restaurants and businesses, all with a unique vibe and energy,” Tisdel continued. “We try to create scenes where there is something for everyone and every patron can find what they want and be surprised by top-notch talent as they discover new artists and music.”
The Festival is also announcing Americana Project alumni artists, who will perform at Fir Street Park all day on Saturday, September 7. The Project is the educational outreach program of the Sisters Folk Festival organization and is celebrating its 20th year. The program teaches students in the Sisters schools visual arts, piano keyboarding skills, American roots music, songwriting, performing and recording as well as building handmade guitars and ukuleles.
“We are excited to work with these young adults who will be taking the stage throughout Saturday to share the music they have continued to write and create after graduating from Sisters High School,” said Tisdel.
As part of the festival weekend, performances will include current Americana project students performing at 11am, followed by sets from Jaimee Simundson, Elize Van Der Laan, Raman Ellis, Drew Harrison, Slater Smith & Matt Cartmill (of the Portland-based Weather Machine) and Benji Nagel with his new bluegrass band, Skillethead. Sunday performances will also include festival artists and both days are free to the public.
One additional offering this year will be an Open Hub Singing workshop led by Ian Carrick at 11am Saturday behind the Sisters Coffee Company. Open Hub Singing is a group singing session, which Carrick considers “an unforgettable community singing experience.” He said group singing is “one of the most ancient technologies of belonging and is our birthright to sing beautiful aural traditional songs together in community.”
One change to the 2019 schedule is a new offering on Friday and Saturday evenings at Sisters Coffee Company from 6-10pm. This year the venue will be inside the Sisters Coffee Company building. Festival artists will perform full sets as part of expanding the offerings to 11 stages throughout town, and food and libations will be served as well as coffee and tea from a cart outside.
In addition to all event passes, single day, Sunday only tickets will be going on sale July 31 for $70 and include performances from 27 festival artists. There are no Friday and Saturday single-day tickets available.