Festival Preview: Hillberry – The Harvest Moon Festival 2016

Courtesy Photo
Hillberry, The Harvest Moon Festival, will begin Oct. 13.

The fall’s best bluegrass festival in Northwest Arkansas is just around the corner.

From the folks at Deadhead Productions comes Hillberry, the Harvest Moon Festival, which will be Thursday Oct. 13 through Saturday, Oct. 16. Located in the hills of Eureka Springs, the festival will be host to 21 bands that fit into the bluegrass and newgrass genres with a few other jam bands thrown in the mix.

This year’s artist curation for the festival was a collaboration between the members of Railroad Earth and Deadhead Productions to pick out some of the best national and regional bluegrass, folk and soul bands out there. Some of the headliners for this year include two nights of Railroad Earth, Greensky Bluegrass, The Infamous Stringdusters, The New Mastersounds, and Elephant Revival.

“Railroad Earth played our Highberry festival last year,” said Jon Walker, owner of Deadhead Productions. “We got the chance to connect really well with the guys. We’re friends, y’know, we’re family. They came to us and said they want to do this thing with us. It feels good to have a band like Railroad come and recognize our attention to quality and production and want to partner with us.”

The festival’s main stage will be host to one band at a time to avoid stress from missing an act and provide an opportunity to focus and enjoy each band, Walker said.

Courtesy of Jamie Seed Photography
Fayetteville’s Handmade Moments jam out during Hillberry 2015.

Tickets to the festival range from $160 for all-access to $55 for a Sunday-only day pass. Tickets are available online at hillberryfestival.com. RV passes have sold out. To keep the festival controllable and intimate, ticket sales cap off at 3,000 tickets sold.

“The Farm” as it’s known, sits on 160 acres, about 9 miles west of Eureka Springs and offers panoramic views of the Mark Twain National forest. The festival grounds are only a few miles away from the White River and Beaver Lake, and shuttles will be available for attendees to go for a canoe day trip.

Walker said the production crew has been hard at work at making the festival grounds into a campsite. An 18-hole disc golf course and some that are lit up at night, more shaded camping areas with electric hookups, more roads and an improved general store are among the improvements.

“We’ve been spending a lot of time improving the land and making it more comfortable for everybody out here,” Walker said.

Courtesy of Jamie Seed Photography
During this year’s Hillberry festival, Railroad Earth will do two nights of performances.

There are several miscellaneous activities are planned during the festival as well. There will be an artist-judged picking contest, where festival goers who think they’ve got the right stuff can compete with others for a cash prize and a tie dye workshop is planned for attendees to learn how to make their own shirts. There will also be the Wakarusa-famous Chompdown, which is a time-honored crowd-sourced community breakfast with live music.

Late at night, festivals at The Farm always feature campfire jams at a Jerry Garcia shrine halfway up a hill, about a 15 minute walk from the main campground. This year there’s going to be a full PA system to amplify the musicians.

Walker has been producing festivals in Arkansas for about 8 years. During the first two years, they were more like big parties with all of his friends on his land. Each year the parties got bigger and bigger until he moved them to Byrd’s Adventure Center to host the first Highberry. Now, Walker organizes three festivals a year on average.

This year included the multi-genre jam band-focused Highberry, funky Phunkberry and the bluegrass style Hillberry.

This is Walker’s seventh year organizing music festivals, and he said he’s organized about 16 festivals so far.

Courtesy Photo
Up on a hill not far from the main campground at The Farm in Eureka Springs, there’s a Jerry Garcia shrine. Each night, there’s a campfire nearby where attendees are encouraged to bring instruments and jam by the fire. This year, a full stage with a PA system will be present to amplify voices and stringed instruments.

“There’s a lot of great energy coming out of this, and it’s great seeing people’s passion for what we’re doing,” Walker said. “I’m excited to make this thing happen. It’s been a year of planning and we’re ready to rock n roll.”

For more information about Hillberry, visit hillberryfestival.com.