Mark your calendar for the 2019 Sugar Maple Music Festival to be held August 2-3 at Lake Farm County Park in Madison.  If year 15 was any indication, the next festival promises even more amazing music, dancing and jamming along with the many other activities you have come to love about the Sugar Maple fest!

Our sincerest thanks to everyone who came out last weekend and enjoyed our 15^th annual festival!  The weather couldn’t have been better as we listened to music on the main stage, got to know artists and traditions on the Roots & Reasons Stage and made music together in the jam tents.

2018 was also a year of firsts… first instrument-making workshop for the kids, first musical yoga and first climbing wall.  What will 2019 bring?  Stay tuned for details!

Check out more photos from 2018!

Thanks to all of you – music fans, sponsors, donors, volunteers and more – for helping build and nurture community through music. It takes every single one of you to help make our community – and the festival – what it is.

— The Four Lakes Traditional Music Collective

Welcome to the 15th Annual Sugar Maple Music Festival! We are at 7 hours 46 minutes away and counting…

Whether this is your first time or 15th time joining us, here are some tips and helpful information.

• Bring the kids!  We are a family-friendly festival and ages 17 and under are free.
• We have food!  Check out this year’s vendors.
• We have drinks!  Beer from Tyranena Brewing Company  and mead from Bos Meadery.  Yum, yum!
• We have a raffle! Check out the raffle table at the back of the big tent to see the wide range of prized including 4 tickets the 2019 Blue Ox Music Festival, a resophone ukelele from Ward-Brodt and much more!
• Carry-ins are allowed but please support our wonderful food and drink vendors!
• Bring your instruments for jamming!  This is an interactive festival and your participation is what sets the Sugar Maple fest apart from other music fests.
• We are a rain or shine event; all of our artists perform under tents or shelters.
• Bring a chair or a blanket to sit on.  We have a limited number of chairs, and yours are more comfortable anyway.
• Leave all pets at home. Park rule.
• Bring Cash.  We will have an ATM but if you have some $ in your pocket when you come, you will be all set.
• New this year!
  • Boulders Climbing Gym climbing wall
  • Instrument-making workshop for the kids (see fest program for details)
  • Musical yoga with the Awful Purdies at 12:30 on Saturday (BYO yoga mat)

• We know you’re social (we’ve seen you on the dance floor!) so spread the word…
  • Like us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • And hashtag like crazy! #sugarmaplefest

• We are a 501(c)3 non-profit and all our money goes toward bringing this great music to Madison.  Please consider donating on-line or by adding to the donation jar at the merchandise table.  We can’t do this without your support!

Attention cyclists!

The Capital City Trail is currently closed for restoration between Nob Hill Road and Glacier Valley Road and will remain closed throughout the Sugar Maple Music Festival.

But fear not!  You can still bike to festival by following the Alternative Routes Map (PDF) and using these Online Mapping Resources.  Informational signage will be posted along the trail and at kiosks regarding the project schedule, alternative routes and other relevant information.

Added bonus… all cyclists receive a raffle ticket when they arrive at the festival!

Two of the country’s most sought-after bluegrass artists will hold public workshops on the Roots and Reasons stage at the 15th Annual Sugar Maple Music Festival.

First, violin virtuoso Brittany Haas, of Hawktail, will lead a fiddle workshop in the evening on Friday, Aug. 3. Called a “a fiercely nimble fiddler” who is “one of the best fiddlers of her generation,” Haas will talk about the influences and techniques that have made her one of the most in-demand fiddle players on the scene today. This workshop is open to fiddle players of all ages and  experience levels, as well as anyone else interested in fiddle music.

Then on Saturday evening, mandolin master Ronnie McCoury, winner of the International Bluegrass Music Association mandolin player of the year for eight consecutive years, will take to the Roots and Reasons stage to demonstrate his unique style, which has become the standard for modern bluegrass mandolin playing. The Travelin’ McCoury’s guitarist Cody Kilby, a former member of Ricky Skaggs’ Kentucky Thunder band, will join Ronnie in this session, which is open to all.

These two stellar workshops are among the many interactive and fun activities that will take place during the Sugar Maple Fest.

The spirit of New Orleans Cajun music will come alive at the 15th Annual Sugar Maple Music Festival with THE MID-CITY ACES, Saturday, August 4.

2:30  Mid-City Aces and Sam Broussard workshop (Roots & Reasons Stage)

4:10  Mid-City Aces (Main Stage)

6:00  Cajun jam with Mid-City Aces (Jam Tent)

The band is composed of Cameron Dupuy (the aptly named Accordion Prince of New Orleans),  his father, Michael Dupuy (guitar), and Gina Forsyth (fiddle).

“Cajun” harks back to “Acadian”, the historic heart and culture of French Louisiana. Heavy on squeezebox accordion and fiddle, this three piece set is fresh, acoustic, and rich in New Orleans tradition while at the same time honoring the Lafayette sound. “The fact that we’re keeping it as traditional as possible, while also being from New Orleans, that separates us from everyone else,” says Dupuy, while promising, “we keep it pretty close to the Lafayette style.”

An accordion prodigy, Cameron Dupuy and his father Michael Dupuy have teamed up with fiddler Gina Forsyth, an award-winning singer/songwriter who is known for her wizardry on fiddle and guitar, to form this traditional Cajun music trio.

In 2015, Forsyth asked the Dupuys to help her record an album of herself playing fiddle to old Cajun songs. “It was her solo project, really, with us helping,” remembers Dupuy. “But we liked it so much we decided to start booking gigs as a band.”

so…….

LAISSEZ LES BON TEMPS ROULER!

(Lay-Say lay bon ton  rule-ay!)

LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL!

–written by Pam Lockstein and Peggy Lewis