Salmon Lake Bluegrass Festival Archives

27th annual Salmon Lake Park Gospel Bluegrass Festival report

High Fidelity at the 2024 Salmon Lake Park Gospel Bluegrass Festival – photo courtesy of Salmon Lake

The 27th annual Salmon Lake Park Gospel Bluegrass Festival ran last month in Grapeland, TX, one of two yearly festivals at the park.

Promoter Julie Tucker shared some photos and this brief report.

Our 27th Annual Salmon Lake Park Gospel Bluegrass Festival was a great success!

My goal since assuming the role of promoter has been to not forget the legends, and to bring in the young folks.

We were blessed to have Mr. Ray Wingfield, 91, (formerly with the band, Twice As Nice) do a set, and it was very well received. The line at the product table was long and he sold out of all his CDs.

The Marksmen are always a hit, and founding member, Earle Wheeler (86), is still going strong, receiving two callbacks. Floyd & Fannie Salmon, original park owners, said, “The Marksmen will always be on stage as long as there’s a festival on these grounds,” and we are honoring that request.

Another highlight was providing the opportunity to 23 kids who are students of Curtis Adkison, Fret Not Music Shop in Bonham, TX, to play on the big stage. There’s some really good talent coming out of these kids and we look forward to watching them grow. They jammed ’till early morning!

Headliners included High Fidelity, The Gospel Plowboys, and The Cox Family. Sidney Cox and his girls are carrying on The Cox Family tradition with beautiful harmony.

Their fall event, the 48th Annual Bluegrass Festival will be held October 24-26, 2024. Scheduled to perform are The Grascals, Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out, Caroline Owens, Little Roy & Lizzy Show, Karl Shiflett & Big Country, and others.

Full details can be found online.

Salmon Lake Park festival moves dates for 2024

Little Roy & Lizzy Show at Salmon Lake Park – photo by Julie Tucker

Salmon Lake Park in Grapeland, TX, located between Dallas and Houston, has wrapped up another successful year with their annual bluegrass festivals.

The 26th Annual Gospel Bluegrass Festival celebrated record crowds as history was made with the New Tradition Reunion featuring Danny Roberts, Daryl Mosley, Jamie Clifton, and Richie Dotson. Other notable bands included The Gospel Plowboys, The Marksmen Quartet, The King James Boys, The Purple Hulls, and more. “This is the largest crowd we’ve seen in quite some time,” said promoter Julie Tucker. “Some of the old timers were reminiscing that ‘this is how it used be,’ which made us quite happy.”

The 47 Annual Labor Day Bluegrass Festival survived despite the extreme summer heat experienced in Texas that weekend. Larry Stephenson Band, Donna Ulisse, A Deeper Shade of Blue, and Hickory Hill were big hits, and real troopers to endure the heat along with the rest of our great lineup.

Park Owners David and Leah Powers, along with Julie Tucker, have made the decision to move the annual bluegrass festival to late October starting in 2024. “Every year we either fight the heat or the possibility of rain as the hurricane season ramps up that time of year,” said Julie. “The annual bluegrass festival will now be held the fourth weekend in October. Much thought and consideration went into the decision, including making sure we didn’t conflict with neighboring festivals. Once the announcement was made, we received tremendous positive feedback from annual patrons.”

Tucker is already working on 2024 Gospel & Bluegrass Festival lineups. The Cox Family, The Gospel Plowboys, The Marksmen Quartet, The Purple Hulls, Caleb & Abby Lindsey, and more will appear at the 27^th Annual Gospel Festival, May 23-25, 2024.

The 48^th Annual Bluegrass festival will be held Oct 24-26, 2024, and will include Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out, Caroline Owens Band, Karl Shiflett & Big Country, The Marksmen Quartet, plus more to be announced.

“Folks that come to Salmon Lake Park come for several reasons in addition to the lineup,” say the Powers. “Camping and jamming are a big draw for us, and we have folks coming in a week early. We have lots of activities throughout the week leading up to the festival including open mic night, instrument workshops, crafts for the ladies, and more. We are seeing more and more young people in recent years that attend with their parents and grandparents. We really focus on making our event family friendly by including kids in our workshops, jams, and stage shows. The local schools welcome our bluegrass patrons to come in and perform for the kids and teach them about the various bluegrass instruments. Field trips during the festival are also welcome and this year we hosted the fifth grade class from Grapeland ISD.”

Full details on both festivals can be found online.

Flooding devastates Salmon Lake Park – festival to go on in September

Salmon Lake Park in Grapeland, TX, site of the popular Salmon Lake Park Bluegrass Festival, was severely damaged yesterday when the Salmon Lake dam burst following a period of high rain on Monday night. The National Weather Service has estimated that as much as 11 inches of rain fell overnight, Monday into Tuesday, causing flash flooding over many parts of Houston County in east Texas.

Fortunately, municipal authorities have reported no loss of life following the flooding, but the park and the campground where the festival is held will require a good bit of restoration in order to be ready for their 2021 event, the 45th annual running of the Salmon Lake Park Bluegrass Festival in September. The new owners of the park, David and Leah Powers, had just successfully completed the 24th annual Bluegrass Gospel Festival over the Labor Day weekend, so both they, and the festival’s attendees, dodged a big one by only a day. Imagine the chaos if the dam broke at 5:00 a.m. while the park was filled with people!

Regular readers may recall when such a scenario occurred in Kentucky back in 2017 when RudyFest had to be evacuated because of floodwaters in the park. Not a pretty sight.

The Park is determined to be ready for the festival this coming Labor Day, but is asking for some assistance from the community. A GoFundMe campaign has been established to help the Powers raise $15,000 to restore the facility over the summer. The stage seems to have been spared any damage from high water, though engineers will be brought out to make a full assessment before it is used again for shows. A good bit of earthmoving will be required on site, however, before the public can be welcomed again into Salmon Lake Park.

If you have enjoyed time at the Park, or attended either of their yearly bluegrass festivals, please consider making even a small donation through their GoFundMe page, where contributions can be securely sent using major credit cards or PayPal.