Roots + Wings with Rory Feek
My wife joey and I used to put on a yearly music festival here at our farm called the Bib & Buckle Fest. Held the first weekend in June from 2009 ’til 2013, they were single-day affairs where singers and songwriter friends would join us to play music, and we’d have games and serve burgers from about 2 pm until after dark. It was open to everyone, with only a small entrance fee.
Some of the festivals were held in our front yard, using our front porch as a make-shift stage. The front lawn of our farmhouse would be filled with a thousand people in lawn chairs. Put on each year by Joey and me, along with friends and family, The Bib & Buckle gradually moved to the backfield and grew to a couple of thousand people by the last year. At that last one, in 2013, the performers took turns doing sets on a hay wagon until a torrential downpour came and scattered everyone into the wind. In the end, as the evening turned beautiful again, the remaining 500 or so people joined us inside a big tent, and we sang and told stories ’til well after sunset.
We decided to put them on hold for a while as our little girl Indiana arrived the next year, and then a few years after that, Joey passed away. Although I was often asked through the ensuing years if I’d ever start the Bib & Buckle Festival back up, I usually answered, “We’ll have to wait and see,” although I knew well the answer was no. I knew in my heart that inviting folks from all over to come here to the farm to spend a day listening to music wasn’t enough for me anymore. After all we’d been through, if it was ever going to happen again, it was going to have to be for something more meaningful than that. Although I had no idea what that might be until a couple of years ago.
After being invited to take part in the Homesteaders of America annual event in Virginia in 2019, and then hosting some smaller Homesteading events here in our concert hall the following year or two, I was inspired to create a weekend that would combine the fun of having music and entertainment in the evenings with the opportunity for people to spend the days learning helpful skills and knowledge that could make their lives better. So, the idea for The Homestead Festival was born…
Tickets are on sale for the 2023 Homestead Festival!
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Rory Feek is a world-class storyteller, songwriter, filmmaker, and New York Times best-selling author. As a musical artist, Rory is one-half of the Grammy-award-winning duo, Joey+Rory. He and his wife, Joey, toured the world and sold nearly a million records, before her untimely passing in March 2016.
