Bluegrass to rock the Temecula valley March 20-21

Bluegrass lovers will be able to jam out to their favorite tunes at the Temecula Bluegrass Festival, held in Old Town on March 20 and 21.

“Fans are also musicians, some of them quite good and notable in the music world,” stated Melody Brunsting, organizer of the event. “It’s the greatest part about a bluegrass festival.”

Headlining the festival is Gazette, a band with a long and rich history in the bluegrass community. Gazette’s Alan Munde is especially talented, as he is one of the world’s foremost five-string banjo players.

Munde and the rest of Gazette – comprised of Elliott Rogers (guitar/vocal), Bill Honker (bass/vocal), Steve Smith-Mandolin (vocal) and Nate Lee (fiddle/vocal) – will play the Saturday and Sunday events, playing once each day on the Town Square outdoor stage at Mercedes and Main Street. The band is also part of a three-act concert Saturday evening, 7 p.m., indoors at the Old Town Temecula Community Theater.

Other bands also scheduled to perform during the three-day event include Bluegrass Etc., Lonesome Otis, Even So, Sligo Rags, Hunt Family Bluegrass, Gone Tomorrow, the Silverado Bluegrass Band, Older than Dirt, Old Haywire and Highway 76 Bluegrass Band.

Sligo Rags – with its show stopping tunes like “The Devil Went Down to Dublin” – is a crowd favorite.

The Irish band injects their roots into the genre to create a unique brand of bluegrass, original tunes and unusual interpretations of popular rock, folk and bluegrass favorites.

Band leader David Burns plays guitar and banjo for a number of local Irish and bluegrass bands, and is currently the banjo player in Heart Of ‘Grass, guitar player in acoustic jazz band Timbreline, and also worked with The Mulligans, Ken O’Malley, Rob Williams of The Fenians, The Band of Rogues and many other local heavyweights in the Irish realm.

Known as one of the top percussionists in California, Reilly has spent eight years on the road with the original Dublin-based touring company of Riverdance.

Bands perform on two stages from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Sunday features Bluegrass Brethren in a free gospel concert at the Old Town Temecula Community Theater, plus a 3 p.m. matinee featuring Gazette and Sligo Rags. The concert is $5, while concerts outdoors remain free.

Public parking is free. RV parking is available in town for $30 for the weekend. For RV reservations, call

(951) 678-0831.

For more information, call (951) 693-3952 or visit

http://www.temeculacalifornia.com.

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