Bands from around Michigan gather by the Sleeping Bear Dunes of Empire, Mich. for the 18th year of the Dunegrass Festival as it goes back to its roots.


Lots of blues, blue grass, rock, roots music and some jazz, will fill up the northern town, west of Traverse City, for three days. The festival is featuring Big Sam’s Funky Nation. Also, Jessica Lea Mayfield, will be performing which will attract more a younger crowd, she’s more of an overdramatic performer, really mellow. She’s becoming really huge in the darker pop genre, according to Bear Yovino, Dunegrass’s professional photographer.


“About 90 percent of the music will be from Michigan bands, but we have a couple people coming up from Louisiana, which we’re really excited about,” said Ryan Lake, owner of the Festival.


“So he’s kind of mixing it up this year, instead of having a bunch of Michigan folk and bluegrass artists, he’s trying to be diverse like Bonnaroo is,” Yovino said.


“With different styles of music, you’ll have a more diverse crowd but it will also be a more controlled crowd, like I said, Dunegrass is going back to their Michigan roots so it won’t be to such a large scale.”


Dunegrass was one of the first Michigan Festivals established and over the 18 years that Dunegrass has been a festival, it has had its ups and downs. It started to become more of a national festival. However, the Rothbury Festival came to Michigan.


“Nobody should ever compete with a festival like that. It just hurts you financially because these people are coming in with big guns,” Yovino said. “Dunegrass fell apart and a guy by the name of Ryan Lake picked it back up again. So it has new ownership, new management and he wants to keep the message of Dunegrass still going regardless of its downfall. Picked it back up from the ashes, you know it’s like a Phoenix rising from the ashes.”


Lake said he has always been interested in music festivals, being a musician himself, and when, at a meeting, it came time for someone to step up, he decided it was something he wanted to do.


“The job is like writing a song, it’s hard and you can always change it and make it better,” Lake said. “It’s just a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot of energy, a lot of people working on it together.”


Not only does this family event provide three days worth of music, but there will also be camping available and a shuttle going back and forth from the beach of Lake Michigan.


“It is a family event and we want to make sure it’s portrayed that way,” Lake said.


People 16 and under get in free when accompanied by an adult. Tickets are available now for $74, and will be $90 at the gate.