Get to know the iconic Wisconsin music festival through the eyes of attendees, artists and volunteers.

Blue Ox Music Festival, 2026. Photo credit (for all photos in this article): Tom Smouse.

When you’ve got a few Blue Ox experiences under your belt, coming back to it is like returning to a beloved vacation spot. You know the locals and the lay of the land. You have your favorite places and experiences you’re looking forward to. You and thousands of others fall into a familiar rhythm with one another and your surroundings, sharing many common experiences but each approaching them a little differently, getting something a little unique out of the weekend.

The annual three-day bluegrass-heavy event (with healthy doses of other roots, country and Americana music), which started in 2015, takes place in The Pines Music Park in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Blue Ox attendance is capped at 5,000 on any given day and often sells out. There are three stages, one on either end of a large festival field called “the bowl” and a third smaller one, the Backwoods Stage, tucked into the forest. The rolling grounds include capacity for thousands of campers in tents, cars and RVs, though many attendees go home or to a hotel each night.

This year marked the fifth Blue Ox for both photojournalist Tom Smouse and me, so we wanted to dig further into the culture of the event from all angles; see it through other people’s eyes and hear the similarities and differences in how they view it. All told, we talked to 17 people at the festival and got a few thoughts from one more before it. We spoke with an organizer, regular attendees, artists and volunteer staff, ranging from long-timers to first-timers.

A few notable patterns emerged: Cosmic country force of nature Daniel Donato received the most shoutouts as people’s favorite or most-anticipated act, followed closely by Them Coulee Boys, who played their final Blue Ox as a band this year, and I’m With Her. When asked about memories, the lightning-interrupted Jason Isbell set of 2021 came up more than once. (There are two types of reminiscers about it: those who left the bowl and didn’t know until later that he came back on after the storm had passed and completed his set for a couple hundred fans—and the lucky few who were among that small crowd. Sadly, Tom and I belong to the former, much larger group.)

By coincidence, it was many of our interviewees’ fifth Blue Ox, whether or not they’d attended them consecutively, and several mentioned the post-lockdown festival of 2021 as their first. Although there are many, many long-timers and quite a few new attendees still coming to it, that year seems to have created a sizable cohort of people who, like me and Tom, discovered it for the first time and keep coming back. One attendee, Roisin “Roz” Thompson, points out a likely reason that was a flagship year: “It was the first big show you could really go to after the pandemic, and they were doing vaccine checks and testing, so everything felt really safe.” She and another attendee, David Dennison, talked about how it was pretty lightly attended, so the especially clean porta-potties and extra elbow room were a bonus (though clearly it wasn’t a deal-breaker when they came to their next, fully attended Blue Ox).

The other recurring thoughts about the festival transcended specific acts or years. Time and again, we heard about the kindness and generosity of the Bischel family (father Jim and sons Mark and Tony), who own the Pines Music Park and run the festival, and members of Pert Near Sandstone, the band that co-hosts and co-curates the festival. Says longtime volunteer Deb: “Everyone, from the top down, treats you with respect. And they value your time that you’re giving at this festival, that they work all year on to make sure that everything is just so.” Stories of little acts of kindness from these organizers and hosts kept coming up with anyone we talked to who’d encountered them—anecdotes of them giving money, resources and time above and beyond what’s expected.

That kind and generous energy at the top of the Blue Ox family seems to flow through its entire population: Roz says Pert Near Sandstone “is to this day one of the most generous bands I’ve ever seen perform,” often bringing up openers and shouting out friends from onstage, “and it bleeds down, and you can feel that here, that everybody's together all the time. Everyone’s happy here; I’ve never seen anyone angry.” The crowd itself is mentioned again and again as one of the best things about the festival. David calls the entire audience “good, kind people who just love music.” It makes things easier for everyone, he says: “Security isn’t a bunch of big huge guys at the stage trying to keep people back. They don’t need to because everybody is so chill.”

Both the staff and performers echo those sentiments. “Everybody’s so kind, and that's an important layer for me,” says Ricky Francois of first-time act Cigarette Picnic. “Everyone that comes through the gate is happy,” Deb says, partly because “people wait for this all year.” Another volunteer, Tracy Nelson, says, “This whole community is fantastic.” Molly Brandt, a 2026 act also experiencing Blue Ox as an attendee before and after her set, agrees: “Everyone’s kind to each other. The crowd is really considerate when you're trying to get through. Everyone’s just really happy to be here,” she adds. “People are not getting easily frustrated like they do out in the world.”

