The Festival Express: Summer of ‘08 Edition

The DF&C and I are hopeless music heads, especially when it comes to American roots music — folk, blues, jazz, bluegrass, soul, Cajun, zydeco, swing, and so on and so forth. But we long ago tired of arena- and stadium-sized concerts. We catch the occasional gig at a theater or club, but in recent years have mostly gotten our fix from summer music festivals.

We’ve had four festivals in our May-September rotation for several years now. They are Michael Arnone’s Crawfish Festival in Sussex County in northwestern New Jersey, the Knowlton Riverfest in Warren County to the south, the Rhythm & Roots Festival at Ninigret Park hard by the Rhode Island seacoast, and the Delaware Water Gap Celebration of the Arts in Pennsylvania.

As the chart following this post shows, there is something to quibble about regarding most of these festivals. But all have one thing in common: They showcase an incredible variety of roots music, most of it top-flight whether the musicians be national-headliners or local ensembles. Alas, you can hear damned little of these women and men — even on the left side of the FM radio dial — which makes these festivals even more important

Here’s a summary of each festival:

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