Rooster Walk 15 was the kind of music festival where a stranger just couldn’t help but tap you on the arm in the middle of a song to tell you, “Jeff Sipe is incredible.”
Sipe is the legendary jam band drummer who co-founded Col. Bruce Hampton & The Aquarium Rescue Unit and is a regular member of the Rooster Walk House Band. Each year, the festival recruits several “artists at large” to play a handful of sets together and to sit in with other bands. House Band members might end up playing all or part of five or six sets during the four-day event.
Rooster Walk House Band Rooster Walk Music Festival — Martinsville, VA — 5/23/25 — Full Audio
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The presence of a rock-solid, longtime pro like Sipe at Rooster Walk is a good indication of how carefully the festival chooses its musicians. And random exclamations from strangers show modern audiences still have an ear for quality musicianship.
The comment-worthy set for which Sipe was drumming was a Rooster Walk special—two young guitarists performing together for the first time. In this case, electric guitar wunderkind Isaac Hadden and bluegrass acoustic picker Kyser George (both House Band members) in a performance billed as “Guitarmageddon: Isaac and Kyser Destroy the World.” They did not actually wreck the planet, but they certainly sent many fans into rapturous orbit, as evidenced by a comment from another fan: “That was 100 percent awesome.”
Rooster Walk 15 was also an event where you could see big names. Modern bluegrass merchants Trampled By Turtles headlined; psychedelic funk blasters Lettuce delivered the mind-melting goods; alt-folk unicorn Keller Williams played with the House Band and even did a brunch set; Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country took the crowd on a journey from Hank Williams’ front porch to Mars; and Andy Frasco & The U.N. hosted a high-energy rockin’ party with lots of guests on stage and everybody else invited to dance.
“Virginia has become one of our staples now,” Frasco said. “They love us here, and we love this beautiful country and beautiful people. I’m going to keep coming out here as much as I can.”
Pop’s Farm, the longtime home of Rooster Walk, truly is stunning. Its rolling hills form two natural amphitheaters, its pond creates a gorgeous backdrop for the Lake Stage, and its tall trees make it easy to hang hammocks by the Pine Grove Stage. The meadows and farm fields have become campgrounds and RV parking, and the place manages to feel expansive and cozy at the same time.
A tram that looks straight out of a Florida theme park ferries happy patrons around the site. Staff and volunteers are friendly and helpful, and it seems that everyone you meet is in a good mood, regardless of how hard they partied the night before. Kids are running around everywhere, faces painted, dressed as butterflies, speeding down a slip n’ slide, dancing wildly, covered in ice cream, parents beaming.
“I’ve heard great things about it—a good friend of mine said it was amazing,” said patron David Heilman, explaining why he came to his first Rooster Walk. “But when I got here, it was more than that. There’s a family feel to it. Everyone’s just so nice, it’s beautiful grounds. It’s just a fantastic weekend.”
One of Rooster Walk’s slogans is “appreciate the present.” The festival was born after two of the founders’ childhood friends, Edwin “The Rooster” Penn and Walker Shank, passed away in their mid-20s. Turning tragedy into an enduring celebration of life, the nonprofit’s proceeds go back into the community.
The festival’s revenue benefits a college scholarship, the Penn-Shank Memorial Scholarship Fund, at their alma mater, Martinsville High School. It also supports RW’s Music Instrument Program, which refurbishes old band instruments and donates them to entry-level band programs in the Martinsville City and Henry County public school systems. To date, Rooster Walk has raised more than $350,000 for these programs and other local and regional charities.
Rooster Walk 15 was the kind of music festival where you could watch more than one person with easels set up, painting musical acts during their sets, canvases alive with visual representations of sound.
It was a festival where indefinable and uncategorizable Sol Driven Train played Led Zeppelin and Temple of the Dog, led the annual kids’ parade, and had a drum circle on stage. Where eclectic jam-rockers Kendall Street Company played rhythms that sounded like Tool with lyrics about Goldilocks and later pretended to be a German band called Sauerkraut. Where Americana veterans Yarn continued a multi-year Rooster Walk tradition of closing the festival with a tribute set: This time around billed as “Neil Yarng” as they joyfully cranked out Neil Young classics.
Sol Driven Train — Rooster Walk Music Festival — Martinsville, VA — 5/25/25 — Full Video
Yarn (a.k.a. Neil Yarng) — Rooster Walk Music Festival — Martinsville, VA — 5/25/25 — Full Video
“If I were to say no to this festival, I’d be an idiot,” said Yarn singer/guitarist Blake Christiana, whose band has played 11 straight Rooster Walks and recently released a live vinyl record recorded at the festival in 2024. “I don’t know what we did right to let them into our family like this, because they’ve helped us a lot. Every year we curse Johnny (Buck, the festival’s executive director) for this tribute set, and every year I’m so happy I got to learn the songs that I decided to learn.”
The unexpected happened every day at Rooster Walk 15, like when funk party band Sneezy debuted a ballad honoring a former band member who took his own life two years ago. Moments earlier, the band was singing about “Crazy Amazing Good Things”, and the next, tears were streaming as they played the cathartic “Something From Nothing”.
On other stages, Ramona and the Holy Smokes played Mexi-tonk, a mix of traditional Mexican folk music and honky-tonk that felt familiar, old-school, and completely fresh. Deau Eyes delivered three stylistically different sets, playing an intimate brunch set Saturday morning with Keller Williams before rocking out with her own band in the afternoon at Pine Grove, and capping it off with a Sunday performance at the VIP stage that struck a balance between her previous sets. Dangermuffin was back for its fifth appearance at Rooster Walk, bringing its sunny pop-rock now augmented by the recent addition of mandolinist Andrew Hendryx.
A lot of people found a new favorite band at Rooster Walk 15. Maybe it was bluegrass pickers Town Mountain, Shadowgrass, or Wilson Springs Hotel; alt-hip-hop from Ghost-Note or Little Stranger; or reggae from Dale and the ZDubs or Mighty Joshua.
Or perhaps they were just happy to follow Jeff Sipe from stage to stage. He is incredible, after all.
Rooster Walk 16 is scheduled for May 21st–24th, 2026. There’s no lineup available yet, so tickets are on sale now at “blind faith” prices—the lowest price they will be offered.
Check out some photo galleries from Rooster Walk 15 courtesy of photographers Gina Elliott Proulx and Cloud Bobby.
