Starting in 1991, the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance is an annual festival held the second-to-last weekend of July in Trumansburg

Trumansburg, New York

Trumansburg is a village in Tompkins County, New York, United States. The population was 1,581 at the 2000 census. The name is a variant spelling of the surname of the founder, Abner Treman...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, a small town ten miles north of Ithaca

Ithaca, New York

The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...

. The GrassRoots Festival, or simply GrassRoots, as it is known, draws nearly 20,000 visitors throughout the course of four days. GrassRoots presents over 70 musicians, bands and dance troupes on four simultaneously-running stages continually throughout the long weekend. The festival was recently nominated as one of USA Today's top 10 outdoor music festivals. Genres represented among the musicians include bluegrass

Bluegrass music

Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...

, Cajun, zydeco

Zydeco

Zydeco is a form of uniquely American roots or folk music. It evolved in southwest Louisiana in the early 19th century from forms of "la la" Creole music...

, African

Music of Africa

Africa is a vast continent and its regions and nations have distinct musical traditions. The music of North Africa for the most part has a different history from sub-Saharan African music traditions....

, reggae

Reggae

Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...

, country

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

, Americana

Americana (music)

Americana is an amalgam of roots musics formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and other external influential styles...

, Native American music

Native American music

American Indian music is the music that is used, created or performed by Native North Americans, specifically traditional tribal music. In addition to the traditional music of the Native American groups, there now exist pan-tribal and inter-tribal genres as well as distinct Indian subgenres of...

, old-time music

Old-time music

Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music, with roots in the folk music of many countries, including England, Scotland, Ireland and countries in Africa. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dance, buck dance, and clogging. The genre also...

, Irish music

Music of Ireland

Irish Music is the generic term for music that has been created in various genres on the island of Ireland.The indigenous music of the island is termed Irish traditional music. It has remained vibrant through the 20th, and into the 21st century, despite globalizing cultural forces...

, jam band

Jam band

-Ambiguity:By the late 1990s use of the term jam band also became ambiguous. An editorial at jamband.com suggested that any band of which a primary band such as Phish has done a cover of be included as jam band. The example was including New York post-punk band Talking Heads after Phish performed...

, rock and roll

Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

, hip hop

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

, Conjunto

Conjunto

Conjunto literally translates as "group," and is regionally accepted in Texas as defining a genre of music that was born out of south Texas at the end of the 19th Century, after German settlers introduced the button accordion. The bajo sexto has come to accompany the button accordion and is...

, rockabilly

Rockabilly

Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...

 and more. In 2003 the associated Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival

Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival

The Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival is a music and dance festival that takes place each spring and fall in Silk Hope, North Carolina, near Chapel Hill. The festival takes place on a farmstead which is managed by Shakori Hills, Inc. a non-profit organization. The festival has been held twice...

 began, modeled after the Finger Lakes festival.

Artists that have performed

GrassRoots was founded by popular Americana

Americana (music)

Americana is an amalgam of roots musics formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and other external influential styles...

 band Donna the Buffalo

Donna the Buffalo

Donna the Buffalo is a band from Trumansburg, New York. They play both originals and covers....

 and celebrated its twentieth year in 2010. Artists that have performed at GrassRoots include (but are not limited to):

• Ani Difranco
  Ani DiFranco
  Ani DiFranco is an American Grammy Award-winning singer, guitarist, poet, and songwriter. She has released more than 20 albums, and is widely considered a feminist icon.-Biography:...
  
  
• Ayurveda
  Ayurveda (band)
  Ayurveda is an independent rock-based band with a progressive style that is ambient, heavy, and alternative with electronic and Nepalese influences. They are based out of Ithaca, NY when not on tour. The five member band is: Tom Burchinal , Diwas Gurung , Shikhar R...
  
  
• The Avett Brothers
  The Avett Brothers
  The Avett Brothers is a folk rock band from Mount Pleasant, North Carolina. The band is made up of two brothers, Scott Avett and Seth Avett, who play the banjo and guitar respectively, and Bob Crawford who plays the stand-up bass. Joe Kwon, cello, and Jacob Edwards, drums, are touring members of...
  
  
• Big Leg Emma
• Boubacar Traore
  Boubacar Traoré
  Boubacar Traoré is a renowned singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Traoré also goes by the nickname Kar Kar, "the one who dribbles too much" in Bambara, a reference to his soccer playing: "a nickname I got from playing soccer when I was young...
  
  
• Bubba George Stringband
• Burning Spear
  Burning Spear
  Winston Rodney, OD , also known as Burning Spear, is a Jamaican roots reggae singer and musician. Burning Spear is known for his Rastafari movement messages.-History:...
  
