Northern Lights Bluegrass and Old Tyme Music Festival

Name: Northern Lights Bluegrass and Old Tyme Music Festival
Address: Big River, SK, S0J0E0, CA
Telephone: +13063734190

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Northern Lights Bluegrass and Old Tyme Music Festival

A home for bluegrass, old-time, and so much more in the heart of the Canadian prairies. http://www.northernlightsbluegrass.ca

09/10/2026

Jam time, jam time, who doesn't love jam time?!

Join Northern Lights Bluegrass & Old Time Music Society at the 2026 edition and 12th anniversary of , the annual festival spectacular raising funds for the Community Arts Mentorship Program, also known as CAMP!

Bring along your instruments for pickin' and your voices for some singin' and drop on in to not one but TWO open bluegrass jams during the festival weekend, September 11-13, at Eagle Creek Regional Park! Head to www.communityartsmentorship.com/doylefest for all the in-depth festival weekend details, we can't wait to see you there! ✨🎪🎉

NLBOT JAM TIMES & LOCATIONS:
🪕 Saturday, from 10-11am, at the Main Stage Dance Floor!
🎻 Sunday, from 11am-12pm, by the Bridge Stage!

09/08/2026

The Canadian Country Music Awards are returning to Saskatoon this month, and there's a whole host of amazing performances taking place throughout the city in addition to the big awards themselves!

Check out Blackrose Whiskey Club (19+ venue) on September 16th for a FREE ADMISSION show starting at 7PM, featuring Regina's Hotdog! Bluegrass, as well as Tyla Rodrigues 🌭🤠

Well hot diggity dawg, that's some Hotdog! Bluegrass coming your way very soon, and it's certainly not a show to be missed! See ya there? 🤩

09/07/2026

Vocal Harmony Workshop with Gil & Wil 🐎🪻

🗓 Sunday, September 20th, from 12:30-1:30pm
📍at The Bassment (202 4th Ave N, Saskatoon, SK)

Join us for a free vocal harmony workshop, led by this year's sold-out Vocal Harmony class instructors: Holly Gilroy & Aiden McRorie Wilson (Gil & Wil).

Learn how to find harmony notes and practice holding onto them with others singing around you in this workshop. No experience necessary!

Stick around after the workshop for the free open jam at The Bassment (1:30pm-3:30pm) and try out what you've learned! 😊

09/02/2026

The walls of the Jack Millikin Centre were more vibrant this festival, with the beautiful Quilt Art Hangings of Mary Olsen. The design mimics stained glass and the artistry of each piece was the talk of the camp & festival. Designed with versatility in mind, individual sections can be disassembled and rearranged into different patterns, allowing each piece to be enjoyed in new ways. Both sides are equally vibrant and worthy of display, reflecting Mary’s attention to detail and her delight in colour and design. She had a deep love of music and would be especially pleased to know the proceeds from this auction will support Northern Lights, helping creativity and community. Huge thanks to her daughter Mo for donating the quilt art, and to Carol, John & Emery Mielke their help in making the auction a success!

Time to claim your winnings, folks! To scoop up your quilt art, send an email with a picture of your winning ticket by September 10th to: [email protected] and we'll arrange delivery 🚚

Camp Raffle:
Winner 1 - 16100681
Winner 2 - 16100684
Winner 3 - 16100726

Festival Raffle:
#1 Winner - 866043
#3 Winner - 16100827
#4 Winner - 16100814

08/29/2026

Bluegrass Brunch is back!!

Next Sat, Sept 5, from 12-2PM at Somewhere Else Pub & Grill (SomewhereElsePub). 🎻☕️

September’s lineup includes Mona Goodwin, Paddy Tutty, Don Cook, Mark Gimby, and Rob McInnis. 🎻✨🪕

Somewhere Else Pub & Grill is all ages during the day, so bring the whole family out for some brunch and bluegrass. ☕️🥞🥓🫐

08/26/2026

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all of our partners, sponsors, and funders who have been instrumental in bringing our events to life! Your unwavering support and generosity have helped us to strengthen our community and spread the joy of the arts. Our Camp and Festival this year wouldn't have been near as much of a success as they were without you on board with us! 💙✨

08/17/2026

And just like that, our 20th anniversary music camp week and festival weekend are all wrapped up ✨

Folks, there are so many wonderful people who need to be deeply thanked for their work both year-round and especially during this week; Northern Lights is an entirely volunteer-run organization and hosting a full scale music camp followed by a weekend festival is no easy feat. But time and time again, the absolutely top-tier people who show up to give what they've got to support us are the lifeblood of keeping this thing going. Thank you to our camp & festival staff and coordinators, and Ness Creek personnel and site staff; our board members and current Chair, Nathan Ottenson; Artistic Director, Ryan Shotton; Music Camp Co-Directors, Tracy Lalonde & Aiden McRorie Wilson, and Camp Host, Linden Cooper; all of the volunteers working shifts this week in a plethora of areas; the folks who work behind the scenes to support our promotions and outreach, financials, audio visual, and more; to the musicians who taught as camp instructors all week long; the bands and artists who took to the stage this weekend during our festival; to our list of community partners & sponsors; and to all of you who showed up and continue to give us a reason to bust our butts and pull this dang thing off each year.

Thank you, thank you, and thank you. Here's to at least another 20 years, and to everything wonderful to come 💙

08/13/2026

We’re in the thick of it up here at Ness Creek with our annual Music Camp in full swing! With more campers than ever before, all 18 classes of students are working hard to absorb what their instructors are sharing this week; a mega-concentrated dose of Bluegrass and Old Time never hurt no one, and we’ve been around proving that sentiment to be true for 20 whole years!

Last night we celebrated the mid-week milestone with a dance, Bonnie’s Ball, where we encouraged everyone to get fully decked out in their western wear and vintage finery. A time was most certainly had!

Feel like you’re missing out on the fun? Getting hit with a bit of FOMO?? Festival passes are available on our website, and we’d sure love to have you come join us this weekend 😉

📷 - littlejackfilms

08/08/2026

This weekend, stop by Saskatoon's Western Development Museum (WDM Saskatoon) for some classic Northern Lights on-location programming during Boomtown Heydays! This weekend fest is free admission for all, and we're shining a spotlight on some of the programming we're on board for:

🗓 Sat Aug 8th, from 10 am - 12 pm
🚂 Train Song Jam & Instrument Petting Zoo
Bring your instrument and favourite train songs to join us for a jam by the Boomtown train platform! That's not all, are you curious about bluegrass and old time instruments and wanna give them a try? C'mon down and give a banjo, mandolin, or fiddle a whirl, and you'll be grinning in no time!

& Saturday afternoon will feature Toronto band, Duke Street Turnaround playing two sets at the Boomtown Stage! This five-piece bluegrass and Canadiana band showcases tight vocal harmonies and killer acoustic playing.

🗓 Sun Aug 9th, from 10 am - 12 pm
💃 Old Time Dance
Bring yer dancing shoes and swing on by to learn some prairie hall dances on the spot! Polkas, Schottisches, Two-Steps, and the Butterfly, alongside a few dances with a caller telling y'all what to do!

Sunday afternoon brings h***y tonkin' local heroes, the Lost Highway Navigators to the Boomtown Stage! With two sets from these gents directly following our old time dance, you'll be up on your feet dancing all day!

Address

Big River, SK
S0J0E0

Telephone

+13063734190

Website

http://www.northernlightsbluegrass.com/

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