Blissfest, Buttermilk Jamboree, new Hoxeyville Skies festivals to romp with stars this summer

As winter begins to ebb, summer music festivals are enticing fans with star-studded lineup announcements — including longstanding celebrations in northern Michigan and West Michigan, and a brand new event at a familiar site.

Blissfest, the iconic festival taking place July 10-12 outside Cross Village, has announced that Galactic with Jelly Joseph, The Infamous Stringdusters, The Original Wailers featuring Al Anderson and Theo Katzman will headline this year’s celebration, with Michigan favorites Larry McCray, May Erlewine and Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers also on tap.

The annual festival, unfurling for the 44th time on a 200-acre farm, will boast more than 125 diverse acts performing on a bevy of stages, including Vienna Teng, Jourdan Thibodeaux et Les Rodailleurs, LowDown Brass Band, The Rebel Eves, The Claudettes, Djangophonique, Jordan Hamilton Trio, Dave Sharp Worlds Quartet and Seth Bernard.

“This lineup reflects how deeply interwoven all music is,” said Caroline Barlow, artistic director and co-director of the festival.

“What emerged here is inspired by what Joe Boyd writes about in his book, ‘And the Roots of Rhythm Remain.’ It’s about the melting pot of cultures, languages and rhythms. Every style is connected in some way with influences that can span the entire globe, and that root of it is rhythm, the roots of music that persist through blues, jazz, folk, and world traditions.”

World music of all kinds will be on display, along with bluegrass, country, blues, soul, rock, pop and more. “At a festival, you can see the mosaic of music come alive,” noted Barlow. 

For Michigan acts, it’s “a thrill to return to the gigantic weekend that is Bliss,” noted Alanson singer and keyboardist Charlie Millard, whose band will once again play the July festival.

“The Charlie Millard Band has performed at Blissfest every few years since 2015 in different iterations and with a variety of special guests. This summit of a festival brings collaboration and is one of the unique aspects of Bliss; there’s most certainly many reunions onstage and surprises to be had. We can’t wait.”

Adult weekend tickets, $225, are available at blissfest.org/pages/blissfest-music-festival, with teen passes priced at $100. Parking, camping, RV and Saturday-Sunday day passes are also available.

Meanwhile, the familiar Hoxeyville festival site in Manistee County — which hosted the Hoxeyville Music Festival for more than two decades until the final soiree in 2024 — will now feature the inaugural, two-day Hoxeyville Skies Music Festival on Aug. 7-8.

Headlining the first-year festival in Wellston will be the son of the Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh, Grahame Lesh, who fronts a California jam band in the Dead’s tradition that’s never performed in Michigan previously. 

Camp Skunk Productions LLC, formed by devoted Hoxeyville attendees with support from Cadillac’s Gopherwood Concerts, will host the first-year celebration that will also feature Ohio jam band Ekoostik Hookah, along with a bevy of Michigan favorites. 

“Hoxeyville is officially back in a new form,” said Sam Hogg, one of the festival’s organizers, noting that past Hoxeyville performers such as Airborne or Aquatic? and Luke Winslow-King is also on the bill for Hoxeyville Skies.

“The Grahame Lesh & Friends booking is a huge win for the Michigan music scene. He’s never performed in the state and after the Dead 60th in 2025 is the clear torch-bearer to the Grateful Dead universe after the passing of his dad and Bob Weir. We are so stoked to have him.”

In 2025, Camp Skunk Productions staged a Grateful Dead-driven weekend festival on the site dubbed Truckin’ into Hoxey that featured Dead tribute band Manitou Truckin’ Company and a few other Michigan acts.

Hogg said that the event and the “rich Grateful Dead history” at Hoxeyville with performers such as Mickey Hart Band, Darkstar Orchestra and others is “part of the reason” Lesh is playing Hoxeyville Skies. 

The Michigan contingent also includes The Smokin’ Dobroleles, recent Jammie Award winner Sweet Dee & The Wild Honeys, Muskegon’s Flexadecibel and Holland blues band Joe Johnson & The Bluebacks.

Cadillac native and blues/roots hero Winslow-King, who also won a Jammie Award last month, will serve as the festival’s artist-at-large.

Earlybird adult weekend tickets are $105.80, available at hoxeyvilleskies.com.

Another long-running Michigan festival has announced its 2026 lineup, too.

Buttermilk Jamboree at Circle Pines Center south of Grand Rapids, which has reveled in family-forward celebrations of regional music since 2011, will spotlight more than 40 Michigan acts June 19-21, led by All-American Funk Parade, Knee Deep Shag, Luke Winslow-King, The Go Rounds, Great Lakes Brass Band and Y-Not.

The festival in Delton has been a favorite of many attendees and several returning acts, including The Schrock Bros, The Mainstays, Molly, Megan Dooley, Jive at five and others who will perform once again at the June festival. 

Earlybird adult tickets, $130, are available at circlepinescenter.org/music-festival. Tickets are $40 for children. Prices go up on April 15.

— Find more Michigan music news and concert listings at LocalSpins.com. Email John Sinkevics at john@localspins.com.