A brand new bluegrass festival debuted this past Saturday, July 2nd, at Exploration Acres in Lafayette, IN. Tippecanoe & Bluegrass Too held it’s very first event on the grounds of Exploration Acres, a corn maze and u-pick pumpkin patch that operates mid September through October, now approaching its 9th season.
Steve Jackson, event organizer, approached Tim Fitzgerald, Exploration Acres owner, last Fall about considering the idea of hosting a bluegrass event on the grounds. After considerable thought and discussion, the idea became a reality.
Jackson offered this brief report…
“With lots of hard work and planning we held our inaugural festival this past weekend. We wanted to help celebrate Indiana’s Bicentennial this year, so we decided to use only Indiana bluegrass bands. Our headliner band was Blue Mafia (Eaton, IN) and we filled out the rest of line up with Branded Bluegrass (Kokomo, IN), The New Balance Bluegrass Band (southeastern, IN) and Cumberland Gap (Muncie, IN).
We weren’t really sure what to expect this first year, but were more than pleased when the attendance numbers came in at around 600! With the support of sponsors and vendors, we were able to turn this into a very successful event. We will work on a few minor glitches, but overall most everyone was very happy and excited about our event and plans are already in the works for another one next year.”