For Pert Near Sandstone bandmember and festival co-curator/host Nate Sipe, that consistent benevolence of the Blue Ox crowd has let him slowly relax and enjoy the event he works so hard to make perfect: “I feel like it took the better part of a decade for me to realize I didn’t have to be stressed all weekend about potential disasters, because the attendees bring their positive energy and good vibes and roll with the changes in weather, or scheduling, and really look out for each other in the bowl and out in the campground. That energy has been a constant at this event from the beginning.”

Another cause for such a blissed-out audience may be the surroundings. Says Roz: “I don’t know what it is, but there’s something about the location that’s special—that is very grounding.” Deb thinks she knows: “It’s the beauty of this park ... everywhere you look, it’s gorgeous.” (Roz contrasts it with events she’s been to that turned her off to the experience: “So many of them turn out to be like concrete jungle festivals.”) First-time attendee Stephanie Ansley was bowled over by that aspect of Blue Ox: “There’s a beautiful, natural element to this … these gorgeous pine trees everywhere.”

Elsa Krantz of Duluth-based Cigarette Picnic felt the same: “I love the trees. That's the most important thing for me. So many other festivals are just in fields. The oak trees are really special because we don’t have them up north. And then there’s the pine trees. I really like feeling accompanied by nature. It feels really safe.”

On top of the natural beauty, several interviewees attributed some of the positive feeling to how it’s laid out and run, including Stephanie: “It’s very beautifully organized; great vibes all around.” Simon Cropp, backing a band for the second year in a row, concurs: “I love the atmosphere. I put in so many miles walking laps.”

In addition to all their commonalities, everyone we interviewed had their own unique takes on Blue Ox—and special memories and experiences, from first meetings to significant milestones to bittersweet farewells.

Tracy Nelson

Role: Volunteer, gate security. Years volunteering: 11. First year: 2016, Blue Ox’s second year.

Tracy admits she “knew nothing about bluegrass” going in. “I had the opportunity to volunteer with another group, and I’ve been stuck since.” Nine of those she’s been at the same post: next to the main stage, guarding the gate to the backstage area. It’s earned her a nickname around the property: the gate guru.

Despite not being a bluegrass fan, she loves the chance to encounter famous artists. “I’ve had the opportunity to meet so many of ’em, and actually shake hands with them and talk to ’em.” One of her favorite moments happened in 2024: “A couple years ago when Sierra Ferrell was here, she came up, shook my hand and gave me a hug. I didn’t realize who she was till after she performed. It really surprised me.”

When asked what else besides the artists makes her keep volunteering every year, Tracy says, “A lot of fans that come every year know me now by name, and I’ll see ’em out in the community, and they’ll ask ‘Are you coming back?’ It’s a whole family and it’s really neat to see.” It’s the organizers too: “The family that owns this is absolutely fantastic, and they take such great care. Watching it go from the early years till now, everything the Bischels have done to it, has been so fantastic.”

Deb

Role: Volunteer, gate coordinator. Years volunteering: 11. First year: 2016.

Deb didn’t come in as a bluegrass fan either, but as program director for a nearby technical college’s radiography program. She was looking for ways for her students to raise money to attend educational conferences and perform community service for kids with cancer. She’s volunteered every year since with a cohort of college students. “This has always been the students’ favorite fundraiser,” she says. “That has never changed, from day one. They love doing this festival.” In addition to raising money for their trips and charitable efforts, she says, the volunteers can also attend the festival. “If they work a shift, they get a wristband, and they can listen to the music all weekend.”

She doesn’t hear much of the music herself at her gate outpost, far from the stages, but that’s OK. She admits that the mix of bluegrass and other roots and Americana music at Blue Ox “isn’t really the music that I listen to, but it’s amazing.” Eleven years since she first volunteered, Deb is retired from teaching but still shows up for all four days, now taking more of a leadership position: running the schedule for the fields gate and training students on ID checks.

When asked what makes Blue Ox unique, Deb immediately says: “It’s the people. It is the attendees that show up at the gates, and the people that are working and volunteering, that make it worthwhile.” She adds, “It’s the family-friendly atmosphere. They cater to the children. I would never take my children to some other festivals, but I would this one. It’s not a bad thing to be an adult festival, but a family festival like this is very, very special.” She’s seen families who’ve been coming back since their now-teenage kids were toddlers.

