Grahame Lesh headlines a brand new celebration in a familiar location, while a longstanding Michigan music festival embraces some regional favorites. Get the details and more at Local Spins.
The New and Familiar: The Hoxeyville site (at left) gets new life as Hoxeyville Skies while Buttermilk continues a tradition that started in 2011. (Photos/Sam Hogg/Derek Ketchum)
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Since 2011, Buttermilk Jamboree at Circle Pines Center south of Grand Rapids has reveled in family-forward celebrations of regional music.
And for the first time ever, the Hoxeyville Skies Music Festival in the Manistee National Forest aims for the same community vibe in a familiar location, with a high-profile national headliner – Grahame Lesh & Friends – and some beloved names from Hoxeyville’s past.
All-American Funk Parade, Knee Deep Shag, The Go Rounds, Luke Winslow-King and Great Lakes Brass Band will lead a parade of more than 40 acts performing at the 2026 Buttermilk Jamboree, taking place June 19-21 at Circle Pines Center in Delton.
Knee Deep Shag: On the Buttermilk bill. (Photo/Derek Ketchum)
“We’re so grateful to be invited back to play one of our favorite Michigan festivals,” Grand Rapids funk/alt-rock/hip-hop/jam band Y-Not declared on social media.
Indeed, it’s been a favorite festival for many fans and returning bands, including The Schrock Bros, The Mainstays, Molly, Megan Dooley, Jive at Five and many more who will perform once again at the June festival.
“Buttermilk is one of the best Michigan festivals,” raved fan and Grand Rapids musician Brenden Stark on Facebook.
Early-bird adult tickets, $130, are available online here; $40 for children. Ticket prices go up on April 15.
INAUGURAL HOXEYVILLE SKIES EMBRACES ‘RICH GRATEFUL DEAD HISTORY’
About 160 miles to the north, a familiar Hoxeyville festival site in Wellston – which hosted the Hoxeyville Music Festival for more than two decades until the final soiree in 2024 – will now feature the inaugural, two-day Hoxeyville Skies Music Festival Aug. 7-8, with the son of the Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh, Grahame Lesh & Friends, a California jam band in the Dead tradition that’s never performed in Michigan previously.
Camp Skunk Productions LLC, formed by devoted Hoxeyville attendees with support from Cadillac’s Gopherwood Concerts, will host the first-year celebration that will also feature Ohio jam band Ekoostik Hookah, along with a bevy of Michigan favorites.
“Hoxeyville is officially back in a new form,” said Sam Hogg, one of the festival’s organizers, noting that past Hoxeyville performers such as Airborne or Aquatic? and Luke Winslow-King are on the bill for Hoxeyville Skies.
“The Grahame Lesh & Friends booking is a huge win for the Michigan music scene. He’s never performed in the state and … is the clear torch-bearer to the Grateful Dead universe after the passing of his dad and Bob Weir. We are so stoked to have him.”
Hoxey Favorites: Airborne or Aquatic? (Photo/Anna Sink)
In 2025, Camp Skunk Productions staged a Grateful Dead-driven weekend festival on the site dubbed Truckin’ into Hoxey that featured Dead tribute band Manitou Truckin’ Company and a few other Michigan acts.
Hogg said that event and the “rich Grateful Dead history” at Hoxeyville with performers such as Mickey Hart Band, Darkstar Orchestra and others is “part of the reason” Lesh is playing Hoxeyville Skies.
The Michigan contingent also includes The Smokin’ Dobroleles, recent Jammie Award winner Sweet Dee & The Wild Honeys, northern Michigan’s 1000 Watt Prophets, Muskegon’s Flexadecibel and Holland blues band Joe Johnson & The Bluebacks.
Cadillac native and blues/roots hero Winslow-King, who also won a Jammie Award earlier this month, will serve as the festival’s artist-at-large.
“Luke Winslow-King as artist-at-large should be a local hit and lends credibility to the old Hoxeyville guard,” Hogg said. “He’ll be performing a band set and dotting the lineup with collaborations all weekend.” That likely could mean joining Airborne or Aquatic? again on that familiar Hoxeyville stage.
Hogg stressed that the back story of Hoxeyville Skies is “so cool,” because a group of longtime Hoxeyville devotees and bands were determined to keep an annual celebration going on the site amid the Manistee National Forest. Hence, Hoxeyville Skies was born.
Adult weekend tickets are $126.80, available online here. Get more details at hoxeyvilleskies.com.
Check out the Blissfest 2026 lineup announcement at Local Spins here.
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