Sutter Creek Inn welcomes Jug Band Festival

On Saturday on the grounds of the historic Sutter Creek Inn, the International Jug Band Festival will be celebrating its 15th year.

This year’s festival will feature old favorites and new bands showcasing the variety and exuberance that is jug band music. Festival organizers promise music that will get your feet tapping and set your soul free.

Dance the day away or just sit under the shade tents on the lawn and enjoy the most unusual and wonderful music, performed by bands from near and far.

Jug band music is the grassroots of blues, played with any item that can produce music: spoons, saws, fiddles, banjos, wash boards, acoustic guitars, upright bass, homemade bass and, of course, jugs.

The annual gathering of jug bands in Sutter Creek began in 2002 when Andy Fahrenwald and Wayne Hagen brought a variety of jug bands from throughout California together in Sutter Creek’s Minnie Provis Park. It was the first organized festival where jug bands in California could gather, hear and meet other jug bands.

Over the years the festival grew and the California Jug Band Association was born. Jug band festivals are catching on in other places, including Santa Cruz and San Francisco, but Sutter Creek was the original.

Set on the lawn of the historic Sutter Creek Inn right on Main Street, this year’s festival brings back the Free Badge Serenaders, last seen in the area in 2011. Other festival favorites including the South Sac Jukes, the Jailhouse String band, the Babar Jug Band and Willie Norton will rip things up.

The CJBA is grateful to the people of Sutter Creek for their support over the years, and hopes to once again offer a jug band gathering to remember.