PEI Bluegrass Festival 

The band lineup for the 39th annual PEI Bluegrass & Old Time Music Festival has been announced. Headline performers are The Grass Messengers from the US and Canadian bluegrass legend Ray Legere with his band, Acoustic Horizon. The popular Spinney Brothers from Nova Scotia return for another festival appearance, and High River from New Brunswick is making its PEI festival debut. PEI bands include the Janet McGarry Band, The Stiff Family, Bluestreak, Whitecap Drive, The Bad Hoss, SK Bluegrass, Heartfelt Bluegrass, and Bluegrass Revival. The festival will be held at the Dundas Fairgrounds, Dundas, PEI, on July 3, 4, and 5.

Fiddle and mandolin player Ray Legere, the most accomplished and awarded bluegrass musician to come out of the Maritimes, has performed with Tony Rice, Alison Krauss, David Grisman, Rhonda Vincent, Alison Brown, and Doc Watson. Legere runs his own recording studio and label in his home in Sackville, New Brunswick. Acoustic Horizon features the “cream of the crop” of Maritime bluegrass musicians: Frank Doody on banjo, Alan Jeffries on guitar, and Marcel Duplessis on bass.

The Grass Messengers were the overwhelming audience favourite in the 2025 festival survey and have been invited back this year. Based in New York State, the band features lead singer and guitarist Chris Luquette. They specialize in well-known bluegrass favourites, skillfully performed with mandolin, banjo, guitar, bass, and three-part harmony.

From the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, brothers Allan and Rick Spinney formed their first band in 1992 to play the traditional bluegrass music they love and to showcase their tight, brother-duet vocal style. The Spinney Brothers have created a musical identity that includes traditional favourites and original songs influenced by first-generation bluegrass legends.

Making their PEI Bluegrass Festival debut are High River from Eastern New Brunswick. They describe themselves as friends who got together to do what they love, which is playing bluegrass. The band members are Jason Guimond on banjo, Thomas Leblanc on guitar, Marcel Allain on bass, Marc Landry on dobro, and Lawrence Martin on mandolin, with all of them singing vocals as well.

One of Canada’s most recorded and awarded bluegrass performers, Janet McGarry, will take the stage with her husband, the multi-instrumentalist Serge Bernard, along with bandmates Trevor Boutilier and Karen DaCoste, award-winning musicians from the Nova Scotia group Bluegrass Tradition.

PEI bands have always proved popular with festival audiences and this year organizers welcome Bluestreak, The Stiff Family, Whitecap Drive, Heartfelt Bluegrass, The Bad Hoss, SK Bluegrass, and Bluegrass Revival to the stage.

The three-day festival includes stage shows on Friday afternoon and evening, Saturday afternoon and evening, and Sunday, along with open mic stages on Wednesday and Thursday for early arrivers. The festival also offers camping facilities, workshops, a children’s program, food services, and late night jamming sessions. 

Register at peibluegrass.ca. Discounted advance ticket pricing on weekend passes is in effect until June 1. Tickets and festival details are available at peibluegrass.ca/tickets or by calling 902 218-8916.