  
• The Burns Sisters
  The Burns Sisters
  Folk, pop and rock are given a Celtic slant by Ithaca, New York-based vocalists the Burns Sisters. Accompanied by Rich DePaolo's guitar, Eric Aceto's fiddle and their own guitar and mandolin, the three sisters—Annie, Marie and Jeannie—harmonize with heartfelt spirit...
  
  
• Cat Empire
• Cherish the Ladies
  Cherish the Ladies
  Cherish the Ladies is an American all-female Irish-American super group. The band began as a concert series in New York in January 1985, the brainchild of Mick Moloney who wanted to showcase the brightest female musicians in America in what had been a male-dominated scene...
  
  
• The Clovis Points
• Colorblind James Experience
  Colorblind James Experience
  Colorblind James Experience were an alternative roots/pop/rock band founded in 1980 in San Francisco, California . Bandleader and singer/songwriter/guitarist "Colorblind" James Charles Cuminale was originally from Rochester, New York but assembled early versions of what would become the Experience...
  
  
• Del McCoury
  Del McCoury
  Delano Floyd McCoury is an American bluegrass musician. As leader of the Del McCoury Band, he plays guitar and sings lead vocals along with his two sons, Ronnie McCoury and Rob McCoury, who play mandolin and banjo respectively...
  
  
• Dirty Dozen Brass Band
  Dirty Dozen Brass Band
  The Dirty Dozen Brass Band is a New Orleans, Louisiana, brass band. The ensemble was established in 1977 by Benny Jones together with members of the Tornado Brass Band...
  
  
• Driftwood
  Driftwood
  Driftwood is wood that has been washed onto a shore or beach of a sea or river by the action of winds, tides, waves or man. It is a form of marine debris or tidewrack....
  
  
• Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad
  Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad
  Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad is a jam reggae band based in Rochester, NY. The group started touring nationally in 2006.The bands debut album "Slow Down" was released in 2006 and received regular airplay on Sirius] and XM Radio...
  
  
• Galumpha
• Hackensaw Boys
• Highwoods Stringband
• The Hix
• The Horse Flies
  The Horse Flies
  The Horse Flies are an American alternative rock/folk band, founded in the late 1970s under the name 'Tompkins County Horseflies' by husband and wife Jeff Claus and Judy Hyman, along with Richie Stearns and John Hayward.- Background :...
  
  
• Hugh Masekela
  Hugh Masekela
  Hugh Ramopolo Masekela is a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer, and singer.-Early life:Masekela was born in Kwa-Guqa Township, Witbank, South Africa. He began singing and playing piano as a child...
  
  
• Jennie Stearns
• Jimmie Dale Gilmore
  Jimmie Dale Gilmore
  Jimmie Dale Gilmore is a country singer, songwriter, actor, recording artist and producer, currently living in Austin, Texas.-Biography:...
  
  
• Jim Lauderdale
  Jim Lauderdale
  Jim Lauderdale is a musician & singer-songwriter who performs bluegrass and country music. He has recorded since 1986 and has released nineteen studio albums. Artists who have recorded his material include George Strait and Patty Loveless.-Biography:...
  
  
• John Anderson
  John Anderson (musician)
  John David Anderson is an American country music artist with a successful career that has lasted more than 30 years...
  
  
• John & Mary
  John & Mary
  John & Mary is a U.S. based folk music duo featuring John Lombardo and Mary Ramsey who have had a long-time close association with alternative rock band 10,000 Maniacs.-1989-1993:...
  
  
• John Brown's Body
  John Brown's Body (band)
  John Brown's Body is a reggae band from Boston, MA and Ithaca, NY that tours the world performing what the group calls “Future Roots Music”. The sound is rooted in reggae rhythms and blended with a variety of other styles including dub, electronic, funk, ska, hip-hop, and dubstep.Originally...
  
  
• John Specker
• Johnny Dowd
  Johnny Dowd
  Johnny Dowd is an American alternative country musician from Ithaca, New York. Typical of his style are experimental, noisy breaks in his songs and strong gothic elements in the lyrics as well as in the music...
  
  
• Justin Hinds
  Justin Hinds
  Justin Hinds was a Jamaican ska vocalist, with his backing singers the Dominoes.He is best known for his work with Duke Reid's Treasure Isle Records, where his most notable song, "Carry Go Bring Come" recorded in late 1963, went to number one in Jamaica...
  
   and the Dominoes
• Keith Frank and the Soileau Zydeco Band
• Keith Secola
  Keith Secola
  Keith Secola is an award-winning figure in contemporary Native American music. He is an Ojibwa originally from Minnesota.Keith Secola plays guitar, flute, and also sings. In 1982 he graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in American Indian Studies. He has a band that's had the...
  
