David Grisman plays with the Folk Jazz Trio Friday at the Walton Arts Center as part of the Fayetteville Roots Festival.

  • David Grisman plays with the Folk Jazz Trio Friday at the Walton Arts Center as part of the Fayetteville Roots Festival.

FAYETTEVILLE ROOTS FESTIVAL
Various times and venues. $25-$249.

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In extremely short order, the Fayetteville Roots Festival has grown from a plucky yet small-scale affair into a four-day, multi-venue, big-name folk extravaganza, with a huge music lineup, a variety of other goings-on and major sponsors. The event is billed as “a music, food and culture festival showcasing Fayetteville in its natural state,” and even a cursory glance at the offerings would confirm that assertion.

First off, the lineup this year includes the virtuosic David Grisman Folk Jazz Trio as the Friday night headliner and John Prine, one of the best songwriters ever, as the Saturday night headliner. In addition to those veteran performers, there are more than 50 others who’ll be playing at venues all over town, including the Walton Arts Center, George’s Majestic Lounge, Greenhouse Grille, Kingfish, the Fayetteville Public Library, the farmer’s market and more.

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The festival’s principal organizers — Bayard Blain and Bernice and Bryan Hembree, of the folk/Americana trio 3 Penny Acre, and Chef Jerrmy Gawthrop, of Greenhouse Grille — have put together something pretty amazing.

There are a variety of ticket packages available, such as passes that’ll get you into all the shows and include meals made with locally sourced foods from a variety of area restaurants. You can also get single-venue tickets for some of the performances, but either way, you should probably move quickly. The full schedule is available here.

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