The Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, held each July on a farm in Columbia County, is looking for a new location. With the Rothvoss farm in Ancramdale apparently on the verge of being sold, organizers of the 25-year-old festival are hoping to find a new home that might actually surpass the beloved farm in convenience and size.
“We’re trying to think outside the box,” said the festival’s assistant director, Mary Burdette. “We’ve entertained the idea of a college campus or resort. It looks more and more like the land is going to be sold; we just don’t know yet. Consequently, we anticipate a need to move. We trust we’ll find something wonderful.”
The family-oriented outdoor festival attracts thousands of visitors and features prominent performers in a wide range of musical styles, from bluegrass and old-time to dance and new acoustic music. Kids are entertained by movies, clowns, music lessons, and more, enabling parents to enjoy the pickers, strummers, and fiddlers on four different stages. The producer and founder of the festival is Mary Tyler Doub, a founding member and past Chair of the Board of the International Bluegrass Music Association.
From a Thursday afternoon in mid-July to the following Sunday evening, most of the attendees camp out on the farm for one to four days. Anyone who doesn’t want to sleep outdoors has to drive 30 to 40 minutes to a hotel. “It would be wonderful to have lodging close by,” said Burdette. “A resort could accommodate us, camping and hotel-wise. Also the farm is a hilly location. Each year we’ve held our breath, but no one’s gotten hurt. A flatter terrain would be more conducive to safe camping. We’re growing larger and larger. We’re on 90 acres, and everyone likes to camp around the stage area. It would be good to have a bigger site so we could spread out and not be on top of each other.”
With the majority of visitors coming from the New York City and Boston regions, Burdette hopes to find a new site in the Hudson Valley, eastern Catskills, Berkshire Mountains, or Tri-State area.
She expressed gratitude to the Rothvoss family – “wonderful hosts to us all these years.” She has been visiting the farm each summer since 1977, the second year of musical gatherings on the site, five years before the event grew into the Grey Fox Festival. On arrival, “I got out of my car,” she recalled, “and there was music playing. I knew nothing about bluegrass, but I knew then and there that my life was going to be different. Now I play in a band, and I’m very involved in the music. The people are great, the musicians are accessible, and the music is earthy. The team that is Grey Fox is a wonderful group of people, with ties like the spokes of a wheel. No doubt we’ll find a wonderful place. Our lineup of musicians for next year is dynamite, the best ever.”
Humble beginnings
Woodstocker Bill Keith is owner of the Beacon Banjo Company, which was involved in organizing the first gathering at the Rothvoss farm in 1976. “It was a banjo event,” he said. “Representatives from all the major banjo makers were there with their stuff, and people could try them out, and we played music together. It was tiny, compared to what it’s become over the years. Grey Fox has become so important in the lives of thousands of people. They start lining up the week before the gates open. Some people plan their vacations around the festival.”
Keith, who performs in Woodstock with the Saturday Night Bluegrass Band, teaches banjo lessons, and makes parts for banjos, enjoys the relaxed atmosphere of Grey Fox. “At Merlefest in North Carolina, which is also hugely popular, the people are herded between snow fences, and the camping is not near the festival grounds. There’s a greater separation between the musicians and the public. At Grey Fox, everyone mills around together, and because we’re all camping on the same terrain, there’s a whole lot of jamming. It’s more integrated and welcoming.”
He has suggested the grounds of the second Woodstock Festival outside of Saugerties or the original Woodstock Festival site in Bethel, although the organizers prefer to stay east of the Hudson. He is dubious about moving to a resort. “To me a lot of the charm is that everyone’s camping. Our needs are considerable, even for a resort. Camping is cheaper, and it’s once a year that I set up my tent and sleep on the ground. To me that’s part of what makes the event – roughing it and cutting things down to the essentials, which includes bluegrass.
“It’s no exaggeration to say my summer would not be the same if that festival couldn’t take place. So I’m keeping my fingers crossed, hoping they locate a site. It’s been an important part of my life for decades, and there are thousands of other people who feel the same way.”
For more information, contact Mary Burdette at burdette@greyfoxbluegrass.com or (607) 330-1727.