Folk festival announces event schedule

Sisters Folk Festival has announced the final schedule for the annual festival, September 6-8. The festival’s 11 intimate venues throughout downtown Sisters have attracted audiences for more than two decades, helping to earn the festival tagline “All The Town’s A Stage.”

This year’s schedule features performances by 46 artists over three days, plus six Americana Project alumni artists who will perform Saturday, September 7 at the Fir Street Park

Songbird Stage.

Artists in the final lineup for 2019 include: Bruce Cockburn, Peter Rowan’s Free Mexican Airforce featuring Los Texmaniacs (each will also perform their own set), Ron Artis II & The Truth, Le Vent du Nord, Rising Appalachia, The East Pointers, Della Mae, The Hamiltones, Flor de Toloache, Martyn Joseph and more.

“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 Creative Director Brad Tisdel. “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 folks 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.

Tisdel continues, “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. 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.“

Sisters Folk Festival is also announcing Americana Project alumni artists, who will perform at Fir Street Park all day Saturday, September 7. The Americana 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,” says Tisdel.

As part of the festival weekend, performances will include current Americana project students performing at 11 a.m., 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 11 a.m. Saturday behind the Sisters Coffee Company. Open Hub Singing is a group singing session, which Carrick considers “an unforgettable community singing experience.” He says that 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 evening at Sisters Coffee Co. from 6 to 10 p.m. This year the venue will be inside the Sisters Coffee Co. building. Festival artists will perform full sets as part of expanding the offerings at the 11 stages throughout town, and food and libations will be served, as well as coffee and tea from a cart outside.

“We believe it will be a wonderful setting for intimate performances and will grow to be many peoples’ favorite space to hear and see music during the festival,” says Tisdel.

In addition to all-event passes, single-day Sunday-only tickets are on sale July 31 for $70 and include performances from 27 festival artists. There are no Friday and Saturday single-day tickets available.

Festival passes are $170 for adults and $55 for youth 18 and under. For tickets, artist information, to volunteer and a complete weekend performance schedule, visit

http://www.sistersfolkfestival.org.