Eau Claire's Blue Ox Fest lines up Avett Brothers, Phish's Mike Gordon for 2023

The June 22-24 roots music campout will also feature Charley Crockett, Sam Bush Band, Yasmin Williams and Infamous Stringdusters.

December 7, 2022 at 4:17PM
Scott Avett, left, and Seth Avett and their namesake band will headline the Blue Ox fest next June. (Amy Harris, Invision/AP/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Western Wisconsin's cool, little twang-fest-that-cold, the Blue Ox Music Festival, has landed its biggest headliner yet for 2023.

The Avett Brothers top off the lineup for the June 22-24 roots music shindig in Eau Claire, Wis., details of which were announced Wednesday. Other performers on the 2023 schedule include: Phish's Mike Gordon; rising Texas country traditionalist Charley Crockett (whose sold-out First Ave gig last week was a hoot); innovative finger-picker Yasmin Williams; bluegrassy mainstays the Sam Bush Band and Infamous Stringdusters, and regional favorites Charlie Parr, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades, the Lowest Pair, Them Coulee Boys and the festival's resident hosts, Pert Near Sandstone.

Held at the campsite-adorned Pines Music Park along the Chippewa River, the family-friendly and famously familial Blue Ox Fest returned to its usual June slot this past summer with headliners Bela Fleck and Old Crow Medicine Show after bumping to August in 2021 and being canceled in 2020 amid COVID dangers. Next year will be its ninth year in business.

Two- and three-day general-admission passes with campsites are on sale now for $210-$229 via blueoxmusicfestival.com, as are VIP options priced $1,000 to $2,500 per person.

about the writer

about the writer

Chris Riemenschneider

Critic / Reporter

Chris Riemenschneider has been covering the Twin Cities music scene since 2001, long enough for Prince to shout him out during "Play That Funky Music (White Boy)." The St. Paul native authored the book "First Avenue: Minnesota's Mainroom" and previously worked as a music critic at the Austin American-Statesman in Texas.

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