Genre Bluegrass music Location(s) Baltimore, MD | Dates April Years active 2013-present | |
 | ||
Founded by Jordan August and Phil Chorney | ||
The Charm City Bluegrass Festival is a bluegrass festival established in 2013 and taking place each April in Baltimore, MD. The festival features local, regional, and national musicians. The festival maintains strong ties with the local community and seeks to highlight the long, distinguished history of Bluegrass music in Baltimore.
Contents
History
The Charm City Bluegrass Festival was founded in 2013 as the Charm City Folk & Bluegrass Festival when Jordan August and Phil Chorney, partners in the Baltimore Music Agency, wished to "put on bluegrass for everyone to see, whether it was on the porch, at a show, or a bigger party," as a way to highlight Baltimore's rich history of bluegrass music. It's name was shortened to the Charm City Bluegrass Festival in 2017. The inaugural festival was a sold-out event held on the grounds of the Union Craft Brewery and featured a line-up headlined by Tony Trischka and Tim O'Brien (musician).
For the second installment August and Chorney, moved to the much larger grounds of Druid Hill Park. The line-up featured Jerry Douglas, Noam Pikelny & Friends, Sierra Hull, Chris Eldridge & Julian Lage, and Cris Jacobs and saw the attendance almost double from the first year.
In 2015 for the event's third year, the festival again returned to Druid Hill Park and expanded its line-up by adding a second stage. The 2015 line-up included The Traveling McCourys, The Wood Brothers, Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen, Cris Jacobs, the Seldom Scene, and many others.
In 2016 the Charm City Bluegrass returned to Druid Hill Park for a third straight year with a line-up that featured Ricky Skaggs, Keller Williams and the Traveling McCourys, Steep Canyon Rangers, Cris Jacobs, Sierra Hull, Cabinet, Colebrook Road, with more to be announced. The 2016 installment also featured the addition of the Bluegrass Academy to the festival, where performers gave lessons and discussed their music with fans for free in a dedicated tent. The festival took place April 30, 2016.
Following the 2016 edition, the Charm City Bluegrass Festival was awarded an International Bluegrass Music Association Momentum Award for Event of the Year.
The fifth installment of the Charm City Bluegrass Festival again returned to Druid Hill Park with the festival set to take place April 29, 2017. The line-up featured Lone Bellow, the super-group of Adam Aijala and Ben Kaufmann from Yonder Mountain String Band and Drew Emmitt and Andy Thorn from Leftover Salmon, Cabinet, Seldom Scene, Cris Jacobs, Dust Bowl Revival, Lonesome River Band, and many more.