Why won’t Bloomin’ Bluegrass return in 2025?
A special message to our friends and supporters
from Alan Tompkins, President of the Bluegrass Heritage Foundation
January 15, 2025
—————————————————
SUMMARY: The cost to the City of Farmers Branch of producing the annual Bloomin’ Bluegrass Festival in the Historical Park had risen to the point that it could not be sustained beyond 2024. The City and the Foundation wanted to continue bringing world-class artists and music fans to Farmers Branch, so the Foundation created the new (smaller) Farmers Branch Bluegrass Festival, and the City became the naming rights partner and a major financial sponsor.
—————————————————
There’s no doubt that we will all miss the big, fantastic bluegrass experience in the near-perfect weather at the beautiful Farmers Branch Historical Park each October. Many have asked why Bloomin’ Bluegrass 2024 (the 15th in a row) was the last one, so we wanted to offer some insights on its history.
Bloomin’ Bluegrass was a very special event presented and paid for by the City of Farmers Branch, Texas. It was designed to highlight the City’s magnificent Historical Park, increase tourism, and bring new business to the City’s hotels, restaurants, and merchants. Over its 15-year lifespan, the festival was wonderfully successful. It received national recognition from the International Bluegrass Music Association with four nominations for the IBMA Bluegrass Event of the Year Award and its receipt, in 2024, of the IBMA Distinguished Achievement Award.
The idea for the festival was proposed by the Bluegrass Heritage Foundation in 2010, and in every year of its existence, Alan Tompkins and the Foundation staff managed the festival’s main-stage musical presentation. This included booking artists, managing artist contracts and show and hotel arrangements, coordinating backstage operations (including stage setup and takedown, sound and lighting services, bus parking, etc.), stage and backstage volunteer management, and much more – all at no charge as a labor of love.
The Foundation (a 501c3 non-profit) held raffles and offered t-shirts in the stage-side tent in exchange for donations to support the its operations (including its Play it Forward!® Free Instrument Lending Program, now in its 17th year!). A great number of friends and supporters generously contributed, and those contributions enabled the Foundation to continue bringing more bluegrass music to Texas.
The festival required year-round planning and a great deal of time and effort by City staff – as well as a great deal of money. But the City made sure it was affordable – in fact, for its first eight years, the festival was FREE for everyone! The City continued to provide free admission to host hotel guests through 2024 as a way of thanking them for traveling to stay in Farmers Branch. And ALL artists who played the festival were paid their agreed-upon performance fee. (Some assumed that because attendees got in free, the artists played for free – that was not the case.) Festival ticket sales, food and beverage, and vendor fees covered only a portion of the total festival cost.
In November 2023, the City informed the Foundation that due to several factors – including the rapidly rising costs of putting on the festival, the limited number of City staffers available to support it, and a shift in the type of events requested by Farmers Branch residents, they could not continue presenting the festival in the Historical Park after October 2024.
The City and the Foundation agreed that we did not want the music (and the smiles) to end. The City expressed its gratitude for the incredible support of music fans from across the country who frequently traveled to Farmers Branch to stay in its hotels, eat at its restaurants, and support its merchants. The City agreed to become the primary financial sponsor for the new Farmers Branch Bluegrass Festival, which will be held inside the Doubletree Dallas Hotel near the Galleria. Bringing the festival inside will also greatly reduce the risk that the event might be cancelled due to bad weather, wet grounds, or other factors.
The City’s financial support is crucial to the success of the new festival, as it will enable us to bring in GRAMMY®-winning Grand Ole Opry® stars and world-class supporting artists. The hotel showroom is much smaller than the Historical Park meadow (we only have 450 seats), and the City’s sponsorship covers only a portion of our event cost, so we will have to sell all the tickets and fill up our hotel room block to make the event a success. Thanks to you, we are already well on our way!
We are thankful for the support of our Bloomin’ Bluegrass friends and family over the past 15 years, and hope that you will join us in our latest adventure in Farmers Branch! Send us an email if you have questions. Thank you for listening, playing, jamming, and helping us to preserve and promote bluegrass music in Texas.