  
• Kelly Willis
  Kelly Willis
  Kelly Willis is an American country music singer-songwriter, whose music has been described as contemporary country, alternative country and new traditionalist.-Early life:...
  
  
• King Sunny Ade
  King Sunny Adé
  King Sunny Adé is a popular performer of Yoruba Nigerian Jùjú music and a pioneer of modern world music. He has been classed as one of the most influential musicians of all time.-Background:...
  
  
• Lloyd Cannady & The Flying Clouds
• Locos Por Juana
  Locos Por Juana
  Locos Por Juana is a bilingual Latin band most notably recognized by their energetic live performances and their unique fusion of Latin styles and influences. The band formed in Miami, Florida in the year 2000, though their lineup has undergone personnel changes and their style evolved over the years...
  
  
• Los Lobos
  Los Lobos
  Los Lobos are a multiple Grammy Award–winning American Chicano rock band from East Los Angeles, California. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional Spanish and Mexican music such as cumbia, boleros and norteños.-History:The...
  
  
• Lucinda Williams
  Lucinda Williams
  Lucinda Williams is an American rock, folk, blues and country music singer and songwriter. She recorded her first albums in 1978 and 1980 in a traditional country and blues style and received very little attention from radio, the media, or the public. In 1988, she released her self-titled album,...
  
  
• Lucky Dube
  Lucky Dube
  Lucky Philip Dube was a South African reggae musician. He recorded 22 albums in Zulu, English and Afrikaans in a 25-year period and was South Africa's biggest selling reggae artist...
  
  
• Mahlathini
  Mahlathini
  Simon 'Mahlathini' Nkabinde was a South African mbaqanga singer. Known as the "Lion of Soweto" Nkabinde is the acknowledged exponent of the deep-voiced, basso profundo "groaning" style that came to symbolize mbaqanga music in the 1960s...
  
  
• The Mahotella Queens
  Mahotella Queens
  The Mahotella Queens are a South African singing group formed in 1964 comprising Hilda Tloubatla, Nobesuthu Mbadu and Mildred Mangxola...
  
  
• Mamadou Diabate
  Mamadou Diabaté
  Mamadou Diabaté is a kora player. He began playing quite early in his life, became known as a musician in the area of Mali in which he lived, and has since moved to the United States, recording several albums.-Life and career:...
  
  
• Martin Simpson
  Martin Simpson
  Martin Simpson is an English folk singer, guitarist and songwriter. His music reflects a wide variety of influences and styles, rooted in the British Isles, America and beyond.-Biography:...
  
  
• MC Lars
  MC Lars
  Andrew Robert MacFarlane Nielsen is an American rapper, known by his stage name MC Lars. He is the self-proclaimed originator of "post-punk laptop rap". He was one of the first underground rappers to sample and reference post-punk and emo bands...
  
  
• The Meditations
  The Meditations
  The Meditations are a reggae vocal harmony group from Jamaica formed in late 1974. They have released several studio albums and are still performing in the 2000s and today.-History:...
  
  
• Michael Franti
  Michael Franti
  Michael Franti is an American poet, musician, and composer. He is the creator and lead vocalist of Michael Franti & Spearhead, a band that blends hip hop with a variety of other styles including funk, reggae, jazz, folk, and rock...
  
   & Spearhead
  Michael Franti
  Michael Franti is an American poet, musician, and composer. He is the creator and lead vocalist of Michael Franti & Spearhead, a band that blends hip hop with a variety of other styles including funk, reggae, jazz, folk, and rock...
  
  
• Neon Baptist
• Nickel Creek
  Nickel Creek
  Nickel Creek was an American progressive acoustic music trio consisting of Chris Thile , Sara Watkins and Sean Watkins . The band was founded in 1989 and released 6 albums between 1993 and 2006...
  
  
• NRBQ
  NRBQ
  NRBQ is an American rock band founded in 1967. It is known for its live performances, containing a high degree of spontaneity and levity, and blending rock, pop, jazz, blues and Tin Pan Alley styles. Its best known line-up is the 1974–1994 quartet of pianist Terry Adams, bassist Joey Spampinato,...
  
  
• Old Crow Medicine Show
  Old Crow Medicine Show
  Old Crow Medicine Show is an old-time string band based in Nashville, Tennessee. Their music has been called bluegrass, Americana, and alt-country, in addition to old-time. Along with original songs, the band performs many pre-World War II blues and folk songs...
  
  
• Patty Loveless
  Patty Loveless
  Patty Loveless , is an American country music singer.Since her emergence on the country music scene in late 1986 with her first album, Loveless has been one of the most popular female singers of the Neotraditional country movement, although she has also recorded albums in the Country pop and...
  
