The 2024 Band Stand Concert Fundraiser is just around the corner! Join us Saturday, October 19th, at the Inner Sanctum Basecamp in Columbia, CA from 3:00–8:00pm for an afternoon of music, games, and libations! Tickets can be purchased at the link here.
This event, sponsored by Rock In Road, supports the purchase and repair of instruments for local schools in Tuolumne County and beyond.
This beauty of a gold nugget is being fitted with a bell cap clasp and will be wearable as a pendant. Thank you to Blue Mountain Minerals for sponsoring this gold nugget grand prize!
We are so excited to see you all this Saturday, September 28th, for the 40th Annual Columbia Fiddle & Bango Contest. Join as at the Gazebo on Main Street at the Columbia State Historic Park from 10:30am-5:00pm. For more information, contact us at 209.352.7853 or columbiafiddlebango@gmail.com.
The Fiddle & Bango Contest is sponsored by Rock In Road, the non-profit partner of the Strawberry Music Festival. Rock In Road supports youth music instruction in Tuolumne County. Contest entry costs $15. Contest attendance and parking is free.
We hope you join our friends over at the Frankly Bluegrass Music Festival for five days of music and camping this October 9th-13th!
Bluegrass music returns to Plymouth, CA in honor of Frank Solivan Sr. as. . . Frankly Bluegrass Music Festival!
Come on out and support the return of the bluegrass music to Plymouth, California! Enjoy up to five days of pure fun, music, jamming, and camping, all in loving memory of the late great Frank Solivan Sr., who was a dear friend, Strawberry staff member, and an instrumental force in CBA’s Kids on Bluegrass.
Lineup includes Special Consensus, Honey Buckets, Frank Solivan and Chris Luquette, Broken Compass Bluegrass, Crying Uncle, Kentucky Sky, Wayne Taylor and Appaloosa, David Adkins and Mountain Soul, and Central Valley Boys. And featuring performances from Kids on Bluegrass.
Tickets are on sale now! For tickets and more information about the festival, visit their website here: http://plymouthfranklybg.com.
The Columbia Fiddle & Bango T-Shirt Design Contest ends September 3rd! We can’t wait to see what you create!
The 40th Annual Columbia Fiddle and Bango Contest will be held on Saturday, September 28th at the Gazebo on Main Street in Columbia Historic State Park. The Fiddle and Bango Contest—yes, you read that right the first time—is named so because of a once unfortunate and now serendipitous printing error on the t-shirts at the first contest in 1983.
As the Fiddle & Bango Contest is open to contestants of all ages, experience, and styles, the T-Shirt Design Contest has decided to adopt the same parameters. Please read below for full contest details and entry requirements.
T-SHIRT CONTEST ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Design must be transferable to a t-shirt.
Please submit only one design per contestant.
Design can only include two colors for print. The background (t-shirt color) can be considered a separate color (white, black, red, yellow, green, purple, blue, tan or gray). We do not guarantee that any submitted design colors will be matched exactly.
Please provide your design as a JPEG email attachment. Submit design to columbiafiddlebango@gmail.com.
The deadline to submit is 11:59pm on Monday, September 2nd.
On Tuesday, September 3rd, a design will be chosen by a special committee. Notification will be sent to the artist and the design will be posted later that week. The winner will receive design credit during advanced promotion and at the contest, as well as one free t-shirt of their preferred size.
This event is sponsored by Rock In Road, a local non-profit organization. Rock In Road supports youth music instruction in Tuolumne County. Contest attendance and parking is free.
Rock In Road, Strawberry’s nonprofit partner, is excited to announce the Columbia Fiddle & Bango T-Shirt Design Contest!
The 40th Annual Columbia Fiddle and Bango Contest will be held on Saturday, September 28th at the Gazebo on Main Street in Columbia Historic State Park. The Fiddle and Bango Contest—yes, you read that right the first time—is named so because of a once unfortunate and now serendipitous printing error on the t-shirts at the first contest in 1983.
As the Fiddle & Bango Contest is open to contestants of all ages, experience, and styles, the T-Shirt Design Contest has decided to adopt the same parameters. Please read below for full contest details and entry requirements.
T-SHIRT CONTEST ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Design must be transferable to a t-shirt.
Please submit only one design per contestant.
