The 2nd annual Annapolis Baygrass Music Festival takes place Saturday and Sunday, September 21–22, 2024 on the gorgeous eastern beach at Sandy Point State Park along Chesapeake Bay in Annapolis, MD. Highlighting the finest in regional and national bluegrass, jamgrass, funkgrass, and Americana music, this conservation and community-focused musical event was listed as a “Don’t-Miss Bay Music Festival” by Chesapeake Bay Magazine.
More than a music festival, Annapolis Baygrass maintains its mission to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay. As part of this mission a portion of all proceeds from tickets, food, beverage, and merchandise sales will go to Maryland-based non-profit organizations including Watershed Stewards Academy, Oyster Recovery Partnership, and Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay.
Festival co-founder and CEO Ron Peremel, also a certified watershed steward, spoke with Live For Live Music (L4LM) about the conservation aspects of Baygrass before the inaugural event [“Every Jam Saves The Bay: Annapolis Baygrass Festival Aims For Education & Conservation Through Music,” published Sept 7, 2023]. He tells journalist Andrew O’Brien, “Everybody in this area, they care about the watershed of the Chesapeake Bay. They play, swim, fish, boat, crab in it. They’re economically affected by it. It’s a really important thing that people care about, but don’t know how to fix it. Just by having fun you’re helping to protect this important body of water that affects 19 million people in six states within the Chesapeake Bay watershed and supports over 3,600 species of fish, wildlife, and plants.”
O’Brien writes, “While the event’s name may seem like a simple play on words for a bluegrass festival on the bay, its multiple layers of significance underscore the festival’s mission of preserving and revitalizing the crucial Chesape
ake Bay ecosystem… today, the Chesapeake Bay is ailing. High levels of nitrogen, phosphorous, and sediment from a variety of pollutants have fueled unnaturally high levels of algae growth and clouded the water, blocking sunlight from reaching underwater grasses—or ‘bay grasses’—that serve as both food and habitat and also smothering bottom-dwelling species like oysters, which naturally filter the bay’s water.”
Peremel, explained to Live For Live Music of the event’s unique appeal, “The Oyster Recovery Partnership, in particular, embodies that approach. The organization will add to the Baygrass formula by educating about and furthering its oyster recycling program, which partners with local restaurants and food suppliers to actively re-plant the shells of harvested oysters, a process that both maintains the shells’ crucial filtration and anti-erosion properties in the ecosystem and preserves the sustainability of local businesses that rely on the bay’s natural resources. ‘Eat an oyster, plant an oyster, and you’re doing something great for the bay.”
“You don’t have to be technical,” Peremel added. “All you gotta do is show up and you’re doing something…As we like to say, every jam saves the bay!”
Read the full in depth interview from 2023 at Live For Live Music:
Learn more about Annapolis Baygrass Music Festival and Buy Tickets at BaygrassFestival.com