October 18-20, 2024
Camp Ben McCulloch, Driftwood, TX
The 17th Annual Austin String Band Festival is the weekend of October 18 - 20, 2024, at Camp Ben McCulloch in nearby Driftwood, TX. Join us for a weekend of music, camping, jamming, dancing, and friends!
This family-friendly festival brings together musicians and roots music enthusiasts from Central Texas and beyond. In addition to two stages of live string band performances, there'll be dances, workshops, kids' activities, and tons of campsite jamming.
If you've never attended the Austin String Band Festival, you're missing a real treat! The String Band Festival is a truly relaxed, uncrowded and joyful affair; the campground is bucolic, the stage shows are riveting, the workshops are fascinating, and campground picking is sublime!
It's no wonder that many Austin area acoustic music fans and musicians consider the String Band Festival their favorite festival!
Program
Admission & Tickets
Tickets will be available on-site at the admissions gate. Cash, cards, and checks will be accepted.
Kids under 15 are free with adult!
Active AFTM members get a discounted price. Email membership@aftm.us or visit our membership site to check your status, using your email address to log in.
| Friday Day Pass | Saturday Day Pass | Weekend Pass | |
|
Student |
$20 | $35 | $45 |
| AFTM Member |
$25 | $40 | $50 |
| Non-Member |
$30 | $45 | $55 |
Tent Campsite (per tent): $20
RV Campsite (per vehicle/trailer): $30
Volunteer
Volunteers for PRIME slots will get a full weekend pass! There are limited numbers of prime slots so grab one quickly if you can! Prime slots are evening shifts that are marked with the word "PRIME" on our sign-up page. Work one Prime slot and get a weekend pass. Camping is extra.
Volunteers for regular slots will get a day pass for a day of their choosing. That is, if you volunteer on Friday, you can use your free day pass on Saturday (but you'll need to pay for Friday if you stay longer than your volunteer time slot -- we appreciate your help keeping the festival affordable for all!). You can volunteer for two regular slots to get passes for both days. Camping is extra.
Email volunteer@aftm.us with any questions.
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0E4DAEAD28A1FA7-50645324-austin
Performance Schedule
Main stage performances start every hour on the hour and are listed in bold below.
Mini-stage sets are in-between, starting at the 45-minute mark every hour.
Friday, October 18
| 6:00 PM | Funyun Creek - Dance with local caller |
| 6:45 PM | Silver Alert Ramblers |
| 7:00 PM | Hot Pickin 57s |
| 7:45 PM | Preston Satchwell & Friends |
| 8:00 PM | So So & the Swamp Sizzle |
| 8:45 PM | Cast Iron Shoes |
| 9:00 PM | Steamboat |
| 9:45 PM | The Everett Wren Band |
| 10:00 PM | Skillet Licorice - Dance with their caller |
Saturday, October 19
| 2:00 PM | Lloyd & April |
| 2:45 PM | Shinbone Alley 3 |
| 3:00 PM | Western Flyers |
| 3:45 PM | Caroline Sears |
| 4:00 PM | Guy Forsyth Presents 78 Special |
| 4:45 PM | Ayleen Pérez Cordero & Family |
| 5:00 PM | Up Around the Sun with Bosco |
| 5:45 PM | The Austin Balkan Singers |
| 6:00 PM | Skillet Licorice |
| 6:45 PM | Founders Duo: David and Bernard |
| 7:00 PM | Jerron Paxton |
| 7:45 PM | Out of the Blue |
| 8:00 PM | Steamboat - Dance with local caller |
| 8:45 PM | Boyer, Yellman & Keough |
| 9:00 PM | The Joymakers |
| 9:45 PM | Mortensen & Duplissey |
| 10:00 PM | Grand Dance Finale |
Organized Jams
There will be jams of all kinds spotaneously happening with friends old and new throughout the festival, but we'll also have some hosted jams on Saturday. Bring a chair!
Saturday, 10/19:
- 10AM: Old Time Slow Jam, led by Tim Keough
- 1PM: Bluegrass Jam, led by Simon Waxman and Chelsea Burns
- 2PM: Cajun Jam, led by Ramsey Park Rounders
- 3PM: Old Time Jam, led by Tim Wooten
Sunday, 10/20:
- 10AM Gospel Jam in the Pavilion, led by Georgia Canfield and Sharon Sandomirsky
Workshops
We'll have multiple workshops running on Saturday before performances start. A map of workshop locations will be posted at the festival.