While this year’s weather was perfect, Blue Ox is often visited by rain, and 2025 was particularly challenging when pre-event storms left the grounds sodden and muddy. One of the entrances became impassable, with large campers getting stuck and having to stay in line overnight, and had to be closed. Staff and volunteers rallied, pouring huge amounts of gravel on routes and calling tow trucks to help stuck vehicles.” It worked out,” Deb says, “and that’s one thing about this festival, you have to think on your feet, and you just do what has to be done.” It’s a contrast from some larger festivals she’s volunteered at, where “you kind of put blinders on and stay in your own lane. This festival, if you see an artist needs to come backstage, you hop in a golf cart and make it happen. I would never do that at another festival.”

Blue Ox has stayed relatively smaller by design, she says. “They could make it bigger, they could charge more. They just don’t. The beers are a reasonable price, the attendance is capped. It keeps it spacious-feeling.” Despite being a significant-sized long-running event, Deb says it’s so low-key that the local community “doesn’t really know that much about it. It’s kind of the best kept secret. Every year when we talk about it, we’re like, ‘Uh, are we ruining it by telling people about it?’” But 12 years on, the answer seems to safely stay a no.

Alexander Posner, Phil Sanna and friend

Roles: Attendees. Years attending & first years: varied.

Even though it’s only his third time at Blue Ox, Alexander’s history with the festival goes way back, almost to the beginning. “I came by myself in 2017 or so because Sam Bush was playing. I love bluegrass music but I’d never seen him.” It was Phil’s first Blue Ox and only his third festival of any kind; he only started getting into the culture a little over a year before. “He’s a newbie,” his friends say.

All three of them (and another friend who’d wandered off) are huge Daniel Donato fans, so that was the biggest lure this year. They recounted a very on-brand Wisconsin story about their friend bringing Donato a block of aged cheddar to a Tennessee show awhile back, and offering him another one at the backstage gate this year. (The group has since taken to calling him the “cheese fairy.”)

Beyond that hilarious misadventure, they were just enjoying themselves and letting Phil absorb and get acclimated to the Blue Ox atmosphere, which he was loving. “It’s a great festival,” he says. “You hang out in the woods and listen to music with your friends. There’s literally nothing better.”

David Dennison

Role: Attendee. Years attending: 6. First year: 2021.

David first attended Blue Ox post-COVID, primarily to see Jason Isbell, and he was hooked. “I’ve been every year since. I wouldn’t miss it.” Like every repeat visitor who finds their own tricks and methods that work for them, he’s learned from earlier experiences. For example, in 2023 the Avett Brothers set was cut short by a storm, similar to Isbell’s back in 2021. “I worked that one to my advantage because everybody was like, ‘Well, it’s over. It’s raining.’ I kept watching the socials and saw they were coming back out, and I got right in front, got the set list and everything. I’m not necessarily a rail rider, but I wasn’t gonna let the Jason Isbell mistake happen again.”

David curates and helps run an intimate concert series at a private venue in Delano, MN called Rieder Homestead Concerts, so one of his most-anticipated acts of the weekend was Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, an act slated to come to his venue in August. “I just wanna see them live again before they come to our place and get excited again about what we have coming.”

Despite having been drawn by a big name his first time at Blue Ox, one of David’s favorite aspects of the festival is that it’s a great place to discover a wide variety of new artists. “I like to do that, as well as see my favorites. Even though it’s kind of a bluegrass festival, there’s a very good diversity: singer-songwriters, great Americana and bluegrass. I think that's important; no matter what you label your event, I think a festival should be diverse.”

Stephanie Ansley

Role: Attendee. Years attending: 1. First year: this one (2026).

Stephanie’s first Blue Ox came at the recommendation of her friend Aoife O’Donovan, one of the trio who make up I’m With Her; in fact, we encountered her planted in a shady spot on the rail for their set. She was going to be in Minneapolis for her brother’s baby, due around the time of the festival weekend and Aoife suggested she come down. Eau Claire is only about an hour outside the Cities, easy enough to hurry back if needed. Stephanie flew into Minneapolis and drove out with no prior knowledge of Blue Ox. The verdict? “I’m blown away by how cool it is,” she says.

She was most excited to see her friend’s band, naturally: “Of course I wanna be front row for my buddy, and for this incredible project which is kind of on a victory lap—three Grammys!” (I’m With Her won their first Grammy, for Best American Roots Song, in 2020. This year they received two more—Best Folk Album and another Best American Roots Song win.)

