Festivals
Music festivals abound in the area surrounding Meadowood Music. We promote those events to the public and, whenever possible, actively support and sponsor festivals. Festivals in which Meadowood directly participates or sponsors, listed in the order in which they occur through the year, include the Early Bird Fiddle Festival at the Berks Heritage Center, the Maidencreek Old Time Music Festival at Maiers' Grove and the Berks Fiddle Fest (formerly Lyons Fiddle Festival), now at Bear Creek Resort.
AMERICANA FEST is at the Gring's Mill Recreation Area With the Berks County Parks & Recreation Department, Dave Kline organizes and produces a FREE, open-to-the-public event with a jam session prior to a three-act concert. Here's the 2025 lineup:
3:30 | Acoustic Bluegrass to Blues Workshop & Jam in the pavilion
5:00 | Dave Kline & The Mountain Folk Band
6:15 | The Youngers
7:30 | The Mikey Jr. Blues Band
HERE is a little video clip from WFMZ TV69 about the 2024 fest.
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Bring lawn chairs, blankets, and instruments. Free parking. Activities for the kids!​​
Food trucks (Wichway Sandwiches, Greco’s of Lititz).
The MAIDENCREEK OLD TIME MUSIC FESTIVAL. The festival is a one-day annual event that occurs at Maiers' Grove in Blandon from 10 am to 9 pm on the second Sunday of July.
This festival is modeled after a much larger summer-long festival, Augusta Heritage Center at Davis and Elkins College. Like that event, the Maidencreek Festival features workshops in which participants learn new musical skills. The festival offers over twenty workshops through the day, including introductory "from scratch" sessions, intermediate sessions & master clinics. Master clinicians have national & international renown in Old Time Music.
Teachers give mini-concerts through the day & master clinicians give a longer concert in the evening to close the event. Participants age 12 & under attend for free. Participants age 13 & up pay admission fees that depend on what parts of the festival they want to attend. The Blandon Lions Club, which owns the festival grounds, makes & sells food all day long (including hand made ice cream). Public restrooms are available.
The festival has many sponsors. In addition to Meadowood Music, sponsors include Little Cat Records, the Pocono Dulcimer Club, & the Blandon Lions Club. The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts & the Reading Musical Foundation support the festival through grants .
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BERKS COUNTY SCOTTISH FIRE REGIONAL FIDDLE COMPETITION
2nd ANNUAL BERKS COUNTY SCOTTISH FIRE - SEPT 21
This contest, sanctioned by The Scottish Fiddling Revival (FIRE) is a national qualifier in which contestants earn the right to compete in the U.S. National Scottish Fiddling Competition.
HOW CAN YOU BE A PART OF IT?
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If you're a Scottish fiddler, click HERE to register to compete.
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If you're not a fiddler, donate time or money.
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Click HERE TO DONATE toward Judge's fee/travel expenses, advertising/promotion, prizes (put "SCOTTISH FIRE" on the donation form to ensure your donation goes to the competition. Otherwise, it will go to Fleetwood Park's general fund.)
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Click HERE TO VOLUNTEER TIME (help promote this event or set-up and break-down on festival day.
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How to register: No registration deadline - 20 spaces first-come, first-served - egister early.
$10 refundable registration fee (get refund at the festival. Click HERE to get a registration form.
The Judge for this Competition: David Gardner, nationally recognized Scottish fiddler, teacher, & judge, specializes in great 18th century Scottish composers (the Gows, Mackintoshes & Marshall). He performs with bows & instruments set up as they would have been in Neil Gow’s day.
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BERKS FIDDLE FESTIVAL (formerly Lyons Fiddle Fest) was held on the third Sunday of September in the Lyons Community Park in Lyons for over 30 years, but was interrupted by a flood, followed by the COVID-19 pandemic. After a 2-year hiatus, the festival restarted, it at Bear Creek Resort & changed its name to Berks Fiddle Fest, three years later, in 2024, it moved to its current location in Fleetwood Community Park.
The festival includes stage performances by local, regional and national bands in the first half of the day. Meadowood students showcase their talents at 10:30 am. The second half of the day is a fiddle contest with participants who travel from as far New York, New Jersey and Ohio. Open jamming areas, away from the stage, goes on all day. Jammers are welcome to bring pop-up tents for shade
A variety of crafters and food vendors sell their wares. Public rest rooms are available. Food and beverages are for sale all day. Admission is free. Donations are welcome. The festival has numerous sponsors. Meadowood sponsors the grand champion's cash prize.
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Many other wonderful music festivals happen near Meadowood. While Meadowood does not directly sponsor these events, we gladly promote these events and are so glad that they enrich our community. One of these events is the Valley Blues, Brews & BBQ Festival. The event began in Blandon and the Community Park, and then moved to the Fleetwood Community Park where it got the name, Fleetwood Blues Festival. There it operated for nine years as a free, community event where regional bands performed. In 2015, the festival moved to Kuztown Park under a new organizer - 2nd Story Blues Alliance.
Mayfair is an annual outdoor arts festival begun in 1987 at Cedar Beach Park in Allentown. For several years, the festival moved to Agri-Plex at the Allentown Fairgrounds. The 2017 festival was cancelled, but will revive in 2018 Memorial Day weekend, May 25-27, on the Cedar Crest College campus. Folk, Celtic, Classical, Jazz, Blues, Latin, Bluegrass, Middle Eastern and virtually every other genre of music crosses the stages. Special areas for kids, artisans, food and beverages round out the festival.
Another, larger festival that makes this area a wonderful place to be is Celtic Classic in Bethlehem. This event is a music festival plus much more. It is a two-day Irish and Scottish cultural festival that takes place annually in September. The festival includes music performances, a fiddle contest, a bagpipe competition, a drum competition, a dance competition, Highland Games, food, beer, recreational dancing... the event takes over a significant portion of the city of Bethlehem.
Bethlehem is also home Musikfest, a ten-day annual festival that takes over virtually the whole city of Bethlehem every August. The festival has fifteen formal stages with all day performances, small street performing stations, children's areas, artisans and vendors and all of the city's own restaurants and shops. Performers include local, regional, national and international artists from nearly every genre of music.
Berks Jazz Fest takes over many venues throughout the Reading area for ten days in April of every year. The festival, presented by Berks Arts Council, helps fulfill the Council's mission to cultivate, promote, and support the arts in our community through collaboration, education, and presentation. Student musicians, local professionals, regional and National artists as well as internationally renowned performers grace the many stages of the festival.
This list is only a partial representation of the many wonderful musical events in the area. If you know of or are part of a music festival within 25 miles of Meadowood, please let us know about it throught the contact page of this website.