Rotterdam Bluegrass Festival presents European firsts from American artists

Canadian Annie Bartholomew and The Slocan Ramblers and The Kody Norris Show and The Dirty Grass Players from the United States will all make their European debut at Rotterdam Bluegrass Festival 2024. Dom Flemons and Seth Mulder & Midnight Run are also booked. The complete line-up will be announced in the run-up to the festival and will consist of more than 30 acts from home and abroad, plus extensive fringe programming. Rotterdam Bluegrass Festival will take place on 28, 29 and 30 June 2024 on Noordplein. Early bird ticket sales start on Thursday 29 February at 12:00.

For initiator, director and programmer Guido de Groot, the announcement is a special moment: "It is always exciting how the first names are received, but with these first six names, I think we already present a nice cross-section of the total programme, with both established and promising names and from traditional to innovative bluegrass and folk."

Established names include American folk, country and blues artist and multi-instrumentalist Dom Flemons, whose repertoire covers a hundred years of American music history, but Seth Mulder & Midnight Run are not unknown in Rotterdam either. The latter are more on the traditional side of the bluegrass spectrum.

Psychedelic newgrass

The promising The Kody Norris Show is also more traditional. The spectacular performance and ditto stage presence of these newcomers make them audience favourites in the making. Equally energetic are The Slocan Ramblers, who cleverly combine innovation and tradition in their bluegrass. Things get even more progressive with The Dirty Grass Players and their almost psychedelic newgrass, where Annie Bartholomew strongly represents the atmosphere of a bygone Alaska - her home state - with her original folk music.

Early bird ticket sales start on Thursday 29 February at 12.00pm, combination tickets for the entire weekend will then be temporarily available for €35 instead of €40 via the festival website.