| Location A | Location B | Location C | |
|
11AM |
Bluegrass Banjo Shawn will focus on 3-finger Scruggs Style picking, with demonstrations question & answer, tablature handouts. |
Twin Fiddling The women of Steamboat teach how they create their beautiful, blended fiddle sound! |
Dance Calling Come learn to call a square dance! We’ll jump right into dancing and learning dance calls. No experience required or expected - but DO bring a water boIle! |
| 12PM |
Harmony Singing Learn the techniques of multi-part singing from the talented members of Steamboat! |
Fiddle Rag Come learn a rag composed by the 1920's recording artists The East Texas Serenaders. After learning the tune, we will spend some time discussing practice techniques; especially those that will get you playing those raggedy syncopated rhythms with confidence. |
Old Time Banjo Jerron plays several instruments exquisitely, this workshop will focus on his amazing banjo skills! |
| 1PM |
Harmonica Learn to play harmonica with Guy Forsyth! Join Guy for 45 minutes of learning the harmonica and jamming. Bring a “C” harp (available at Merch) and play along with Guy. |
Clawhammer Banjo Back in San Francisco, Clinton teaches piano, guitar, fiddle and banjo. He’ll focus on the clawhammer technique at his ASBF workshop! |
Western Swing Guitar Led by archtop guitar slinger Joey McKenzie of The Western Flyers and Flyers fiddler Ridge Roberts. Hear the fundamentals Joey considers the most important to rhythm guitar and his 'most used chords' and incorporating these ideas into your playing. |
Kids' Activities
Bring out the whole family for a fun time at the festival -- children under 15 get in free!
We'll have some special activities for the kids on Saturday, over by the Merch booth.
Saturday, 10/19:
- 2PM: Make and Take Art with Natasha La Gitana
- 2PM: Texas Juggling Society
- 3PM: Face Painting with Doodle Bug
Performers
See the July 2024 issue of Reel Times for photos of the performers.
Steamboat
Libby Weitnauer, Sami Braman, and Emily Mann are Steamboat, a new old-time stringband based in Nashville, TN. Their driving music breathes new life into old tunes and songs, mostly collected from recordings of unheralded female fiddlers, singers, and banjo players.
Skillet Licorice
Skillet Licorice is the latest project from San Francisco Bay Area roots-music luminaries Elise Engelberg and Matt Knoth. Essentially a musical consortium, Matt & Elise are the core of an All-Star lineup featuring many of California's hottest old-time musicians. The result is a full fledged proto-swing orchestra capable of expert musicianship in a dizzying array of folk genres. Whether they’re playing hot fiddle breakdowns, slinky blues, sparkling banjo breaks, ragtime or dreamy waltzes, Skillet Licorice displays an impressive command of styles and techniques that comes from deep study and loving dedication to America’s folk traditions. With the help of their talented friends they’ve put together an incredible repertoire that is essentially traditional, yet with a modern approach that is anything but stale. Skillet Licorice is hot, sweet, and just a bit greasy!
Jerron Paxton
Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton has earned a reputation for transporting audiences back to the 1920's and making them wish they could stay there for good. Jerron Paxton may be one of the greatest multi-instrumentalists that you have not heard of. Yet. And time is getting short, fast.
This young musician sings and plays banjo, guitar, piano, fiddle, harmonica, Cajun accordion, and the bones (percussion). Paxton has an eerie ability to transform traditional jazz, blues, folk, and country into the here and now, and make it real. In addition, he mesmerizes audiences with his humor and storytelling. He's a world-class talent and a uniquely colorful character that has been on the cover of Living Blues Magazine and the Village Voice, and has been interviewed on FOX News. Paxton's sound is influenced by the likes of Fats Waller and Blind Lemon Jefferson. According to Will Friedwald in the Wall Street Journal, Paxton is "virtually the only music-maker of his generation— playing guitar, banjo, piano and violin, among other implements—to fully assimilate the blues idiom of the 1920s and '30s."
Western Flyers
Powerhouse Western Swing band The Western Flyers serve up an irresistibly hot, unmistakably Texas-style sound popularized by Bob Wills in the 1940s with an electrifying energy all their own. Featuring a fresh, all-star lineup led by guitar slinger Joey McKenzie on archtop guitar & vocal, 2024 National Grand Champion fiddler Ridge Roberts on fiddle & vocal, and upright bassist Matthew Mefford, the award winning Flyers are guaranteed to have even the shyest of wallflowers tappin' their toes or swinging on the dance floor
The Joymakers
Texas jazz, blues, ragtime and old time roots will be on full display when this powerhouse of traditional musicians arrives on the String Band Festival stage. The aptly-named Joymakers came together two years ago when two groups - Hancock’s Jazz Serenaders, and The Revelators - joined forces. With an album already underway for New York label Turtle Bay Records, and talk of a post-release midwestern tour, the Joymakers are off to a roaring start to their career. “Texas style jazz, or jazz from the territories (i.e. not NYC, Chicago, or New Orleans),” is bandleader Colin Hancock’s favorite description of their sound. They are not to be missed!
Guy Forsyth Presents 78 Special
Guy Forsyth grew up in KC but has been a denizen of Austin, TX for the past couple of decades. He’s a true renaissance man musically, and is very difficult to pigeon-hole. He was a cofounder of the Asylum Street Spankers, has released adrenalinefueled rock ‘n’ roll records, and is probably best classified as a performer with very deep rootsy/bluesy musical roots. Guy’s music is eclectic – in the best sense of the word. He’s also a multi-instrumentalist, being a fantastic slide guitar and harmonica player, and also playing guitar, baritone guitar, ukulele, and saw (yes, musical saw!) There are messages in the lyrics of most of Guy’s songs, or if not outright messages, then deeper meanings of life as he sees it playing out around him.