  
• Preston Frank & his Zydeco Family Band
• Ralph Stanley
  Ralph Stanley
  Ralph Stanley , also known as Dr. Ralph Stanley, is an American bluegrass artist, known for his distinctive singing and banjo playing.-Biography:...
  
  
• ReBirth Brass Band
  Rebirth Brass Band
  The Rebirth Brass Band is a New Orleans brass band. The group was founded in 1982 by tuba/sousaphone player Philip Frazier, his brother, bass drummer, Keith Frazier and trumpeter Kermit Ruffins, and other school marching band members from Joseph S. Clark Senior High School in New Orleans’ Tremé...
  
  
• Red Stick Ramblers
  Red Stick Ramblers
  The Red Stick Ramblers are a Cajun Music and Western Swing band who formed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana while the members were attending Louisiana State University. Their name comes from a translation of Baton Rouge, which means "red stick" in French...
  
  
• Rickie Lee Jones
  Rickie Lee Jones
  Rickie Lee Jones is an American vocalist, musician, songwriter, and producer. Over the course of a three-decade career, Jones has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B, blues, pop, soul, and jazz standards.-Childhood:...
  
  
• Rusted Root
  Rusted Root
  Rusted Root is a band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania known for their unique fusion of acoustic, rock, world and other styles of music, with a strong percussion section that draws from African, Latin American, Native American, and Indian influences...
  
  
• Samite
  Samite (musician)
  Samite is the stage name for African musician Samite Mulondo. Originally from Uganda, Samite now lives in Ithaca, New York. He plays the flute and kalimba, a type of thumb piano....
  
   of Uganda
• Scythian
  Scythian (band)
  Scythian is a Celtic/Celtic rock band based in the DC Metro Area that formed in 2002 and went full-time in 2004. Their latest studio album, "American Shanty," is the band's fourth album...
  
  
• Sim Redmond Band
• Snake Oil Medicine Show
• Solas
• The Speckers
• Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys
  Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys
  Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys are a Grammy Award-nominated Cajun band from southern Louisiana. The band formed in 1988 and has since recorded 10 albums, nine of which are on Rounder Records....
  
  
• Sunny Weather
• 10,000 Maniacs
  10,000 Maniacs
  10,000 Maniacs is a United States-based alternative rock band, which formed in 1981 and continues to be active with various line-ups.-1981–1993:...
  
  
• Thomas Mapfumo
  Thomas Mapfumo
  Thomas Tafirenyika Mapfumo is a Zimbabwean musician known as "The Lion of Zimbabwe" and "Mukanya" for his immense popularity and for the political influence he wields through his music, including his sharp criticism of the government of President Robert Mugabe...
  
   & the Blacks Unlimited
• Tinariwen
  Tinariwen
  Tinariwen is a band of Tuareg-Berber musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali. The band was formed around 1979 in refugee camps in Libya but returned to Mali after a cease-fire in the 1990s...
  
  
• Toots & the Maytals
  Toots & the Maytals
  Toots and the Maytals, originally called simply The Maytals, are a Jamaican musical group and one of the best known ska and reggae vocal groups. According to Sandra Brennan at Allmusic, "The Maytals were key figures in reggae music...
  
  
• Trevor MacDonald
• Up South
• Vieux Farka Touré
  Vieux Farka Touré
  Boureima "Vieux" Farka Touré is a Malian singer and guitarist. He is the son of Grammy-winning Malian musician Ali Farka Touré.-Biography:Touré was born in Niafunké, Mali in 1981 to Ali Farka Touré...
  
  
• The Waifs
  The Waifs
  The Waifs are an Australian folk rock band formed in 1992 by Josh Cunningham , and sisters Vikki Thorn and Donna Simpson...
  
  
• Walter Mouton & the Scott Playboys
• Who You Are
  Who You Are
  Who You Are is the third live praise and worship album from the Desperation Band at New Life Church. It includes a bonus DVD with video of the live performance, music videos, a behind the scenes documentary and other extras...
  
   

In addition to the musical performances at GrassRoots, attendees may also visit the Art Barn, an art gallery

Art gallery

An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection...

 featuring primarily local artists; a Healing Arts area, where free massages, Reiki

Reiki

is a spiritual practice developed in 1922 by Japanese Buddhist Mikao Usui. The teaching was continued and adapted by various teachers. It uses a technique commonly called palm healing as a form of complementary and alternative medicine and is sometimes classified as oriental medicine by some...

, acupuncture

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is a type of alternative medicine that treats patients by insertion and manipulation of solid, generally thin needles in the body....

, and other healing therapies are performed; a children's area; dance workshops and more.
In 2005 a "musicalmentary" about the festival titled Grassroots Stages was distributed nationally on PBS. The film includes musical performances and interviews with festival organizers Jeb and Jordan Puryear.