By Charlie Higgins

The word is out, and fans of live music in Sayulita are gearing up for the first annual Sand & Strings Music Festival, which will take place at Frente al Punto Beach Club the weekend of April 5th and 6th, 2024. Reduced price early bird tickets will be on sale until December 31st or while supplies last. Capacity is limited, and tickets are expected to sell out quickly.

This game-changing event will feature an all-star lineup of some of the most beloved artists from the U.S. and Canada’s thriving Americana, bluegrass, indie-folk, roots and singer-songwriter scenes, including The Brothers Comatose, T Sisters, The Mother Hips, Rayland Baxter, The Franklin Electric, The Sweet Lillies, Dead Horses, Handmade Moments, Benjamin Dakota Rogers, Whiskerman, and Willy Tea Taylor, as well as representatives from Mexico City’s alt-folk movement Gran Sur and Vera Pedro.

Other performers include Argentine folk singers Lola Cobach and Fede Petro, Bay Area rising star indie rocker Adam Spry, British Columbia native Anna Katarina, Guadalajaran blues legend Genaro Palacios, and local artists Charlie Higgins & Sunset Station, Holy Hannah! and Eliza Barry. And to finish off the weekend on Saturday night, we’ve invited Bertha: Grateful Drag, a Nashville-based Grateful Dead tribute band comprised of veteran touring musicians that perform in full, fabulous drag. Woohoo!

Picture yourself sitting on a grassy lawn, surrounded by family and friends, listening to exceptional musicians strumming guitars, picking banjos and bowing their fiddles, waves crashing gently in the background as the sun slowly disappears over the Pacific. This is what you can expect at Sand & Strings Music Festival, along with delicious fresh cuisine provided by Terra Viva, Su Pancha Madre and other top restaurants in the area, accompanied by locally produced craft beer, mezcal and tequila.

This eco-conscious event will be working with Circular, a Mexican organization that provides festivals with reusable high-quality cups for beverages, reducing plastic waste to essentially nil—one more reason to feel great about attending this festival. Did I mention kids under 8 get in free of charge, and there will be a designated kids area with a bouncy castle and supervised arts & crafts?

The success of our recent pre-festival event Strum & Friends Local Musicians Showcase at Frente al Punto certainly bodes well for Sand & Strings. The concert, in which local artists Eliza Barry, Rob Cavazzini, Olivia de La Cruz, Isabel Zuleta, Jacq Rae, Dennis Chrisp, Michelle Young, Gabo Gabo Gabo, Jxonas, Zarah Calvert, Beser, Dan McGuire, Marcel Puig, Brad & Lee and Sr. Roskeiro all performed original music, was attended by over 300 people, many of whom stayed from 4 pm until the final note was played. There was magic in the air that night, as these artists proved that appreciation for quality original live music runs deep in this area we all treasure. Canadian pianist, composer and singer Eliza Barry’s performance was especially noteworthy, and she has been chosen to join the lineup for Sand & Strings Music Festival in April 2024.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to building this grassroots initiative, driven by our love of music, especially our sponsors SayulitaLife.com, MexHome, Open Folk and Frente al Punto.Please help us spread the word to ensure this event is one for the books!

We invite all of you to purchase Early Bird tickets at the festival website sandandstringsfest.com, where you’ll find full artist bios, performance schedule, sponsor information and more. Make sure to follow @sandandstringsfest on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube.

See you in April!