From DelBows to Mountain Jams, DelFest Feels Like a Bluegrass Family Reunion

Photos by Dan Rozman & Mark Raker

Once you have been to DelFest, it is easy to understand why Del picked the location. In Cumberland, Maryland. Tucked into a valley where the Appalachian ridges crowd in close and the Potomac runs alongside town, it’s the kind of place that surprises people the first time they see it. Every Memorial Day weekend, the Allegany County Fairgrounds fills up with campers, music fans, and a whole lot of people who drove or flew a long way. People come from all over the country for this, some flying in from out west, because four days in the mountains with this music and crowd is worth the trip. Cumberland is only about two and a half hours from both Baltimore and  Washington, D.C., but it feels like a different world entirely.

DelFest runs May 21-24 this year, four days across three stages.  Most of the weekend, the stages run simultaneously and at any given moment there are multiple things worth seeing. You will miss some sets and find some new favorites; everyone does. Part of the fun is comparing notes with your friends. Late night shows continue after the main stages go dark, running inside the DelFest Music Hall on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, with separate tickets required.

Beyond the music, the festival fills out in every direction. Kids have their own dedicated KidZone packed with activities designed to keep curious minds busy all weekend. Yoga runs Friday through Sunday mornings. The Vending Faire in the music meadow draws artisans who travel in specifically for the festival, selling handmade jewelry, clothing, musical instruments, and crafts from around the world, with an emphasis on items you won’t find in a regular store. After fans “dance and shake their bones”, they can get an Active Potential massage and rejuvenate their body. Non-profits are also represented, so there are ways to do some good while browsing. Food vendors are near the grandstand, serving everything from local and ethnic cuisine to vegetarian and vegan options. 

The crowd is mixed in a way that many big festivals aren’t. There is a family camping area, but some young families choose to set up camp next to people in their sixties who have been coming since the early years. College kids share the grounds with first-timers who got dragged along by a friend and are already figuring out how to get back next year. “DelYeah” is part of the culture here, and so is the DelBow, the official festival greeting that works like a high five but elbow to elbow. Strangers trade DelBows in the food line, between sets, and just through the campground. It says something about the kind of place DelFest is.

There is one set this weekend that people started talking about the moment it was announced. Toy Factory Project grew out of something personal. Paul T. Riddle was the drummer and a founding member of the original Marshall Tucker Band, and when he lost his bandmate Toy Caldwell, he did what musicians do. He got to work. Caldwell wrote the catalog that made MTB what it was. “Can’t You See.” “Heard It in a Love Song.” “Searching for a Rainbow.” “This Old Cowboy.” Those songs came out fifty years ago and radio stations still play them daily.

Riddle put together a powerhouse band. Marcus King plays guitar and vocals, and anyone who has seen King live knows what that means for a show. Oteil Burbridge handles bass. He spent years with the Allman Brothers Band, then moved on to Dead and Company, and has two Grammys sitting somewhere at home. Charlie Starr, frontman of Blackberry Smoke, is on guitar. Josh Shilling handles piano and organ, and his name has appeared on Grammy-winning records for years out of Nashville. The band has also been recording studio material, with Peter Frampton and Vince Gill among the guests who came in to play on sessions. Their first shows happened at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 2025 and the response was immediate.

Starr isn’t done after the Toy Factory Project set wraps up. Blackberry Smoke plays their own separate show at the festival, which gives him two very different stages to cover across the weekend. Be Right Here, the band’s latest record, was cut at RCA Studio A in Nashville with Dave Cobb producing, and then finished at Cobb’s studio in Savannah, Georgia. “Dig a Hole” kicks off the album, and “Azalea” is one of the heavier songs they’ve recorded in years. The band has appeared on The Tonight Show, Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and Conan O’Brien, and has played festivals from Bonnaroo to Glastonbury. Twenty-plus years into their career and they still play like they have something to prove.

The Infamous Stringdusters are also celebrating a milestone, twenty years as a band, with a new record called 20/20 to mark the occasion. Chris Pandolfi, Travis Book, Jeremy Garrett, Andy Hall, and Andy Falco started in Nashville in the early 2000s playing as sidemen before deciding to create their own music. They have spent two decades on the road together and that history shows up whether they’re playing tight traditional bluegrass or letting a jam stretch out for ten minutes. The anniversary makes their set this year even more special.

