Naperville bluegrass fest: Come for big names, stay for the jam session
Take a late-night stroll into a Holiday Inn Select meeting room this weekend in Naperville and you'll probably find yourself in a crowd.
The after-hours jam sessions, featuring banjo and mandolin players, guitar pickers and fiddlers, provide an informal and unstructured forum for musicians to noodle around, improvising with friends, acquaintances and total strangers.
As much as repeat visitors look forward to those sessions, though, they really aren't the main draw for the 14th annual Naperville Bluegrass Music Festival, show producer Terry Lease says.
Most bluegrass fans will come to hear some of the country's finest bluegrass bands hit the stage and deliver rousing, heartfelt performances during the regularly scheduled sessions Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
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"Eighty percent of the people who will be there will be there to see national tour bands," said Lease, who with his wife, Jan, has been orchestrating the indoor festival since its inception.
The list of performers is long: there's Grasstowne, Rhonda Vincent and the Rage, Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent, Monroe Crossing and the King Family, to name a few.
Grasstowne has been near the top of the album charts for the past three months.
"It's one of those groups that gets a lot of national exposure, certainly a lot of play in radio-land," Lease said.
Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent recently came together to form a new band. Darrin Vincent's sister, Rhonda Vincent, who's been performing with Ricky Scaggs for the past 10 years, is also on the festival bill with her band, the Rage, Lease said.
Talent like that draws bluegrass fans from miles around.
"About 80 percent of the people who attend come from 50 miles away or further," Lease said. "We're just really pleased, we're really fortunate to have some of these higher profile bands offering family-style entertainment."
Performances will be presented on four stages in the hotel Friday night, all day Saturday and Saturday night and all day Sunday.
Those who want to sharpen their acoustic playing skills will find guitar, mandolin, banjo and dobro workshops in Room A from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Lease said.
One of the hotel rooms also will host an acoustic instrument trade show featuring guitars, he said.
If you go
What: 14th annual Naperville Bluegrass Music Festival
When: 7 to 10 p.m. Friday; 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday
Where: Holiday Inn Select, 1801 Naper Blvd., Naperville
Tickets: $5 to $50 for adults, half-price for ages 13-18, free for 12 and younger accompanied by an adult
Info: (630) 505-4900 or bluegrassmidwest.com