All the trash has been picked up, all the equipment and trailers and stages have been returned to the warehouses, and all the surveys have been read. I want to thank you if you attended our 52^nd Walnut Valley Festival, whether it was your first or 50^th time. I have heard it said that feedback is like sandpaper (momentarily rough, but ultimately producing a more polished product) and I look at our post-Festival surveys in that way.

So many things went well in 2024, and there was an extraordinary level of positivity and appreciation for our Festival in your comments. There were also many great suggestions to improve the experience, and WVA staff will implement those we think are worthwhile. We can assure you that the new pocket-sized program, a result of your feedback from 2023, will return; I want to thank Karen Deal for all her hard work on the program layout.

I was pleased to see that our performer lineup was very well received, and I thank both our performers and our hardworking hiring committee for their excellent work. I can also say that the emerging list of next year’s performers is amazingly talented, diverse and multigenerational, and the number of bands new to Winfield will rise from its usual 30% to over 40%! That is LOT of new faces, and we hope you will welcome them in your usual enthusiastic way.

Our new tiered ticket pricing for children and teens made it much more affordable for families to attend the Walnut Valley Festival. We will continue that in 2025.  

Shirt and mug designs were very popular. I want to thank River Rat Custom Print & Skate (Lawrence, KS) and Gallery Mos Taza (Harper, KS) for their efforts. We look forward to welcoming them both back in 2025. We had several new crafts booths and luthiers represented in the Paulette Rush Arts & Crafts Fair.

We loved how many new workers joined our crew. Whether this was your first year or you have been working at Festival for decades, I thank you for your efforts and dedication. We hope that we will see you back next September.

As always, we had some of the best pickers in the world win at our eight instrument championships. Acoustic Music Shoppe, a streamed variety show held in between contests at Stage IV, streamed ALL of the contest finals, and you can find links to those in our digital edition of the Occasional. We want to thank the Chapman Brothers and their crew for building a great program for our Festival-goers and for bringing the Walnut Valley Festival contests to viewers around the world. We also streamed Wednesday’s Champions Concert and the NewSong Showcases. Thanks to Stage 11’s David Hakan for managing that.

We have been putting together an amazing lineup of performers for our 53^rd Festival, some of whom are featured in this newsletter. Aside from the official stages with hours of talented picking, we will have eight instrument championships, a juried arts and crafts fair, and some great food vendors. All designed to ensure you have a wonderful time at the Walnut Valley Festival in 2025!

Bart Redford
Executive Director