Design can only include two colors for print. The background (t-shirt color) can be considered a separate color (white, black, red, yellow, green, purple, blue, tan or gray). We do not guarantee that any submitted design colors will be matched exactly.
Please provide your design as a JPEG email attachment. Submit design to columbiafiddlebango@gmail.com.
The deadline to submit is 11:59pm on Monday, September 2nd.
On Tuesday, September 3rd, a design will be chosen by a special committee. Notification will be sent to the artist and the design will be posted later that week. The winner will receive design credit during advanced promotion and at the contest, as well as one free t-shirt of their preferred size.
We can’t wait to see what you create!
This event is sponsored by Rock In Road, a non-profit organization. Rock In Road supports youth music instruction in Tuolumne County. Contest attendance and parking is free.
We would like to take a moment to thank and highlight the Strawberry Music Festival’s nonprofit partner, Rock In Road!
Formed in 2015, Rock In Road was created to support and preserve folk traditions, with the specific mission of enhancing and extending The Strawberry Way, both at Strawberry Music Festival and in the greater world. They also support youth music instruction in Tuolumne County. The organization serves breakfast at the Breakfast Club and is a proud sponsor of the Strawberry Family Activities.
Please stay tuned for more information about upcoming Rock in Road events, including:
Columbia’s Fiddle & Bango Contest at the Gazebo in the Columbia Historic State Park on Saturday, September 28th.
Bandstand Concert and Fundraiser in late October. This event supports instrument purchase and repair for youth music instruction in Tuolumne County.
The DeLacy Memorial Golf Tournament in early to mid-November.
We would love to connect with Strawberrians at these local events! There will also be volunteer opportunities — help us enhance and extend the Strawberry Way!
The Strawberry office is now closed for the summer season. Office staff will be checking and returning phone messages periodically at (209) 984-8630. We can also be reached by email at info@strawberrymusic.com. Sign up for our email list to receive notifications regarding the Spring 2025 Festival. Strawberry’s website is also a great source of general information.
Thank you for your support of the Strawberry Music Festival, and we can’t wait to see you next year! 🍓
It is with a heavy heart that we share the sad news that longtime Strawberry volunteer and friend, Stan Stratton, passed away last week.
It has been difficult to find the words for this message and to acknowledge this unexpected loss. Stan was unable to attend this past festival, which was the first one he had missed since his first in 1991, because his camper van broke down and could not carry him to us from his home in Springfield, Oregon. None of us could imagine that there would not be another opportunity to share a Strawberry hug with our dear friend, to delight in the fresh strawberries or the homemade fudge (made using his grandmother’s recipe) that Stan would pass out at our festival staff meetings on Wednesday night, to admire the collection of wristbands he wore proudly affixed to his signature beret, or to hear one of many epic Strawberry stories that—like Stan—bettered with age.
To say that Stan was personally invested in the Strawberry festival family would be an understatement. Besides being a supportive ally year-round to his festival friends, he had endeavored to photo document most, if not all, festival camp banners. These photographs can be found in the Camp Photo Gallery available for all to enjoy on the Strawberry website. His contributions to the Strawberry experience through his work with the Camping Assistance crew, and as a force for good within our music loving community, are too numerous to name and will not be forgotten.
Our deepest condolences go out to Stan’s family and friends, as we hold you all in the sacred space of one loving Strawberry heart. We will imagine Stan’s spirit with our other lost loved ones in that big beautiful festival in the sky where, eventually, we all hope to continue to revel in love, laughter, peace-making, nature, frivolity, and music.
Here’s to you, and the life you lived, dearest Stan!
Thank you to everyone who submitted their guesses for the Shuttle Crew Helping Hands Contest!
We are excited to announce the winners with the closest guesses… Gina Bliss (1088) and Stacey Sketo-Rosener (1096). Winners will receive a special surprise gift, compliments of Shuttle Crew leader, Tony Cokely. Congratulations!
Strawberry’s Shuttle Crew not only helps people get around, they also assist in lots of other ways. This year, Shuttle crew members recorded each ride and assist given from Thursday, May 23rd to Sunday, May 26th… and that total number of Helping Hands interactions has been tabulated! The number was 1,109!
Thank you to the Shuttle Crew for all your hard work and helping hands! And a special thanks goes out to Tony for hosting this contest!