But Stephanie also found herself falling in love with both the nature and the people she was surrounded by. “People getting sprouted [the music festival tradition of handing small wearable plastic plants to others]. Men with flowers everywhere. It’s a beautiful thing.” In the merch tent earlier, she’d overheard enough festival goers to understand what an intensely committed group of fans make up the Blue Ox audience. “The music conversations happening here are beautiful. It’s just a beautiful way to see I’m With Her, with an incredible group of people who are into all of the artists and know everything about the musicians.”

Molly Brandt

Role: Performer (and attendee). Years attending: 2 (sort of). First year: 2025.

Molly’s first Blue Ox ended almost as soon as it began. The Minnesota artist’s set, which she’d been pumped for, was the only one of 2025 completely canceled because of lightning. She’d already been feeling a little sick so she decided to head home as soon as she got the news, and she left the grounds hearing the next band start up behind her. “That was kind of sad.”

This year was a complete 180 from that experience, with beautiful weather and a crowd delighted to welcome her back. Being healthy also gave her the chance to actually experience the festival she’d only glimpsed before, and she spent the time before and after her set soaking it in, enjoying highly anticipated acts like Charley Crockett and Kurt Vile as well as new-to-her surprises such as The Steel Wheels. “They started their set with this really cool classical piece with their strings and it was really tight, like, super fast notes. They were very virtuosic and fun.”

Other than the music and overall spirit of the festival (“The vibes are so good, you can just, like, leave your chairs wherever”), she says, “there’s just a lot of things to see, like all the art everywhere. I also love seeing everybody’s outfits. Very psychedelic, but, like, Midwest hillbilly psychedelic.” Like Deb, she noticed how family-friendly the festival is: “There’s lots of babies everywhere, and kids biking around, and they look like they’re having a great time.” The rich campground culture was another favorite feature: “I got to walk around all the campsites looking at everybody’s cool setups, and people go all out,” she says. “Some people have a whole yard with stuff sticking out of it, basically an art installation. It feels like this is their mecca. Like, this is their pilgrimage. It’s amazing.”

She singled out longtime favorite I’m With Her as the music highlight of her weekend (“we played the same day as I’m With Her—I’m literally flummoxed”) and was thrilled to get to meet one of the group’s members, Sarah Watkins, backstage. Their set made her keenly aware of another aspect of Blue Ox that makes it special: “I noticed that while they were playing, the whole main area was silent, listening and attentive. That’s unique even in a bar show, let alone a big festival. Everyone was just so dialed into the music.”

Cigarette Picnic: Ricky Francois, Elsa Krantz and Madi Phyle

Role: Performers. Years attending & first years: varied.

Cigarette Picnic has a handful of Blue Ox experiences among them. They attended two years ago for a Saltydog set (another band from Duluth they’ve collaborated with). Ricky says Sierra Ferrell topped their list of favorite acts from that trip. Elsa won tickets to attend last year and remembers one of her highlights was an unexpected genre shift. “I love country music but I remember needing a refresh from it. Then I heard rock and roll in the bowl—it was Warren Haynes! That was the highlight of the weekend for sure.”

Cigarette Picnic arrived at this year’s Blue Ox as recipients of an even bigger prize than free tickets: a slot on the Backwoods Stage, earned by winning the festival’s Virtual Band Competition. Madi calls the whole experience “extraordinary.”

A veteran festival attendee, she says all events have their special parts to them. For Blue Ox, one thing that stands out is how well it’s run. “Bathrooms are clean all the time. They’re just so on top of it, on top of everything. It’s a well-oiled machine. They know what they’re doing.” It reminds her of a handful of other small independent festivals: “They’re run really well and they’re in beautiful places. It just feels like you’re going on a weekend retreat and you don’t have to worry about anything.”

Clara, Ellie and Nick

Roles: Attendees. Years attending: 5. First year: 2022.

We caught up with this trio, a father and his two daughters, deep into a game of frisbee in the bowl, which clears out enough between sets for several groups to play various sports. Their first Blue Ox came down to logistics, they told us: It was the closest Béla Fleck’s My Bluegrass Heart tour was coming. Two of them (and the girls’ mother, who was snoozing in their tent during the frisbee game) are Wisconsin-based, and they convinced the other daughter to fly in from Georgia.

It was their first festival, but now it’s a family tradition. “We camp every year in the unreserved area by the Backwoods Stage,” Nick says. “Camping there is great—you can either go to the late night show or crash out and just lie in the tent listening to it.”

A family of dedicated bluegrass lovers, one of their favorite things that Blue Ox showcases is the mix of pure old-time styles with modern elements—string bands bringing in percussion, other Americana styles being featured right alongside the bluegrass. “It’s such fun developing style of music,” Nick says. “And the thing is it kind of embraces everybody. There’s not a lot of gatekeeping in this music.”

