“A cut above the competition artistically.
The festival has been punching above its weight class for years.”
– Mike Devlin, Victoria Times Colonist.

Don’t miss the magic and music unfolding June 13-15th, 2025 at Laketown Ranch Music Park in Lake Cowichan, B.C.!

Sharing Music and Culture

Our history

What started as a small local event as the Sooke River Bluegrass Festival has grown into a major event attracting Grammy and Juno calibre artists from across North America. After outgrowing our site at Sooke, we moved to Laketown Ranch Music Park near Lake Cowichan, B.C. in 2019 and rebranded as the Cowichan Valley Bluegrass Festival.

The festival is genre-specific to bluegrass and Appalachian-style “old-time” music, which is different than what music fans find at traditional folk festivals that dominate the Canadian festival landscape. In addition to main stage performances, events take place throughout the weekend that are participatory in nature, including hosted and spontaneous jam sessions, vocal, instrument and dance workshops, and a Saturday night  outdoor square dance.

With most participants camping on site, we create a 24-7 village where people listen to, learn, play and share bluegrass and old-time music in the oral traditions from which they sprang.

Our priorities:

We encourage the participation of families and youth by admitting FREE those 17 and under accompanied by a paid  adult. We are committed to Indigenous reconciliation, expanding diversity within our genre and welcome everyone regardless of race, genders or creed. Our artistic vision is to stay genre-specific in the fields of bluegrass and Appalachian-style “old-time” music, which makes us distinct in the festival landscape.