Falco and Book step away from the full band for a separate duo set built entirely around Jerry Garcia’s music. They started running through Garcia songs backstage at Stringdusters shows as a warm-up and eventually decided the material was too good to keep to themselves. “The project actually originated backstage at Dusters shows where Travis and I would typically warm up with some fun Jerry songs,” Falco has explained. “At some point we just thought it would be fun to do it in public.” They draw from Garcia’s solo catalog, the Grateful Dead songbook, and traditional songs Garcia loved. Stripped down to bass and guitar, the songs hold up completely on their own terms.

Gaelic Storm played DelFest for the first time in 2025 and is back. Over two thousand shows in more than twenty years on the road. Frontman Patrick Murphy put it plainly when he said the fans gave the band its life and the band is there for them. That comes through when they play. Sister Sadie has a different kind of origin story. A few Nashville musicians got together late one night at the Station Inn for a casual session and walked out with a band. Fiddle player Deanie Richardson has won IBMA Fiddle Player of the Year twice, in 2020 and again in 2024. People in the crowd at DelFest last year stopped mid-conversation when she started playing.

Sierra Hull has been named IBMA Mandolin Player of the Year seven times. Two Grammy nominations. Her latest record, A Tip Toe High Wire, came out on her own independent label and features Béla Fleck, Tim O’Brien, and Aoife O’Donovan. Get to her set early.

Water Tower is a Los Angeles band built on old-time and bluegrass but shaped by punk records too, Black Flag and Rancid alongside Bill Monroe. Sierra Ferrell performs with them this weekend. Ferrell won Emerging Act of the Year at the Americana Honors and Awards and has recorded and toured with Zach Bryan, the Black Keys, and Old Crow Medicine Show. People who show up not knowing who she is tend to leave as fans. The Gibson Brothers have been recorded by Del McCoury, produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, and have won most of the major bluegrass awards at one point or another. Husband and wife duo Kenny and Amanda Smith have been delivering bluegrass together for nearly two decades. Sam Grisman grew up in a house in Mill Valley where Jerry Garcia, Doc Watson, and Tony Rice came over to record with his father, legendary mandolinist David Grisman. That background shows up in how his quintet plays.

The Travelin’ McCourys, Ronnie on mandolin and Rob on banjo, perform separately from the Del McCoury Band and bring their own distinct energy to the weekend. Wood Box Heroes dig deep into country, blues, jazz, and classical traditions without sounding like any one of them. The Broomestix come out of Nashville with a horn section and a sound that pulls from live instruments and electronic production at the same time. Between all of it, the DelFest stages stay busy from early afternoon until well past midnight every day.

Del McCoury turns 87 this year. He has outlasted trends, formats, and entire genres, and he is still out here playing. Most of the people in the crowd grew up listening to him without knowing it, through records their parents owned or songs they heard somewhere along the way. Seeing him perform at a festival built around his legacy, with his sons and grandchildren nearby, is a different kind of experience than watching most musicians perform. It is worth being there for.

Sunday mornings at DelFest have their own tradition that regulars protect. Dré Anders, a Swedish-born artist who blends Scandinavian musical heritage with Laurel Canyon folk and gospel, leads the morning Gospel set with members of the McCoury family typically joining in. The combination of mountain air and that music at that hour is something that is hard to describe and easy to remember. If it is your first DelFest, set an alarm and don’t talk yourself out of going.

The DelFest Academy runs from Sunday through Wednesday before the festival opens to the public, pairing students of all levels with working musicians for intensive hands-on workshops in banjo, fiddle, guitar, and mandolin. The student bands compete throughout the week and the winner gets to play the main stage. Del’s Army, the festival’s ongoing food drive, is closing in on a million dollars raised for local food banks over the years, and the DelFest Foundation has provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to Western Maryland communities. Both traditions continue this year.

VIP ticket holders get access starting Wednesday evening. General admission gates open on Thursday. Full details and tickets are at delfest.com.

Photos by Dan Rozman & Mark Raker: