Milkpan from Kobe University at KazCamp 2024 – photo courtesy of Kaz Inaba
Kazuhiro Inaba, one of Japan’s premier bluegrass entertainers, has shared a report from his 2024 Bluegrass Camp, held each year in Osaka. He calls it a camp, but here in the states we would refer to it as a festival, as he presents two dozen acts or more on stage in a single day.
Kaz tells us that they had a mix of established and up-and-coming performers, as well as college groups from nearby universities.
“I’d like to report that the 11th annual Kazuhiro Inaba Bluegrass Camp (KazCamp), presented by the American Music Society, was held successfully at Ikeda Cultural Hall on May 18, 2024.
The hall is the historical venue for Japanese bluegrass fans, since the Lilly Brother & Don Stover with Tex Logan, Jim & Jesse, and others had performed there back in 1970s and 1980s.
We had 27 bands including a couple of jam session slots, and each band played 20-minute set. My daughter, Alisa, served as MC.
Most of the bands were from Kansai area (Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, Nara, Wakayama), two college bands came from Kobe University, and one from Nagoya University.
All That Grass from Nagoya, and 29 Strings from Ehime participated from further cities.
We look forward to holding KazCamp next year!”
Inaba also sent along this gallery of images from KazCamp ’24.
