When you ask someone when festival season officially kicks off you get all types of answers but for me it's always with my March pilgrimage to the Spirit of Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak Florida for the Suwannee Spring Reunion this year March 20-23. The Spirit of Suwannee Music Park has to be one the finest and accommodating festival facilities anywhere and only a seven hour drive from New Orleans. The 800 acre park offers all types of camping options from cabins, RV camping and plenty of tent camping as well as a general store, ice cream stand, snackbar and bar, canoe and kayak rentals on the historic, scenic and serene Suwannee River. 

Mosier Brothers Band

The Suwannee Spring Reunion this year will be honoring its cofounder Randy "Big Cosmo" Judy who passed away last year by renaming the amphitheatre Big Cosmo's Amphitheater in his honor. The festival is kicking off with Big Cosmo's Celebration of Life and a performance by Big Cosmo's Band and special guests. Randy and his life partner and current Festival Director Beth Judy hosted their first festival at the SOSMP in 1997 and have been hosting and producing festivals there since. The main stage, Big Cosmo's Amphitheater is nestled in a cypress tree filled natural amphitheater making for a mystical and surreal setting. The Spring Reunion has four stages: the main stage is the Big Cosmo's Amphitheater Stage, the Back Porch Stage which will host workshops, the Tent Stage which tends to turn into a dance party and the Music Hall which is also home of the snackbar and bar. 

For me one of the highlights of this festival is that most acts perform numerous sets on different stages so even though there are four stages you have no problem seeing every act. Another highlight for myself are the late night picking parties throughout the campground, including two official ones Slopry Land hosted by Sloppy Joe and  the Bill Monroe Shrine hosted by Quarter Moon as well as numerous casual picking circles throughout the campground picking through the night. The musical lineup has a little bit of everything this year from Bluegrass,Jamgrass, Folk, Blues, Americana and some good ole Rock & Roll.

Headliners this year are Sam Bush who will also be performing at our Jazz Fest this year as well as The Infamous Stringdusters, Donna the Buffalo, SCYTHIAN, Peter Rowan, Verlon Thompson, Roy Book Binder, Jim Lauderdale, Steve Poltz, David Grier, Mosier Brothers Band and many many more. Also performing for the first time at Spring Reunion are the Kitchen Dwellers, I was able to interview Max, their guitar player last week.

Fiddler John Mailander will be returning as Artist at Large, John is an accomplished fiddle player who is part of Bruce Hornsby’s touring band and has his own band John Mailander's Forecast. He’ll crank up the energy level each time he hits the stage playing with pretty much everyone by the end of the weekend.Here's an interview I did with John a couple weeks ago,

Peter Rowan

Roy Book Binder

It's not too late to make it over to the SOSMP for this year's Suwannee Spring Reunion, Hope to see some listeners in the swamp next week, be sure to look for the campsite with the WWOZ flags flying in the campground. 

Happy Festing Season.

https://suwanneespringreunion.com/

https://www.musicliveshere.com/

Sam Bush

Joe & Hattie Craven

Donna the Buffalo

John Mailander & Verlon Thompson

Jim Lauderdale