I am still terribly devastated that I missed last year’s Muddy Roots, because it broke my perfect streak of having been to them all. I have been spending many years structuring this website to be my retirement. I want to spend all of my golden years supporting my favorite bands and my favorite festivals all over America, and I will attend Muddy every year I possibly can!
I cannot tell you how many times I have witnessed some of the most amazing legends of the world of music at this festival and the many festival variants that Mr. Jason has created through the years. I really do miss the Nashville Boogie for sure; it truly was a lot to take in at one time for me. But yeah, to be absolutely certain. There is no better festival to me than Muddy Roots and I wanted to take some time here to share the poster and tell you folks just why I love it so much. Perhaps you are a onetime attendee, or you are considering coming out to 2025? Please Do. And I truly hope that this article helps you learn whatever information you seek.
For those of you who I already call family, this article isn’t for you because our job is to help all of the new family members become more familiar with things. The front office/ ticket booth is a bar called Scooter’s and it is on the Junebug Ranch, and I am going to answer many of the already being asked questions about Muddy. This map here is something I wish I would have had in 2010, let alone anything else however through the years so much has changed at least there is one now.
Yes, you can pretty much almost set up camp anywhere you want, and yes you can have fires. additionally, to be frank, there is more camping area than is on the map and yes, they come around with a truck that sells ice, and they will fill up kiddie pools for camping areas. The showers fill up FAST so, set aside ample time to wait for the shower and bring something to hang up clothes upon in the shower, unless you want dry clothes on wet cement floors. They are usually in good condition and actually quite nice.
They also did some work on the drainage systems on the ranch, so perhaps we will not have the flooding issues that we had in the past where pirates plundered our porta potties. I have attended a wedding, many memorial services, I watched many of your kids grow up. I went to one graduation! Visited many of you in the hospital in the past, and many of you have visited my home in the past. You set up camp and meet your neighbors for the weekend and believe me when I say that it starts from there and keeps going. There are no hook ups for RV’s but everyone uses generators and all that.
The most popular question that every person asks me is what main two things to not forget about, and those two things would be foot powder and lots of dry socks. 90% of the weekends I have been there in the years have been excruciatingly hot. Like dangerously hot. Prepare for every sort of ordeal with weather you can prepare for, rain wear and clothes, and prepare for heat and dust if it’s dry.
This festival isn’t like many others because the three stages are close enough to enjoy all 3 of them together easily, and chairs are acceptable everywhere you go. Look, it’s like this…use common sense. You can’t set chairs up in the sound booth! But pretty much all over elsewhere you can. The vendors are all pretty affordable and water is easy to find and encouraged..they will tell you this is a marathon and not a sprint race, and you won’t be paying 6.00 for it either. ANYONE can come see me for FREE insulin. I will be more than happy to share it with you if it’s a dire emergency.
I have a few medical conditions, and I do not camp any longer in tents, and I do not have a camper, so I usually stay the La Quinta Inn right off I 40. My good friend Luther uses air BnB’s, and he said they were quite nice, however if your budget is smaller then there are quite a few cheaper motels in Cookeville about 20 minutes from the ranch.
I will also be including all of the daily stage schedules and times of all of the bands for the weekend, and I wanted to touch on more memories I have from this festival and why it is one of my favorites. Many of the bands that brought upon this love are playing this very weekend again. If I am correct, The Calamity Cubes was the first band to sign up for 2010 the very first Muddy. Nonetheless, I remember seeing them and many of the other bands I found at that time. That period in time I was actively seeking out new music to heal from a divorce. This festival was exactly what my life needed to become complete.
Many of these bands that are NOW juggernaut Ampitheater acts like Silverada (at the time they were Mike and The Moonpies), The Dead South, Margo Price, and MANY more played festivals like this one before they were “big time”…they were just as special to me then as they are now. I would have paid Jason and his team the same price I would now for many of them! So many legends have blessed us in song in the past, Shaver, Bobby Bare, Little Jimmy Dickens, (it’s MORE than Country) Gza, D.R.I. Sleep…it goes on and on.
The phone signal problem has slowly been getting better over the last few years and the year before last, I had great service all weekend. A couple times I used my tablet but mostly I use paper notes and pens to make most of my notes for the bands and what all transpires there. Each year I do my best to bring you the happenings there and I try my best to deliver this in a way that does two things: Helps persuade potential new attendees to come enjoy it and also help those that cannot come feel like they went.
Another point I wanted to make to you is if you enjoy drinking DO NOT DRIVE OUT they DO watch the exit and you WILL be held responsible. You can literally walk around with a bottle of liquor and as long as you act respectfully about it nobody is bothered. I am not and I have been sober for 5 years now. Overall, everyone is decent folks that I love very much and I will tell you this. If you are new and thinking about coming and you need ANYTHING you can come to me 24 7 and I will do everything in my power to help you with your issue or direct you to one of the people that can. I myself felt uneasy the first year until I met the first few people and from there it boomed.
Did I mention there are waterfalls down the road that you can ride on a shuttle wagon to get to daily? In fact, it is a whole separate venue itself. For a nominal fee they will provide a safe way to get down there and you don’t have to drive or park or worry about anything. They are super nice folks that own that property now.
Update:
A couple of things.
1. Waterloo Falls Waterfall Shuttle 10am-6pm Fri/Sat/Sun
2. Craft Beer Tasting & Swap back of Big Tent 12pm Saturday
3. Group photo after Faerie Ring at the wood stage on Friday. Be there!
4. Waterloo Falls Busking Stage on the festival grounds where the shuttle picks you up for the waterfall. More info coming soon for this.
5. Church Sunday Morning 10am Lil Tent with Benjamin Whitehead
6. Group photo at the Muddy Letters up top 10:30am Friday
7. Yoga Fri/Sat/Sun 9am Big Tent with 8 Fold Yoga
More activities will be posted as we gather the info from people. We have a post on the muddy roots camping Facebook group where we’re posting info.
