Bluegrass music in Europe

The Boatswain Brothers play Didmarton mainstage 2023

Bluegrass music was conceived in the Appalachian region of the United States, drawing its roots from other countries in which it has since become a notable art form. Participants in European bluegrass scenes have mixed local musical elements with specifically American elements to create their own takes on the genre. Over the past 90 years Bluegrass music has spread from the hills of Appalachia in the United States to create small communities of musicians and listeners in over 62 countries in Europe.

England

In the late 1950s the UK skiffle scene began to birth a bluegrass community that grew throughout the folk-revival of the 60s and 70s. Bluegrass's roots in the Celtic music of the British isles suited the ear and was accepted by the public.

In 1963, American bluegrass musician Bill Clifton moved to Kent, England and became a pivotal figure in the popularization of the genre in the country. He played the first bluegrass show in a major European venue where he sold out the Royal Albert Hall to 7000 people with his band the Echo Mountain Boys, a group of schoolboys from Sevenoaks, Kent including the Townend Brothers and Robert Winquest. His work with the BBC, producing bluegrass radio-show further helped popularize the music.

On March 11, 1966 the Stanley Brothers made their one and only performance in the UK (also at the Royal Albert Hall) as a part of the Festival of American Folk and Country Music that served as a catalyst for promoting bluegrass across europe. 18 shows were played across Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark and England. Interviews with local brits in Bluegrass Today magazine show how this performance left a lasting impact on many of those who witnessed it.

U.K. Bluegrass Festivals

1977 saw the creation of Edale Bluegrass festival by British bluegrass musician Tom Travis (cite travis website), This was the first large scale bluegrass festival in the UK and hosted performances by Allison Krauss and Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys

Tony rice played the Cambridge folk festival in 1977 with the Grisman Quintet

Didmarton bluegrass festival started 1988

Spain/Italy

One pioneering band that introduced bluegrass to at least sixty-two countries, including Spain and Italy, was the McLain Family Band of Berea, Kentucky. In addition to bands touring, bluegrass was introduced to foreign countries, such as Spain and Italy, through the use of records, CDs, and radio. Festivals have also been instrumental in exhibiting the virtuosity, technique, sound, soul, and intensity of bluegrass. The acoustic, participative, fresh sound and vocal harmonies with instrumental solos have helped captivate and create Bluegrass fans in foreign countries.

The International Bluegrass Music Association, IBMA, was established in 1985 to promote the success of the worldwide bluegrass community. In 1998, the European bluegrass community held its first annual World of Bluegrass event with the assistance of IBMA. Two specific countries that have been involved in spreading bluegrass are Spain and Italy.

The bluegrass community in Spain is small, but enthusiastic. It focuses in Barcelona, Madrid, and Bilbao. They have attempted to establish annual events in Barcelona, with the most popular being the Al Ras Festival, which started in 1998, and Nofugrass Fest, which began in 2016.

Italy started an annual Italian Bluegrass Meeting held in Ramona each year for the purpose of addressing musicians and fans of bluegrass music.  In 2005, Italy started the Acoustic Guitar Camp held in the town of Falcade, on Italy's Dolomites, where guitarists from all over the world join in an international community of musicians to share learning experiences.

Ireland

Irish music has had an immense impact on the folk and mountain music that would someday become bluegrass music. Scottish and Irish settlers brought their instruments such as the fiddle and styles of instrument playing to the Appalachian Mountains, as well as their tunes and songs. Ireland's leading bluegrass festival is Westport Folk & Music Festival, established in 2007 by Uri Kohen. The festival takes place in the town center over the span of June 7–9. There are three main evening concerts with jams in the center's pubs and hotels.

In June 2024, the festival created a collaboration between three major traditional education programs: the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at University of Limerick, the Bluegrass, Old Time, and Roots Music Program at East Tennessee State University, and The Centre of Popular Music at Middle Tennessee University.

Czech Republic

As early as the 19th century, people in what is now the Czech Republic were fascinated with the American Wild West. This was part of a movement called tramping in which people would enjoy hiking, craftsmanship, and playing American music. In the 1950's, Czech people would listen to country and bluegrass music from American military radio. It wouldn't be until the 1960's until bluegrass began to take hold in then Czechoslovakia. In 1964, Pete Seeger held a series of concerts in the country that would introduce its people to the 5-string banjo for the first time. The first bluegrass festival in Europe, Banjo Jamboree was held at Čáslav in 1972. At this time, the Czech Republic was under Soviet rule. All of the bands in the country at the time were forbidden from singing their songs in English. So, the Czech bluegrass bands would rewrite the songs in Czech. After the success of the Velvet Revolution in 1989, communist rule was over and western influence poured in. Bluegrass' popularity ballooned to one of the nations biggest genres.

Some of the biggest acts in the Czech bluegrass scene are Drúha Tráva, The Malina Brothers, and Greenhorns. Drúha Tráva was even selected to play for President Obama at Prauge Castle in 2011. Popular bluegrass festivals include the aforementioned Banjo Jamboree and Kosodrevina, which takes place atop a Slovakian mountain.

The Netherlands

Bluegrass music started becoming more known in the Netherlands during the folk music revival in the 1960s, with The Dutch Bluegrass Boys being the first band to record bluegrass music in the Netherlands in 1969.

In 1983, the Dutch bluegrass band Jerrycan received critical acclaim from Les McIntyre in the American bluegrass magazine Bluegrass Unlimited, stating: "Their debut album "Stony Man Mountain," is a showcase for some of the most superlative bluegrass on either side of the Atlantic Ocean". Their lead singer Theo Lissenberg went on to play with 4 Wheel Drive, a 5-piece Dutch bluegrass band that became the first to play at the International Bluegrass Music Awards in 2002.

The Dutch singer Bertolf released a bluegrass album in 2023 called "Bluefinger", recorded with renowned American bluegrass artists such as Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan and Mark Schatz.

There is a variety of annual bluegrass festivals and gatherings that happen in the Netherlands. European World of Bluegrass in the small town of Voorthuizen is an annual festival that was first organized by Paolo Dettwiler from Switzerland in 1998. At this festival the most important part of the event is the campsite, where people meet and jam. After the 2017 edition, the festival almost ended due to redevelopment plans the local municipality had for the festival site. The organization managed to negotiate a substitute location with the local municipality and returned in 2022.

The Rotterdam Bluegrass Festival in the historic port city of Rotterdam started as a small gathering with 250 visitors in 2009 and, after a 2 year break, grew into a large annual festival celebrating it's tenth edition in 2022 with over 10.000 people attending.