We had mentioned last month that, owing to a reorganization of the company that produced a number of bluegrass festivals in Kentucky and Ohio, the popular SamJam Bluegrass Festival in Piketon, OH was due to be renamed.
After a brief online consultation with fans, promoter Rick Greene has settled on Route 23 Bluegrass Festival going forward. For the time being, the web address of samjambluegrass.com will remain as the main site for the festival. It will eventually change to route23bluegrass.com.
Rick says that it will still be held over Labor Day weekend, and he welcomes Garage Beer as a major sponsor
“There are lots of reasons, with the first being that I want this bluegrass festival to do what music should do … bring people together. And when it comes to the people of southern Ohio, eastern Kentucky, and our broader bluegrass music base in the Ohio Valley, few things bring our people together more than this highway.
Of course, US Route 23 is known as the Country Music Highway because of countless artists who have bluegrass in their blood, and have risen to the highest levels of their respective genres within the music industry. It also helps that our festival occurs in Piketon, Ohio, at the Pike County Fairgrounds, which rests on Route 23.
Having grown up in Flatwoods, Kentucky, and having worked many of my formative years in Ashland, Kentucky, and Portsmouth, Ohio, and now living in Waverly, Ohio, it seems there’s hardly been a time when Route 23 wasn’t connected to me, even when I lived elsewhere.
But the name of this festival doesn’t represent me. I didn’t want it to because it isn’t supposed to.
It represents us. And, as long as I am involved with it, the aim will be for it to always serve as a positive representation of us, a showcase of music where politics and division are left behind at the entrance, a showcase of our beautiful and welcoming southern Ohio community, and a showcase of the very best that bluegrass music has to offer.
Changing the name is easy, but what comes next is hard and I welcome that challenge because I know I have a formidable team in this community, and in the bluegrass community. It’s time to get to work.
The road starts here.”
Once the new web site is active, you’ll be able to get information on the 2026 festival, stage lineup, camping details, and the Wernick Jam Camp to be hosted on site.
Best of luck to Rick Greene and the Route 23 Bluegrass Festival.