Hot Pickin 57s
The Hot Pickin 57s offer an energetic and thoroughly enjoyable mix of Bluegrass, Classic Country, and Americana music.
The band members have deep roots in the Austin music scene, reuniting in 2016 after their musical educations at Berklee, South Plains College, and Texas State. They’ve played in well-known bands like the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash, Whit Smith's Hot Jazz Caravan, and Rosie and the Ramblers and have had the privilege of performing alongside notable artists like Sierra Hull, Kym Warner, Alun Munde, Billy Bright (Wood & Wire), and Mark Cosgrove (David Bromberg).
So & So and the Swamp Sizzle
Austin Cajun music stalwart Michael Perron has formed a great new Cajun band, including members of Gumbo Ce Soir, The Red Stick Ramblers, Chansons et Soûlards, featuring Josh Huval on accordion!
Up Around the Sun with Bosco
Austin old time music innovators, Tim Kerr and Jerry Hagins, are joined by the talented old time fiddler from Kyoto, Japan - Bosco!
Lloyd & April
Lloyd and April Wright hail from Kennard, TX, in the heart of the Davy Crockett National Forest. Their duet singing of traditional music is stunningly beautiful, and their gospel music performances are among the finest anywhere! April plays guitar and Lloyd is an award winning multi-instrumentalist.
In addition to their performing schedule, they produce the Old Mill Music Festival every year in November: https://oldmillmusicfestival.com
Funyun Creek
This powerhouse old time dance band will kick off the Friday stage shows. The band is named afer a small tributary that runs from Alaska to Austin, by way of Terlingua!
Members are Jerry Hagins-banjo, Beth Chrisman-fiddle, Joe Dobbs-Guitar, Amanda Chisholm-bass and, all the way from Japan, the legendary Bosco on fiddle!
Camping
There is plenty of primitive tent camping, and a small number of RV sites with hookups. All camping fees are to be paid upon festival entry, on a first-come-first-served basis. You may pay with cash, check or credit card.
Friday and Saturday camping should be paid at the festival admissions tent. You may arrive earlier than Friday to camp. If you do, please pay Camp Ben directly for the nights before Friday.
Check-out is Noon on Sunday.
Trash & Recycling
Pack-it-in, Pack-it-out. Campers who have recycling at their residence are encouraged to take recyclables home with them; a bag will be furnished for use on site or to take trash home. This helps us greatly - Thanks!
No dogs or other pets
We love dogs, but please leave them at home.
NO DOGS ALLOWED except service animals.
No amplified music
Out of courtesy to fellow campers, jammers, and official performers, please no amplified music in the campground.
Food
We'll have on-site food trucks: Linda's Texas Street Crepes (example menu) and Vigilante Vittles (example menu).
Festivalgoers can also bring their own food and beverages (no glass, please). There's ample space and tables to picnic, and campers can of course cook at their campsites.
Please help us manage waste by packing out your own trash and recyclables.
Location
Camp Ben McCulloch
18301 FM 1826
Driftwood, Texas 78619
Google Maps Link
Camp Ben McCulloch is within a few minutes of Austin, located 11 miles south of Highway 290 West on Farm Road 1826. From I-35, take Loop 4 to downtown Buda. Head west on Farm Road 967 for 11 miles, then turn left on Farm Road 1826 for 1/2 mile -- Camp Ben McCulloch is on the left.
Camp Ben McCulloch’s grounds are lovely, with plenty of big old shade trees, a gurgling creek and room for camping and jamming. Some of the best music is off-stage in sessions lasting till the wee hours. There is also a very nice, shady playground close to the pavilion.
A Few Reminders
The string band festival is a family friendly event. If you are planning to come to the festival please note the following:
- NO DOGS ALLOWED (except service dogs).
- BRING YOUR OWN CHAIR FOR THE WORKSHOPS, FOR JAMMING, OR FOR EXTRA COMFORT.
- BRING YOUR OWN COOLER AND ICE.
- NO GLASS BOTTLES. CANS ONLY.
- NO FIRES - THERE'S A BURN BAN IN HAYS COUNTY
- NO FIREWORKS OR WEAPONS.
- NO AMPLIFIED MUSIC.
- BRING CASH AND CREDIT CARDS FOR TICKETS, CAMPING FEES, FOOD, and MERCH.
- PACK-IN & PACK-OUT AS MUCH OF YOUR TRASH AS POSSIBLE
- NO CHILDREN PLAYING ON THE DANCE FLOOR DURING PERFORMANCES
Join AFTM
Become a member of AFTM to support our efforts, and to get discounted tickets. Join today!
Volunteer
Sign up to volunteer here. We need your help!
Sponsors
Thanks to our generous sponsors for helping keep the Austin String Band Festival affordable and fun! We really appreciate it!
