One of the first festivals to get shut down and one of the last to return due to the pandemic, Backwoods music festival is making it’s return to Ozark, Arkansas at Mulberry Mountain this April 20th – 23rd, with a phase one lineup featuring two sets of The String Cheese Incident and headlining acts Big Gigantic, The Floozies and Lettuce.
The funk and psychedelic vibes will run deeper with bands such as Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, Papadosio, Keller Williams, and Boogie T.rio. While the crossover festival will bring dance music favorites G-Rex, The Polish Ambassador, SODOWN, Apashe, Of The Trees, Dirt Monkey and Boogie T, with more to be announced.
“We’re proud to release this lineup that we’ve worked so hard to cultivate for the next Backwoods.” said William Royall, Executive Producer of Backwoods. “We tried to have The String Cheese Incident headline in 2021 but the pandemic prevented their attendance.”
The Backwoods festival press release shares exciting news, an intimate experience with String Cheese, ¨those attendees who purchased tickets after String Cheese was announced last year, and prior to their cancellation in 2021, will receive free tickets to a Late Night Acoustic Taco Party with the band if they have tickets for this year’s festival, while other attendees this year will be offered the additional intimate experience with the band for a nominal fee if they choose to attend. The acoustic jam session will constitute a third performance essentially for The String Cheese Incident, as they plan to perform two headlining sets on the main stage Saturday.”
While the lineup was released over the weekend, Backwoods just announced the replacement of Blunts & Blondes on their bill with KOAN Sound and Jason Leech after last weeks news coverage on possible sexual abuse allegations against Blunts & Blondes.
“While we understand the story is still evolving, we want to send a clear message to our attendees that Backwoods does not stand for this sort of behavior, and that we want to create a safe space for our attendees,” said William Royall, Executive Producer of Backwoods.
2023 marks the 15th year anniversary for the event and the 12th festival to date. Past year’s have created memories and helped turn Backwood´s into one of the biggest camping music festivals in the midwest with sets by STS9, Zeds Dead, Rezz, The Infamous String Dusters, and an extended sunrise set with Yheti.
More than 25,000 people are expected to attend over the four days, with over 150 artists both visual and musical and 80 vendors. Take a look back at prior year´s installations, which has migrated from Oklahoma to the old, vibrant grounds of Wakarusa equipped with a waterfall and more to explore.
