Kentucky’s Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum has announced a special farewell celebration to close out its Jerry Garcia: A Bluegrass Journey exhibit. The two-night event, set for March 13th–14th, will feature live performances, workshops, panel discussions, film screenings, and guided tours of the exhibit celebrating Jerry’s influence and connection to bluegrass.
Sam Grisman Project will perform on Friday, March 13th, followed by Keller Williams’ Grateful Grass on Saturday, March 14th. Both nights will also include a special Jerry & Dawg Revisited tribute set honoring the musical partnership between Garcia and David “Dawg” Grisman, with a lineup featuring Joe Craven, Jim Kerwin, Stu Allen, and Ronnie McCoury. Additional event details and the full schedule will be released soon.
Weekend passes include access to all events and a reserved seat for both nights. Those traveling to Owensboro for the Farwell weekend can also take advantage of the city’s dining, riverfront attractions, and nearby hotel accommodations—all just steps away from the Hall of Fame.
For more information and to purchase tickets head here.
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Opened in 2024, Jerry Garcia: A Bluegrass Journey examines how Jerry’s bluegrass roots shaped the musician he ultimately became. The exhibit traces Garcia’s early affinity for bluegrass which inspired him to develop his skills as an ace banjo player, forming early groups like the Black Mountain Boys and the Hart Valley Drifters.
The exhibit also examines a fateful 1964 road trip that could have spelled the end of the Grateful Dead before the band ever even existed. Before the Acid Tests or the Summer of Love, Garcia and his friend Sandy Rothman loaded into Jerry’s Corvair and headed east. They set out to find the bluegrass contemporaries who are now considered pillars of the genre like Bill Monroe and the Osborne Brothers, but Garcia eventually felt homesick and returned to his beloved Bay Area. Once back in San Francisco, he formed Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions, which became The Warlocks, and ultimately the Grateful Dead.
The Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame utilizes rare artifacts including 12 of Garcia’s personal instruments, rare recordings, and more to construct a narrative in the 1,000-square-foot gallery. Historians also conducted over 20 new interviews to tell the story, conversing with David Nelson, Eric Thompson, Sandy Rothman, David Grisman, Peter Rowan, Sara Ruppenthal Katz, Carolyn “Mountain Girl” Garcia, Dennis McNally, Del McCoury, Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Sam Bush, Vince Herman, and more for a wide-ranging perspective of how Jerry has affected bluegrass through the decades.
