18th Annual Kerrville Wine & Music Festival on Labor Day Weekend Celebrates Songwriters, Texas Port and Texas Reds

Press release
Source: Cash Edwards, Music Services

The 2009 Kerrville Wine & Music Festival is coming up Labor Day weekend, September 4 - 6. This annual celebration of performing songwriters and Texas wines will be held at Quiet Valley Ranch, 9 miles south of the Texas Hill Country resort community of Kerrville on Texas Hwy 16. For information on the event and camping (RV hookups available) please call (830) 257-3600 or go to www.kerrvillefolkfestival.com.

Not a typical "wine tasting" event, this 3-day festival will feature 6-hour evening concerts and 2-hour afternoon concerts with over two-dozen singer-songwriters. 2-hour wine seminars are held on Saturday and Sunday.

We are excited about this year's musical line-up and feel that it covers just about everyone's musical tastes. We've got some alt-country with Austin's Stonehoney, Tex-Mex R&R with San Antonio's Los Texmaniacs, Americana harmonies with Austin's Ginn Sisters and funk-jam music from Eclectica. We are also thrilled about the return of some of our Kerrville favorites like Don Conoscenti, Thad Beckman, Karen Abrahams, Michael McNevin and Bob Livingston.

The performers for the Friday evening concert include: Brian Ashley Jones (Nashville, TN), Chip Dolan & Marvin Dykhuis (Austin, TX), Don Conoscenti (Taos, NM), Los Texmaniacs (San Antonio, TX), and Karen Abrahams (Austin, TX).

Saturday's evening concert line-up consists of Greg Trooper (New York, NY), Michael McNevin (Fremont, CA), Stonehoney (Austin, TX), Baskery (Stockholm, Sweden), and Eclectica (USA).

The Sunday night closing set will feature The Siekers (Austin, TX), Bob Livingston (Austin, TX), The Ginn Sisters (Austin, TX), Thad Beckman (Portland, OR), and Fred Eaglesmith (Port Dover, Ont., Canada). Each of the evening concerts start at 7 p.m. with the outdoor theater gates opening at 6 p.m.

The Saturday afternoon concert will feature two outstanding acts, Abi Tapia and Big Wide Grin. The Sunday afternoon concert will feature finalists and/or winners from the Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Competition for Emerging Songwriters in an In-The-Round format including Joe Crookston (Ithaca, NY), Rebecca Loebe (Atlanta, GA), Ben Mallott (Austin, TX), Louise Mosrie (Nashville, TN), and Tom Neilson (Greenfield, MA). Afternoon concerts will start at 1 p.m. at the Threadgill Memorial Theater in the Quiet Valley Ranch campgrounds.

Yes, we'll also have wine! This year's 10 vineyards include Becker Vineyards, Llano Estacado, Fall Creek Vineyards, Brennan Vineyards, Texas Hills Vineyards, Haak Vineyards & Winery, Messina Hof Winery & Resort, McPherson. The theme for the Saturday afternoon wine seminar will be "Texas Port," and the Sunday theme will be "Vintner's Choice - Texas Reds." Each of the seminars will begin at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and will be held in the newly renovated Threadgill Theater in the Quiet Valley Ranch campgrounds. The advance price for each wine seminar is $7 and walk-up is $10 in addition to your festival admission. Each evening the ten Texas wineries will have booths in the main stage theater with tastes, glasses, and bottles of their current vintage available for sale.

A wide range of food and beverages are available in the theater and the campgrounds. We also have Arts & Crafts booths, escorted hill country bike rides, and like the Kerrville Folk Festival in the spring, the spectacular song circles and jam sessions in the campgrounds.

The three-day, Labor Day weekend advance discount adult ticket price is $75 and includes free tent camping on the ranch. Single-day advance discounted tickets are $24 for Friday, $28 for Saturday and $28 for Sunday. Tickets are available by calling the festival office at (830) 257-3600 or on-line at www.kerrvillefolkfestival.com.

Parking at the Quiet Valley Ranch is $3 per vehicle per day to encourage car-pooling. Tickets for the festival and information on seminars, performers, camping, arts & crafts vending, RV sites, and local accommodations can be found by visiting www.kerrvillefolkfestival.com or by calling (830) 257-3600. You can also e-mail the festival office at info@kerrville-music.com.

18th Annual Kerrville Wine & Music Festival would like to thank their sponsors Texas Monthly, Five Star Wireless, and The Y.O. Ranch Resort Hotel & Conference Center.

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