Front Royal, Virginia is the place to be this weekend if you dig bluegrass or Americana music.
The ninth annual Appaloosa Music Festival returns to Skyline Ranch this Saturday and Sunday.
WTOP caught up with Dan Fedoryka, who cofounded the festival with his brother Alexander.
“My band Scythian started as a D.C. band, we used to play every Thursday at Fado Irish Pub in Chinatown,” Fedoryka told WTOP. “After we did the 9:30 Club and the Carnegie Library, we knew we had a really strong D.C. following, but always having to leave D.C. to find good roots music festivals. … So, nine years ago, I told my brother, ‘If we build a festival close to D.C. people will come.’ Sure enough, last year had 8,000 people.”
The Fedoryka brothers have a knack for consistently finding the genre’s next breaking artists.
“We can spot them before they get big,” Fedoryka said. “Some of our alumni have been Billy Strings, we had Billy Strings for a couple of days and he was teaching workshops. You could have been like three feet away from Billy Strings at our festival. Molly Tuttle played our stage then went on to win a Grammy, also Sierra Hull, all these names in Americana and bluegrass. Our hashtag is #WhereYouFindTheNextBigThing.”
This year, Scythian performs both days, including Saturday with Ashes & Arrows and Tophouse.
“Ashes & Arrows, we played with them at MerleFest in April, now they’re on ‘America’s Got Talent’ and just went on to the semifinals, so since we’ve booked them, they’ve gone viral, their videos have millions of views,” Fedoryka said. “[Tophouse] is a Mumford vibe, but it doesn’t seem derivative. … They sold out 40 shows in a row and Molly Tuttle just asked them to open for her at the Ryman, so their star is seriously on the rise.”
Scythian returns on Sunday with a stellar lineup of Kat Higgins, Shadowgrass and Carbon Leaf.
“[Higgins] is the writer of Kenny Chesney’s No. 1 ‘Knowing You,’ then she went on to write Cody Johnson’s ‘The Painter,’ also No. 1,” Fedoryka said. “Shadowgrass is good friends with Billy Strings, kind of like Railroad Earth, Greensky Bluegrass. … Carbon Leaf, we’re good buddies with those guys, we’ve been touring on the same circuit for about 15 years. Last year was the first year they ever made the festival and it was so electric.”
The festival is fun for the entire family. Kids 12 and under get in free with tons of activities, including face painting, a bouncy house and youth music workshops. On the other end of the grounds, adults can enjoy a craft beer garden with six private-label drinks, including brews from the local brewery Vibrissa.
“Appaloosa has the perfect balance of craft beer, reclaimed lumber, we have a beer garden but then there’s 1,000 kids running around every day,” Fedoryka said. “Just 60 miles west of [D.C.] is basically nature’s paradise. The Shenandoah River splits into two there, so it’s the canoe capital of Virginia. Our festival is only five miles from the entrance of Skyline Drive. The [night] stars are stunning, they’ll take your breath away.”
Listen to our full conversation here.
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