We hope you are looking forward to enjoying all the 18^th annual Sugar Maple Music  Festival has to offer; dancing, jamming, learning, and most of all, listening to and appreciating the outstanding music!

While festival organizers will ensure high-traffic areas are cleaned frequently and will provide extra hand sanitizer and handwashing stations, you attend this event at your own risk. 

To assure all attendees have a fun and safe experience, please follow these simple and courteous guidelines:

1. If you are not vaccinated, we strongly encourage you to wear a mask under tents and when waiting in line. Disposable masks will be available at the ticket booth and merchandise/information table.
2. Absolutely no pets allowed. Service animals are allowed only when in service.
3. Parents and/or guardians are responsible for the safety and whereabouts of your children at all times. Festival organizers/volunteers do not monitor the public play areas.
4. Take care of the park: pack in and out all belongings, throw away/ recycle trash, and be courteous to your fellow park guests and festival attendees.
5. All festival attendees must wear wristbands at all times. Always.
6. Unless you are camping overnight in the rustic camp area or in the designated RV area, you must leave Lake Farm Park by the 10:30 p.m. park curfew.
7. Only campers with a paid camping permit are allowed in the rustic camp area at any time.
8. Only vehicles with a paid vehicle permit and a paid camping permit are allowed in the rustic camp area. No canned music, running engines or generators, nor vehicles longer than 20 feet are allowed in the rustic camp area.
9. Parking in the paved area is reserved exclusively for emergency vehicles, festival performers, festival staff, and vehicles displaying a valid disabled parking identification card, disabled license plates, or disabled veteran license plates.
10. Any person engaged in illegal activities can, and probably will be, arrested by Madison police.
11. No fireworks or unauthorized weapons of any sort are permitted. No exceptions.
12. Those engaging in violent, abusive, or unruly behavior will be removed from the festival grounds. No exceptions.
13. Smoking is strictly prohibited within 20 feet of any performance space. Out of respect for your fellow festival attendees, please refrain from smoking within 20 feet of any tent or structure. Please extinguish smoking material properly and discard responsibly. Please do not extinguish any smoking material in the sand, on the volleyball courts or any playground area.

The Sugar Maple Music Festival, with the help of a grant from Dane Arts, is pleased to announce another session in the Virtual Roots & Reasons Series. 

One of the brightest young talents to emerge in Cajun, Creole and Zydeco music over the last decade, Cedric Watson is a four-time Grammy-nominated fiddler, singer, accordionist & songwriter with seemingly unlimited potential.

Friday, March 12, 2021
5:30 pm CST
Streaming live on Facebook

Originally from San Felipe, TX, Cedric made his first appearance at the age of 19 at the Zydeco Jam at The Big Easy in Houston, TX. Just two years later, he moved to south Louisiana, quickly immersing himself in French music and language. Over the next several years, Cedric performed French music in 17 countries and on 7 full-length albums with various groups, including the Pine Leaf Boys, Corey Ledet, Les Amis Creole with Ed Poullard and J.B. Adams, and with his own group, Bijou Creole.

With an apparently bottomless repertoire of songs at his fingertips, Cedric plays everything from forgotten Creole melodies and obscure Dennis McGee reels to more modern Cajun and Zydeco songs, even occasionally throwing in a bluegrass fiddle tune or an old string band number. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he is also a prolific songwriter, writing almost all of his songs on his double row Hohner accordion. Cedric’s songs channel his diverse ancestry (African, French, Native American and Spanish) to create his own brand of sounds.

Cedric’s albums are a tapestry of pulsing rhythms and Creole poetry, and his live performances are unforgettable, all at once progressive and nostalgic.

“To propel our Louisiana culture into the future seems to be quite a task, but if one lives for the music as Cedric does, the path seems effortless. These songs may well be early brushstrokes of a life’s worth of possibilities, not only for himself, but also for the identity survival of a culture.” -Michael Doucet

February is the month when we normally gather to enjoy music while raising money in support of United Way at the annual Bluegrass Benefit. For many years, the Barrymore Theatre in Madison has opened its doors for the event, and we are grateful for their generosity.  

Of course, there’s no event this year and we desperately miss gathering with our community to enjoy live music.

As we continue protecting ourselves and each other during the pandemic, we urge you to consider donating to United Way and other organizations that provide much-needed support to members of our community.

Until we can again gather safely for live music, there are other ways to listen to music and support artists whose ability to make a living has been upended during the past year. For starters, check out the Sugar Maple virtual concert calendar for great online performances.

We look forward to getting together with our music community again, hopefully in the not too distant future. Until then, be safe and support each other!

Although the 2020 Sugar Maple Music Festival is postponed to 2021, we’ve created a T-shirt to commemorate this historic year and the festival that wasn’t. Like our annual festival T-shirt, it features the stellar lineup we had booked for the 2020 festival, puts a mask on our fiddler graphic and reads “cancelled by COVID-19.” It comes in two styles, one color and multiple sizes.  

We’ve created this shirt as part of a limited-time fundraiser for our nonprofit, which supports American roots music, dance and education and the musicians who keep it alive. Your donation of $50 or more will get you the shirt and help us continue supporting artists and music education during this challenging time.  Our support now is based on virtual (on-line) Roots & Reasons and performance events.  Please check out the Virtual Concert Calendar at the Sugar Maple Website.

We look forward to hosting live music events again when it’s safe for our musicians and roots music community and we are happy to report that the majority of those booked for the 2020 festival have agreed to be part of our 2021 lineup.

Reserve your shirt before August 30 by donating $50 or more, which you can make here. We also need you to send your order details (size, style, number, address) to us at fourlakesmusic@gmail.com so we can create the shirts and ship them to you.  

Thank you for your support. 

This CD includes live performances by three Madison, Wisconsin-based bluegrass bands: Strings to Roam, Sortin’ the Mail and Soggy Prairie. It was recorded in February 2020 at The Barrymore Theatre in Madison during the annual Bluegrass Benefit for United Way, which the Sugar Maple Music Festival was a sponsor. At the time, we had no idea we were on the verge of a devastating worldwide pandemic that would result in stay-at-home orders and physical distancing measures that make it impossible for bands to play in front of live audiences. It would also result in death, financial hardship, interrupted education and other major disruptions for people across our community. Your purchase of this CD can help provide some relief for those who are suffering these effects.

We are asking for a donation of $15 or more, which you can make here. We also need you to send your name and address to us at fourlakesmusic@gmail.com so we can mail you the CD. All proceeds from the sale of this CD through the Sugar Maple website will be donated to the United Way of Dane County COVID-19 Emergency and Recovery Fund.

Thank you for your support!