The Fretboard Festival returns to the Kalamazoo Valley Museum this weekend, marking its 20th year. It celebrates the legacy of Orville Gibson and the vibrant community of guitar manufacturers, luthiers, and musicians in West Michigan. Kalamazoo Valley Museum programming coordinator Anna Koenig and videographer Monica Harmsen of Lawrence Productions join Cara Lieurance to preview the free, family-friendly event filled with live music across multiple stages, interactive workshops, and a newly released documentary about the festival's history.
The festival kicks off on Friday, Mar 21 at 6:00 PM with an opening night concert featuring Brian Oberlin, a renowned Michigan mandolin player. "He... will be taking listeners on a kind of one-of-a-kind journey through the history of the mandolin and really highlighting original music for the mandolin," Koenig explains.
Saturday's festivities begin at 9:30 AM, with performances starting at 10:00 AM. "Pretty much every half hour, you'll have an opportunity to do something," Koenig says.
A highlight of this year's festival is the premiere of a documentary chronicling the Fretboard Festival's 20-year history, produced by Lawrence Productions. Harmsen describes the documentary as a labor of love. "I became very passionate about it. The more I talked to people and learned about the festival, the more I felt compelled to tell the stories of these folks," she said. The documentary will be screened multiple times throughout Saturday on the museum's second floor in the Think Tank.
The festival's lineup includes a variety of musical genres, from bluegrass and blues to rock and classical mandolin. Performers include the Bird Seed Salesman, Zero Sun, Laurie Jarski's Blues Aside Project, Luke Lenhart and the Green Valley Boys, Lillian Warbin and Darcy Wilkins, the Kalamazoo Mandolin and Guitar Orchestra, Whiskey Before Breakfast, and Joel Mabus.
The festival concludes with a community jam session hosted by Brian Oberlin at 5:00 PM in Anna Whitten Hall. "All community members are welcome to join in bringing their instruments and joining into that. And if you don't play, you just want to come listen, you're welcome to," Koenig says.
The Fretboard Festival is made possible by the Kalamazoo Valley Community College Foundation and is free to the public. "It's really important for us to be free. We want it to be accessible to everyone," Koenig emphasizes.
For more information and a complete schedule of events, visit the Kalamazoo Valley Museum website.
