Author: Michael Hall

Five Week Reminder: The last day to make tax advantaged donations for this tax year is December 31, 2025.

You can include bluegrass music in your year-end tax planning. The Northern California Bluegrass Society accepts donations to support area bluegrass and is a California Not-For-Profit Corporation with Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3) status that is also known as the Santa Cruz Bluegrass Society. The NCBS/SCBS Tax ID No. is 94-2907716.

Mail-In Donations: NCBS/SCBS, PO Box 390846, Mountain View, CA 94039-0846.

NCBS Online Donations

The 32nd Annual Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival will be held Thursday-Sunday, August 6-9, 2026. The beloved gathering is a benefit for the Northern California Bluegrass Society. The festival will take place at the San Benito County Historical Park in Tres Pinos.

The Main Stage Band Application for the August 6-9, 2026 Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival will be available on this website on December 1, 2025. The application will be Due On December 31, 2025. California bluegrass bands are encouraged to apply. The 32nd Annual event is a benefit for the Northern California Bluegrass Society.

NCBS favorites The Goat Hill Girls and the duet Jesse Applebaum & Christine Wilhoyte will appear on San Francisco’s KALW Radio on Saturday, November 22. The Bluegrass Signal radio program hosted by Peter Thompson will present these live music performances as part of the station’s On Air Folk Festival.

The festival will air throughout the day. The bluegrass schedule is:

4:00pm — The Goat Hill Girls

4:45 — Jesse Applebaum & Christine Wilhoyte

The Northern California Bluegrass Society accepts donations to support area bluegrass and is a California Not-For-Profit Corporation with Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3) status that is also known as the Santa Cruz Bluegrass Society. The NCBS/SCBS Tax ID No. is 94-2907716.

Mail-In Donations: NCBS/SCBS, PO Box 390846, Mountain View, CA 94039-0846.

NCBS Online Donations

The Northern California Bluegrass Society welcomes the FREE 20th Annual Holiday Hootenanny on Friday, December 12 at 4:00pm. This has become a fun and enduring Bay Area bluegrass tradition! The Stoney Mountain Ramblers will be the host band. Other bands will be announced soon.

Thanks to our own Scott Dailey for booking this event, which is presented by the Devil’s Canyon Brewing Company. There will be an array of excellent food trucks at the event, and the brewery will serve fine craft beer and root beer.

Your Membership in the Northern California Bluegrass Society supports local bluegrass music in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Monterey Bay Area, and in all of Northern California. Join or renew today!

NCBS Membership

The Main Stage Band Application for the August 6-9, 2026 Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival will be available on this website on December 1, 2025. The application will be Due On December 31, 2025. California bluegrass bands are encouraged to apply. The 32nd Annual event is a benefit for the Northern California Bluegrass Society.

The NCBS National Bluegrass Stolen & Missing Instrument Page is on this website.

It provides a central reporting location for the recovery of stolen or lost bluegrass instruments. This service is for both theft victims and used instrument buyers. The FREE page is searchable, and links can be added to connect additional information.

Please post again when the instrument is recovered.

The City of Redwood City has approved the demolition of the Veterans Memorial Senior Center, formerly the home of the Northern California Bluegrass Music Awards, part of the Northern California Bluegrass Society’s Bluegrass On Broadway Festival. That event ended in January 2020, just before the pandemic.

The site will become the new home of the YMCA of Silicon Valley. The new Veterans Memorial Senior Center is across the street and will open by the end of this year.