Clara and Ellie rattled off a list of acts they were excited about this year: Daniel Donato, Silverada, The Dead South and I’m With Her. Watching Them Coulee Boys’ set was high on the list for all three, knowing how emotional it would be as the band’s last at Blue Ox.

Sky Froelich

Role: Performer. Years attending: 2. First year: 2024.

We met up with Sky of Mooncats on Saturday, which is Day Three of Blue Ox, but he called it Day One: “Day one of figuring it out.” That’s because the day before, Sky had gotten married. At Blue Ox. To a woman he’d met at an earlier Blue Ox.

His first Blue Ox was going to be the biggest show of his career so far, playing the Backwoods Stage, but the day before the set, something even bigger happened. “A girl tapped me on the shoulder, and I was wearing a big felt hat with a flower crown from the girls in the backstage [an annual Blue Ox perk for its artists], and she asked me if the flowers were real. That’s how we met. She smelled the flowers, and the wind brought us together.” And then she was off to do the job she was there for, helping attendees with medical issues.

The next night she was working in the medical tent again. “She didn’t make our set until about halfway or a quarter of the way through. There I was playing the biggest show of my life, but I was only looking for her.” There’s a video of Mooncats’ performance on YouTube that shows his reaction when she showed up. “You can see the moment I recognize her in the crowd. Big old grin.” He had his own tent he’d stayed in the first night, “but I never stayed in it once after I met her.”

Two years later (one of them spent in a long-distance relationship), his band, which he describes as “Americonscious”—Americana built around positive messaging—played its second Blue Ox, and the two married at the festival’s Soul Sanctuary stage, where daily yoga takes place. “We got the best of both worlds because the wedding itself was small and intimate, and then the reception is 5,000 people.” They wore their wedding clothes all night, and Kurt Vile gave them a shoutout from the stage mid-set. “We couldn’t go more than 10 feet without somebody stopping us and congratulating us.”

The choice to wed at Blue Ox was easy because of the memories of their meet-cute, and how it felt fated. “We both kind of had a feeling before that festival. She says she knew she was gonna meet somebody at the festival. Me, I’d said about a week before the festival that I was entering my player era, like, ‘You know, I never pick up girls on the road. I’m gonna try that.’ But the first girl I met was the one I ended up marrying. It was a very short but very effective era.”

Simon Cropp

Role: Performer (and attendee). Years attending: 2. First year: last year (2025).

Simon had heard about Blue Ox for a decade before he ever set foot on the grounds, and his first time put him on stage before it put him in the crowd, playing in Clare Doyle’s band in 2025. This year he got another invitation back, this time playing with Blue Ox institution Them Coulee Boys.

He also came to see some of the music both years too. Last year’s showpiece was Saint Paul and the Broken Bones, who had a ladder brought out to the middle of the massive crowd mid-set and did a song standing at the top, dressed in dramatic glittering robes. “That was pretty insane.” His other favorite memory from last year was seeing his friends The Last Revel play. “It was this really special moment because Vinnie was just about to have his baby. He and his wife Julia were expecting any moment, and so we’re like, ‘Is Vinnie gonna make it or not?’ He did—and their baby was born shortly thereafter.”

This year he was most excited to see Wisconsin artist (and festival staff member) Hannah Hebl, stage name Hemma, in an early afternoon Backwoods Stage set. “Hannah’s an amazing songwriter, and the band she builds around her is world-class,” he says.

Another especially fun highlight for him was the youth talent show, which takes place on the special Family Stage. “It was amazing: gymnastics, ghost stories, didgeridoo and my personal favorite, a ukulele song about being a frog from the frog’s perspective.”

Asked how Blue Ox compares to other festivals he’s played, Simon points to the atmosphere as much as the music: the familial feeling, the same faces returning year after year. This year that carried extra significance for him, because Simon played pedal steel with his heroes Them Coulee Boys for the band’s farewell Blue Ox performance.

Roisin Thompson, aka Roz

Role: Attendee. Years attending: 5. First year: 2021.

Roz was also drawn by Isbell to her first Blue Ox in 2021, though she was one of the lucky few who caught the second half of his set. “Everybody left,” she recalls. “There were maybe 100 of us left, and they came back out, and I got a pick! I keep it where I used to keep my engagement ring, because that was a turning-point evening for me.”

