Acoustic music and frothy beers await at Keystone's Bluegrass and Beer Festival  

KEYSTONE—Bluegrass and beer is a classic combination, and when you add in the comfortable mountain climate and Rocky Mountain fun offered at Keystone Resort, you have a weekend festival that’s not to be missed. Now in its 16th year, the Keystone Bluegrass and Beer Festival, August 3-5, will include a stellar lineup of bluegrass favorites, more than 25 breweries providing plenty of perfectly chilled refreshments and a variety of instructional seminars taught by some of the most respected names in bluegrass.

To begin the foot-stomping fun, Warren Station Center for the Arts will host a bluegrass kick-off party Friday, August 3, 8pm-11:30pm, featuring Oakhurstwith The Farewell Drifters. Saturday morning will start early with a 9am guitar seminar taught by Tyler Gant, a National Flatpicking Champion. The Shock Top Beer Garden, located just outside Warren Station in River Run Village, will open at Noon on both Saturday and Sunday allowing guests to unwind and savor $5 pints while enjoying acoustic bluegrass music accompaniment from the Quaking Aspen Amphitheater beginning at 12:30pm each day. When stomachs start to growl, festival attendees can enjoy a variety of food from some of Keystone’s finest restaurants, both Saturday and Sunday in the Village plaza from 12pm-5pm.

The festival’s other music venues include the Village Stage located in the heart of the River Run Events Plaza and Montezuma Plaza just inside the River Run information center that will host live bluegrass acts including Haunted Windchimesand Head for the Hills, 12:30pm-5pm on both Saturday and Sunday. Sunday’s seminars, hosted at Warren Station, will include fiddle instruction with Casey Driessen who has played with Zac Brown of the Zac Brown Band and a songwriting seminar taught by Darrell Scott, a Grammy Nominee.

If guests tire of the great live music or the delicious barley and hop mixtures and want to spend more time enjoying the scenic Rocky Mountains, Keystone provides plenty of summer activitiesincluding mountain biking, hiking, horseback riding, GEO-caching, scenic lift rides, golfing on the resort’s two championship courses, children’s activities in Gondola Plaza and boating or fishing at Lakeside Village.

As with all Keystone festivals hosted by the Keystone Neighborhood Company, a portion of festival proceeds support local causes and charities. The main beneficiary for this year’s Keystone Bluegrass and Beer Festival is High Country Conservation Center. Each donation to this organization helps fund programs and services that promote practical solutions to waste reduction and resource conservation in our Mountain Community.