2010 Bellevue Wintergrass Festival, February 25-28 - Bellevue WA

Bellevue Wintergrass Festival | Bellevue.com

2010 Wintergrass Festival gets new home in Bellevue

By Tom Nguyen. With contribution from Patrice O'Neill
All photos by Maria Camillo

The bluegrass music festival is coming to Bellevue! A Northwest treasure for 16 years, Wintergrass will make its inaugural appearance in Bellevue February 25-28, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue, the festival's new home through 2018.

The Wintergrass Festival, one of the biggest and best bluegrass festivals in the country, attracts not just fans but also musicians and artists -- from regional and national favorites to international acts. While Wintergrass is primarily a Bluegrass music festival, you’ll hear plenty of other styles of acoustic music including Gypsy jazz, Celtic music, Old-Timey, Swedish polskas and many more types of acoustic string music. So if you love bluegrass, or any kind of old-timey, folk and country music, you'll love Wintergrass.

2010 Wintergrass Music Festival
February 25 - 28, 2010
Hyatt Regency Bellevue

Hyatt Regency Bellevue is the new home of Wintergrass through 2018. An estimated 30 plus bands and over 200 musicians will perform during the 4-day festival. Individual ticket prices for adults range between $20 for a day pass and $125 for a weekend pass. Tickets for Wintergrass are available online.

Visit Wintergrass Festival for more information and details, including schedule, lineup, tickets, volunteer opportunities and more.

Interested in advertising in the 48-page commemorative Wintergrass Festival program, contact Patrice O'Neill or call 253-428-8056.

For many bluegrass fans and musicians, Wintergrass is a family festival, where families and friends gather, connect and reunite in celebration of music and life events. The sense of connection and joy that infuses the music and the community is the single reason people choose to have family reunions at Wintergrass, get engaged at Wintergrass, and one year, even get married on stage at Wintergrass. At Wintergrass 1995 a couple got engaged and decided to tie the knot right then and there. The hotel and festival staffs zoomed around, got a cake, ordered flowers, talked the US Navy Bluegrass Band into playing for the ceremony and found a bluegrass loving pastor to do the honors...within an hour a wedding was planned and pulled off on stage. That couple always knows where they are going to be on their anniversary.

When I met Amanda, the first thing she said to me were the three most wonderful words in the English language - 'do-ya wanna pick?'

Playing music together is THE reason to be together so when Kenny Smith told this story at Wintergrass a few years ago, everyone in the audience knew exactly what he was talking about. "When I met Amanda, the first thing she said to me were the three most wonderful words in the English language - 'do-ya wanna pick?' "--recounted Patrice O'Neill, Director of Wintergrass. There is always a controversy about how many words are actually in that sentence, but the intent and connection they imply is always understood in bluegrass circles. The Kenny and Amanda Smith Band will perform at Wintergrass 2010. The lineup for this year includes:

Absynth Quintet
Cascade Mountain Boys
Crooked Still
Downtown Mountain Boys
Dry Branch Fire Squad
Heartbreak Pass
Jo Miller and her Burly Roughnecks
Joe Craven
John Reischman & The Jaybirds
Kate Powers and Steve Einhorn
Lonesome River Band
Marley's Ghost
Mountain Heart
One Horse Shy
Prairie Flyer

Rockin' Acoustic Circus
Sarah Jarosz
Sawmill Road
Seldom Scene
Shearwater Bluegrass
Steep Canyon Rangers
The Bluegrass Regulators
The Infamous Stringdusters
The Kenny & Amanda Smith Band
The Wilders
The WIYOS
Tim O'Brien
Väsen & The Duo (Mike Marshall & Darol Anger)

[view Wintergrass concert schedule]

What better city and location to offer festival goers and participants safe and convenient access to excellent amenities than Bellevue and The Bellevue Collection. Bellevue has become the destination of choice for shopping, dining, arts & culture, entertainment and nightlife in the Northwest. Located in the heart of Bellevue, The Bellevue Collection boasts world-class shopping, award-winning dining and premier entertainment experiences like none other in the region. The Hyatt Regency Bellevue, the festival new home through 2018, which had a grand opening of the newly expanded $185 million Olympic Tower in July 2009, allows the 4-day music festival to take place under one roof. In addition, during the entire festival, fans, amateur and professional musicians alike can pick their strings at impromptu jam sessions, which has become a signature of the festival, in open, public spaces throughout the hotel.

If you love Wintergrass, then you will love Wintergrass in Bellevue!