High Sierra Music Festival, madre of all west coast festivals, is back for its 30th iteration in 2020. Outliving early North American festivals of the 90s and persevering through the commercialized festival onslaught of the 2000s without selling out to anyone, HSMF returns to Quincy, CA, on July 2-5, 2020, offering the world-class, beloved environment and entertainment that have kept fans and musicians thrilled to return year after year, for three decades.
Today, High Sierra announced an initial lineup including grateful torch-bearers and improv masters Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, Afrobeat royalty Femi Kuti & The Positive Force, Grammy-nominated funk powerhouse Lettuce, bay-area R&B mainstays The California Honeydrops, electro-funk duo The Floozies, perennial festival-favorites Twiddle, the diverse jams of Spafford, the brotherly collaboration of BoomBox with BackBeat Brass, and New Orleans heavy-hitters Dumpstaphunk. Samantha Fish, True Loves, Cris Jacobs, Steve Poltz, Andy Frasco & The U.N., Ron Artis II & The Truth, Goose, Ghost-Note, Aqueous, Cedric Burnside, Lindsay Lou, Neal Francis, AJ Lee & Blue Summit, The Higgs, and Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band round out High Sierra’s first round of artist announcements, with several headliners and many more surprises expected.
With a talented and diverse lineup, collaboration continues to be a primary focus for High Sierra. Each year, the festival finds new ways to encourage once-in-a-lifetime jams and sit-ins, often booking artists to play multiple sets over multiple days. The social time between sets lets artists cut loose, hang out, and noodle around—something most bands agree doesn’t happen as often as you’d think. From the main stage to smaller late-night venues, HSMF always makes it a point to put new groups of musicians together each year, usually in the air-conditioned High Sierra Music Hall as “Playshops”, to play each other’s tunes, improvise, and generally have a good time on-stage.
High Sierra has and always will be a purposefully intimate, uncrowded event, and fans know they should get tickets early for the best prices. Tickets including FestivALL VIP Packages, RV parking, and vehicle passes are on sale now and can be purchased here.
