Stuart’s Opera House presents the 14th annual Nelsonville Music Festival, May 31-June 3, 2018 at Robbins Crossing on the campus of Hocking College in Nelsonville, Ohio. The first round of lineup announcements for NMF18 includes: The Decemberists (headlining Friday, June 1), Ani DiFranco (headlining Sunday, June 3), Alvvays, Kevin Morby, Mission Temple Fireworks Revival featuring Paul Thorn & Band and Blind Boys of Alabama, Middle Kids, Colter Wall, Antibalas, Wooden Shjips, Earthless, Sunflower Bean, Charlie Parr, River Whyless, Twain, Shannon Lay, and Counterfeit Madison. Many more bands still to be announced! Four days of music featuring over 60 bands on multiple stages all weekend long with camping, kids activities, artisan vendors, food, beer garden, and much more. Weekend passes for all four days are on sale now for $130 (with no fees), and the price will go up as we get closer to the festival weekend. Weekend passes for Nelsonville residents and teens are only $70, and kids 12 and under are free. Camping passes and VIP weekend passes to the festival are also on sale now. Tickets will be going up in price soon. Tickets and more information can be found nelsonvillefest.org or by calling (740) 753-1924.
“When you’ve been a band for 17 years, inevitably there are habits you fall into,” says Colin Meloy of The Decemberists. “So our ambition this time was really just to get out of our comfort zone. That’s what prompted working with a different producer and using a different studio. We wanted to free ourselves from old patterns and give ourselves permission to try something different.” With their eighth full-length studio album, I’ll Be Your Girl, the Decemberists-lead vocalist and guitarist Meloy, guitarist Chris Funk, keyboardist Jenny Conlee, bassist Nate Query, and drummer John Moen-along with producer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Lana del Ray) explore new approaches to making music and broaden their sonic range. It’s the Portland, Oregon-based group’s first album since 2015’s What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World (which charted in the Top Ten and included the #1 AAA single “Make You Better”), though in the time since, they released the EP Florasongs; a 10th anniversary limited edition vinyl box set of their 2006 Capitol Records debut The Crane Wife; their own crowd-funded board game Illimat; The Queen of Hearts, a GRAMMY-nominated collaboration with Olivia Chaney under the name Offa Rex; and “Ben Franklin’s Song,” the first of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s monthly”Hamildrops” of bonus material from Hamilton; as well as launching Travelers’ Rest, a two-day musical festival of their own curation in Missoula, Montana.
Ani DiFranco is a songwriter, vocalist and guitarist perpetually on the move. From the raw “folk punk” of her early albums through the jazz/funk grooves she created during her years touring with a five-piece band to the twists and turns of her current work as a solo artist, DiFranco’s restless creativity continually leads her and her listeners into ever more exciting territory. With her newest release BINARY, the iconic singer/songwriter/activist/
Joining The Decemberists (Friday) and Ani DiFranco (Sunday) in this first round of Nelsonville Music Festival lineup announcements are Alvvays (Saturday), Kevin Morby (Saturday), Mission Temple Fireworks Revival featuring Paul Thorn & Band and Blind Boys of Alabama (Sunday), Middle Kids (Friday), Colter Wall (Saturday), Antibalas (Thursday), Wooden Shjips (Saturday), Earthless (Friday), Sunflower Bean (Thursday), Charlie Parr (Sat + Sun), River Whyless (Sunday), Twain, Shannon Lay, and Counterfeit Madison (dates TBA). Many more bands still to be announced!
Billboard has called Nelsonville Music Festival “one of the best kept secrets of the U.S. music festival circuit”, and in our 14th year NMF continues to gain fans who want a music festival with a more personal experience. Set in the beautiful rolling hills of Southeast Ohio, this intimate festival offers live music from a variety of genres on multiple stages from national, regional, and local acts. Catch live music on multiple stages: NMF features a main stage, a picturesque Porch Stage, the intimate No-Fi Cabin featuring artists performing with no electricity, and our FREE Boxcar Stage with music performed from an old train car turned into a stage backdrop and mural. The Nelsonville Music Festival strives to have a positive impact on our community and environment and we are a Zero Waste event, diverting over 92% of the waste created at the festival from the landfill in 2017 with recycling and composting. All kids 12 and under are free and the festival features a huge kids area with activities all weekend. The AV Club and Ohio Magazine have named NMF as the “Best Music Festival in Ohio”, and Time Out Chicago has called it “one of the Midwest’s best festivals”. Past performers have included Wilco, The Flaming Lips, Willie Nelson, Ween, Loretta Lynn, Gillian Welch, John Prine, The Avett Brothers, They Might Be Giants, Randy Newman, Merle Haggard, Iron & Wine, Yo La Tengo, George Jones, Emmylou Harris, Courtney Barnett, and many more. The Nelsonville Music Festival is a production of Stuart’s Opera House, a historic, non-profit theater located in Nelsonville that features over 75 events a year including live music, theater, films, educational programming and more. You can find out more about Stuart’s by visiting stuartsoperahouse.org.
Stuart’s Opera House presents the 14th annual Nelsonville Music Festival, May 31-June 3, 2018 at Robbins Crossing on the campus of Hocking College at 3301 Hocking Parkway in Nelsonville, Ohio. Tickets and information are available at nelsonvillefest.org or by calling (740) 753-1924. You can also find the Nelsonville Music Festival on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
