The Smoked Country Jam Bluegrass Festival will open its gates June 16.

According to a news release, organizers are ready to welcome music lovers, young and old to the 17th annual event, billed as the Pennsylvania Wild’s premier bluegrass festival at the Quiet Oaks Campground near Route 144 and the village of Cross Fork.

From June 17 to 19, Smoked Country Jam will present 22 national and regional performers playing over 40 hours of music during the 3-day music festival. Two highly award winning performers will headline this year’s festival. Traveling from western North Carolina is Fireside Collective, one of the most sought after bands touring today. The HillBenders, a progressive bluegrass group from Missouri, will bring their rock and roll style of bluegrass to the festival. The HillBenders will close the stage on Friday night,while Fireside Collective closes out the festival on Saturday night.

Every year, Pennsylvania musicians are well represented at this year’s event, and this year is no exception. The Lockport Drifters, Strawberry Ridge and Grass Stained Genes, each have members with ties to local communities. Van Wagner, Colebrook Road, The Jakobs Ferry Stragglers, Mama Corn, Echo Valley, Well Strung, The Millbillys, Dead Horse Revival, and Texas Rose Band all have their bluegrass roots planted in the Keystone State.

Bordering states will be well represented at Smoked Country as well. West Virginia bands include The Hillbilly Gypsies, a band that has excited crowds all 17 years of the festival, with their high-energy old-time music played around a single mic. Another West Virginia group, Silas Powell and the Powell Family Band, is lead by mandolin phenomenon, 17-year-old Silas Powell. New York bands include, Bug Tussle and Jim Gaudet & The Railroad Boys. Maryland is represented by Baltimore based Dirty Grass Players.

Three performers are traveling from the country & bluegrass hotbed state of Tennessee. Doug Forshey, a Pennsylvania native who has been a songwriter in Nashville for over 20 years will be teaming up with four other Pennsylvania artists to play the festival. Two other Tennessee bluegrass artists who will perform are Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike, and Williamson Branch. Both have been honored by the International Bluegrass Music Association.

While bluegrass is the main musical focus, the festival celebrates the diversity of the music, the news release said, bringing performers from every branch of the bluegrass tree to the stage. Festival attendees will hear a mix of bluegrass, old time, folk, Americana, roots, and honky-tonk music played.

As special event at this year’s festival will take place on Friday evening, when four groups get together to perform the soundtrack from the movie “O’ Brother, Where Art Thou.” Performing the soundtrack in its entirety and in the same order as the record, will be the Jakobs Ferry Stragglers, Echo Valley, Well Strung, and The Millbillys. This show played to rave reviews in the Pittsburgh area in 2019, and it is expected to draw the same response at Smoked Country Jam.

The festival was begun in 2004, as a benefit for the Lupus Foundation. Each year the major fundraising event for the Lupus Foundation is a three-day auction, featuring hundreds of items donated by area merchants, individuals and performers. Since 2004, the auction has raised almost $28,000 for the foundation, with a goal this year of going over $30,000.

Workshops are a popular part of the festival, the news release said, with four hours planned both Friday and Saturday. Individual instrument workshops, bluegrass jam etiquette, and a bluegrass “slow jam,” are just a few of the workshops scheduled. Van Wagner will lead the “North of 80 Gathering,” on Saturday morning. Wagner is a prolific songwriter from Danville who has produced 30 albums about Pennsylvania’s history, traditions, folklore and natural beauty. He is inviting everyone to bring their instruments to play and sing along with him from his catalog which he has made available from his website.

On Saturday, the 13th annual Pennsylvania Heritage Songwriting Contest award ceremony will take place. Prizes will be given to the composers of the top three songs entered, and each songwriter will perform their winning compositions on the Quiet Oaks Stage. Proceeds from the event go to the Craig “Bubba” Bowman Scholarship Fund at Central Mountain High School. Bowman was a local bluegrass musician who died in an auto accident in 2005.

Golf carts and ATVs are permitted to travel around the 100-acre campground. Smoked Country Jam is pet friendly, with leashed pets allowed in the stage area to spend the day and enjoy the music with their owners. Pet clean-up stations will be placed around the festival grounds to help keep the grounds clean. Additionally, hot showers are available for all campers to keep clean themselves.

The festival grounds are handicapped accessible with camping and parking reserved close to the stage area for those with special needs.

Tickets are now available online at PurplePass, www.purplepass.com/#212654, and will be available at the gate each day. For more information, go to www.smokedcountryjam.com, or call 570-660-0562.