The 11th annual Boulder Music and Art Festival fills Veteran’s Park with music, artists and authors Sept. 8-9. The park is located at 304 N. Main in Boulder, a community located midway between Butte and Helena, just off 1-15 at Exit 164.
The free event is sponsored by local businesses and the Chamber of Commerce, and boasts the down-home atmosphere one might expect from a friendly Montana cowtown. Over the past decade, the festival has continued to grow and garner a reputation for excellent music performance and production (the stage is provided by Valley Sound and production and sound are supplied by Wobbly Boy Productions).
It’s also one of the few outdoor festivals in Montana that provides a dance floor, so bring a chair and sit and listen, or swing your partner to tunes by Montana artists. In addition to loads of live music, the event includes authors, art and crafts and food vendors.
The free festival is open from noon-7 p.m. Saturday and 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. Saturday’s performance schedule kicks off at noon with MT-CAN, followed by Brigid Reedy featuring Johnny Guitar, Little Jane and the Pistol Whips, Dublin Gulch, the Open Range Band, and Clint Rieder and the Longhorn Band.
An Open Stage begins at 10:30 a.m. Sunday followed by a Gospel Jam at noon, hosted by the Little Boulder Band. The Nightcrawlers, Northhill Trio and Band of Drifters entertain Sunday afternoon, with the Jefferson High School Jazz Band wrapping up the festival from 4:15-5 p.m.
Bring lawn chairs and settle in for a weekend of Montana-made music and entertainment. Boulder is also a mecca for hiking, biking, hunting and fishing, and boasts a historic hot springs, ghost towns, and radon health mines nearby. For more information, visit www.bouldermtchamber.org.