Jamborees, Fiddle Fests, and Other Historic Music Festivals in Texas

Texas Historical Commission sent this bulletin at 03/10/2022 10:00 AM CST

March 10, 2022

A man playing a guitar and a woman playing a fiddle.

Music, they say, is balm for the soul. And since it seems our souls are in need of some healing after the few years we've had, not to mention the tumultuous year unfolding as we write these words, we figured now was as good a time as any to celebrate the upcoming music festival season.

So consider this issue of the Heritage Traveler, which spotlights one very special music festival, a little music therapy for the spring and summer to come.

Ticket Booth, 2013. David Johnson.

"Hot, Dusty, Rustic, and Sacred"

For our special music festival issue, we're spotlighting the Kerrville Folk Festival, which turns fifty this year! The festival is captured in all its "rustic" glory in a new book of photography by David Johnson, out this month at University of Texas Press. There's no need to hit you over the head with promotion though, because if Festival Executive Director Mary Muse's introduction for the book doesn't sell you on this event, then nothing will:

Most of our life experience teaches us to protect our hearts and distrust words that are thrown at us. But at the festival, one receives gentle nudges through songs and camp dynamics within a space that allows our vigilant defenses to relax. An openness curls into our souls like smoke, and we find the doors to our own creativity thrown wide open. Love for creative expression, love for one another, and a spirit of hope are set free. From this sprang the notion "it can be this way always."... The Kerrville Folk Festival community is resilient, and fragile. It is ideal, and flawed. It is hot, dusty, rustic, and sacred. It is our chosen family. The phrase “it can be this way always” springs from idealism on Day 1 and degrades into wry cynicism by Day 18. Even so, when it is time to leave the ranch, there are always tears and hugs, life lessons, love, and a sense of community that festivalgoers carry away from the ranch and out into the world. And we are compelled to return each year and be renewed.

Purchase the Book

Tickets for the Kerrville Folk Festival are on sale now. Heritage Traveler readers can purchase the book from University of Texas Press, and for free shipping and 30% off, use special discount code: UTXTRAVEL.

Psychic stand at Kerrville Folk Festival

Practice in the Meadow, 2014. David Johnson.

Kidsville Dance, 2012. David Johnson.

A Wooden Sled on Wheels and a General Store...

...are just two stops on the history-lovers' guide to Kerrville we've put together for your traveling pleasure.

We couldn't send you to the Kerrville Folk Festival without absolutely insisting that you drive the short ten miles into town for a little downtime in Kerrville proper, which also happens to be a Texas Main Street city.

After all, aren't you curious about the kind of town that keeps an eclectic arts event going for 50 years? We promise it doesn't disappoint.

Pictured: Arcadia Theatre. Photograph by Kerrville's own Dale H. Leach, DHL Photographix.

View Your Itinerary

500,000 halos outshined the mud and history...

"500,000 halos outshined the mud and history.
We washed and drank in God's tears of joy,
And for once…and for everyone…
the truth was not a mystery.
Love called to all…music is magic."

It was Woodstock Festival that Jimi Hendrix was trying to capture when he wrote the above words, now collected along with his other poems in Cherokee Mist: The Lost Writings. But given his subject, we'd venture to say that the magic was as much about the community that Woodstock gathered, and that the festival was as potent a force as the music itself.

Now, we're not trying to compete with Disney, but if it's magic you're after, then we've put together a lineup of some of the longest-running heritage music festivals around the state with help from our friends over at the Texas Music Office. And if we left any heritage music events out, then don't keep it a secret (unless you want to). Let us know!

February, "El Veterano" Conjunto Festival (21 years), Robstown
3/17 - 3/20, Tejano Music Awards Fan Fair (41 years), San Antonio
3/17 - 3/26, Heart of Texas Country Music Festival (33 years), Brady
4/1 - 4/3, Llano Fiddle Fest (38 years), Llano
5/7 - 5/8, Pecan Street Spring Festival (47 years), Austin
5/14, The Big Squeeze (16 years, the baby of the bunch!), Austin
5/16 - 5/22, Tejano Conjunto Festival (40 years), San Antonio
5/27 - 5/28, Athens Old Fiddlers Contest & Reunion (91 years), Athens
6/11, Kolache-Klobase Festival (31 years), East Bernard
6/23 - 6/26, Luling Watermelon Thump (69 years), Luling
10/8, Guadalupe County Fair Fiddlers Contest (139 years), Seguin
10/20 - 10/22, Elgin Hogeye Festival (34 years), Elgin
November, Accordion Kings & Queens (32 years), Houston