There was plenty to love in the lineup this year too, of course: “Any chance to catch Daniel Donato live is amazing. Every time I see him I can’t stop watching.” She was also looking forward to I’m With Her and Kurt Vile.

Although she enjoys the big touring acts, that’s not the only thing the Minnesota resident loves about Blue Ox—it’s the hometown heroes energized by the chance to play to relatively huge crowds. “Clare Doyle last year was one of the top three of the whole weekend. The local Twin Cities acts are my favorite people to watch. They have so much energy.”

Midwest act and festival stalwarts Them Coulee Boys—who typically play the slightly smaller Saloon Stage across the bowl from the main one—are always highlights for Roz too. “Their set blew up last year. They came on after a big main-stage act and did their first song, and then Soren had to stop, and he was like, ‘You guys …’ Because no one had left. Everyone had just turned from the main stage and pressed toward them. The whole crowd. I don’t think they were expecting that.

This year, anticipation ran high through the crowd in the days leading up to Them Coulee Boys’ Saturday-night set—their last at Blue Ox before the group disbands. A member of the band and a member of Pert Near Sandstone each brought a kid onstage at different moments, highlighting both the family-friendly atmosphere and how long both bands had been playing Blue Ox. Them Coulee Boys played an even more emotionally charged set than the previous year. Audience members were crying and singing along at full volume, while band members got visibly choked up while talking between songs.

When it ended, emcee Justin Bruhn of Pert Near Sandstone kept the band on stage a little longer, and Roz had a hand in what happened next: Conspiring with Justin ahead of time, she’d distributed flyers through the crowd carrying a few lines of lyrics and simple instructions for what to do with them. After Them Coulee Boys’ final encore of their final Blue Ox set as a band, they stood onstage, overcome with emotion, as fans sang a line of one of their own songs to them a cappella, several times over: “I’m gonna love you, as long as you let me.”

The Method Behind the Magic

After all these interviews, Tom and I were struck by how everyone’s sentiments mirrored ours. We’ve always been enchanted by Blue Ox, and no matter how unique and specific people’s stories were, to a person they expressed a love for the festival that made us realize that the magic we feel every year is a universal experience.

None of that happens by accident or overnight. “The small, stealth, hard-working Blue Ox team has been together for over a decade,” says Karen Wells Verlander, the festival’s press and media director. “Our crew works tirelessly to create a beautiful physical and spiritual environment for the festival, with the ultimate goal of bringing the community of passionate music lovers and the artists together. The team philosophy is very present amongst us all.”

Nate Sipe traces it back to the festival’s roots as an independent family-run operation—not beholden to corporate control or profit demands—and to a crowd that meets that spirit halfway.

“For Pert Near, working with the Bischel Family is really a pleasure,” Sipe says. “People can support the festival knowing they are supporting an independent business that’s directly benefiting Wisconsin and independent artists, and helping it to continue.” He sees high stakes in staying independent: “I don’t believe that level of passion has such a fertile field with larger and more commercial operations, especially ones where it’s clear your movements are being tracked and capitalized upon in every way, to benefit who and where?”

We saw that passion across the board at Blue Ox: in families off stage and on who are brought closer to one another because of the event; in friends having adventures and making memories together. We heard it in everyone’s voices as they described everything from working around hardships to celebrating once-in-a-lifetime milestones. We watched it manifest in an audience that knew how to hold a moment for a band they’re about to lose.

“Some of the most heartfelt moments for me over the years have been observing how the artist on stage and the audience are able to connect,” Nate says. “That’s the feeling of festival bliss and community connection that I look for most at every Blue Ox.”

Twelve years in, that seems to be the thing everyone circles back to: Blue Ox is magic because it’s one big 5,000-person family.

See more of Blue Ox through Tom’s lens in our companion piece Blue Ox 2026 in Photos, coming soon!

Blue Ox website

ABOUT THE AUTHOR & PHOTOGRAPHER

Adventures in Americana co-founder Carol Roth is a novelist who publishes both under her name and the pseudonym T.A. Berkeley in a range of genres, from horror to thriller to YA. She loves to play guitar and sing and occasionally write songs. Her wide-ranging passions also include vegan cooking, personal finance, watching queer romance TV/movies and learning to speak Thai. By day she’s a marketing writer/brand strategist.

Tom is an innovative collaborator with over 20 years of experience in the Minnesota music industry. As a professional photographer, podcaster, and music journalist, sharing stories from the community remains his core passion. When not at a show you can find him at a record store.

The Ins and Outs of Blue Ox