Outside of headlining acts, festival-goers were led on a journey of heady delights–with bits of magic hidden behind every corner: busker, kids and late night sets, intimate secret sets, second-lines at the beginning and ending of every day of performances, fireside jams, healing workshops, interactive artistic installments, live artists, a cereal bar and plenty of bubbles.
Day One: Americana Roots & Bubble Bugaloo
Day one of this year's Ramble Festival kicked off with heartfelt Americana tunes, floating bubbles and a vibe that soothed the soul.
Singer-songwriter Caleb Stine began the weekend's musical performances. Following were sets by Feather + Flask, Town Mountain, lespecial, Maygden & The Birdwatcher, The Devil Makes Three, with two late-night sets from Shadow Mountain, a collaborative set from Mountain Town and Shadowgrass and ending with lespecial's late-late-night set.
Feather + Flask, is a four piece folk groove band from Havre de Grace, Maryland. When they spoke to us about their music they remarked, "Our goal for playing music is not only to have fun…. we're trying to provoke a cathartic release of deep emotions and create a sense of oneness with the audience," said lead guitarist and vocalist, Jack Quinn.
That sentiment was felt throughout the audience and perfectly describes the underlying goal felt at the earth of The Ramble Festival–to be reunited in oneness, community, and humanness.
The Devil Makes Three performed on the main stage on Friday evening–wrapping up the first day of main performances. Red lights cast on the stage, bubbles set as the backdrop with a bright half moon overhead, the band's soulful Americana sounds met with hopeful lyrics about human suffering in an uplifting way to create an uplifting setting. The band played "Old Number Seven" and a quick crowd favorite, "Champagne and Reefer."
The evening extended into the late night at the Ramble Stage in the festival ground's barn, where Shadow Mountain, a collaborative set between Town Mountain and Shadowgrass performed an intimate thumpy grass song filled set–including Radiohead's "Creep," with the audience's added participation in vocals.
The highly anticipated late night set by Lespecial followed with crunchy, gritty, heavy jams. The band played "Sandstorm" by Daruda, "Sandman" by Metallica and were later joined by Natalie Brooke on the keytar.
Day Two: Funk, Brass & French Quarter Frenzy
The festival roared into day two with brass and funk-driven tunes and vibrant New Orleans-inspired energy for a day filled with grooving.
Julia Kasdorf, the winner of The 2023 Ramble Festival's busking competition, kicked off the day of musical performances. Followed by Whiskey Feathers, Sneezy, 5 Spot, Issac Hadden, a kid's set by Will Evans, Fireside Collective, Uncle Kunkle's One Gram Band, Andy Frasco & The U.N., Hustle Souls, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue and late night set performers, Fiery Sneeze (another brilliant band mash-up of Fireside Collective and Sneezy) and Solar Circuit.
The band Sneezy played a high-energy set filled with funk to kick off the early evening. The band was expressive and refreshingly different. Bouncing from groove-centric jams to songs with goofy lyrics, like "Sneezy" and "Fat Girlfriend." The band was not afraid to play out high-energy antics on the stage that fueled the audience. Mid-set, the lead guitar player and the lead vocalist ran around behind the stage during a jam and met back on stage together to finish out the song with the rest of the band.
5 Spot, a Baltimore-based band, opened up the Ramble Stage for the day at the barn. The band's female vocalist, Rachel May, recently made her debut at the 2024 Charm City Bluegrass Festival in Baltimore earlier this year. 5 Spot brings a uniquely psychedelic-jam experience reminiscent of the late 60s and early 70s–especially highlighted in the band's rendition of "For What It's Worth," by Buffalo Springfield. The band performed originals showcasing their talent for creating harmonic trippy sounds. One of the most special aspects of 5 Spot's performance was that in 2022, a shy Rachel May entered Ramble Festival's busking competition and won. After her experience at The Ramble Festival, she quit her day job and immersed herself full-time into her music career. Fast forward two years, and not only was Rachel May performing at The Ramble Festival - but the festival hired her to perform as a bonafide and cherished Baltimore musician. The magic of The Ramble Festival as musical magic and opportunities came full circle.
Second-year veterans of The Ramble Festival, Uncle Kunkel’s One Gram Band followed up on the Ramble Stage. Appearing comfortable during their set, the band created a funky, rock-heavy experience inside the barn. Jams filled the space with heavy sounds ranging from crunch to funk and back to rock again to get the Baltimore-based fans, old and new, ready to party for the evening.
As with every Ramble Festival - there was magic pouring out of every corner of the festival. Just like last year, there were pop-ups and secret sets taking place. If you were lucky enough, as you walked down towards the pond, you could find Shadowgrass performing in front of a cabin. The Ramble Festival always keeps festivalgoers on their toes. Did you see Hayley Jane performing her secret set down at the pond on the first day? Regrettably, neither did we.
Andy Frasco & The U.N. took the main stage on Saturday night. In true form, Frasco opened his set with an off-the-wall comment, looking out into the crowd, "Man, is that a hot dog and a woman making out right now? Man, that hot dog is getting pregnant tonight!"
Andy Frasco & The U.N. excels at replicating party antics and providing the audience with a vibe that they're into the band's practice space–in their college basement. Artist at large, Hayley Jane joined on stage for vocal jams and spread dynamic energy for a rockstar performance.
Mid-way into the set, Frasco announced that after 15 years, that he and his band had "finally" signed into a label deal. He related their project to the cockroaches of the jam scene. But with his news, he shared an inspiring message for the audience: if there's a desired dream, that it should be pursued without stopping, it doesn't matter how long it takes, it could take an entire lifetime, but that shouldn't matter, do it anyway.
For Yom Kippur, Andy announced that in honor of being at a "Jewish Summer Camp," on Yom Kippur and as he is Jewish himself, he honored the day with the addition of the Shofar (the ram's horn) during a song performance.
In addition to sharing the band's news, Frasco shared a heart-warming moment—that his mother just received news of her cancer being in its second remission. He shared that after the initial news of his mother having cancer and he sang the song every day until she went into remission the first time. He declared that he would continue to sing the song again every day for his mother until he was 90 years old. We know that every member of The Ramble Tribe would also be there to sing along side with Frasco.
To wrap up his set, Frasco shared one last heart-warming message, asking the audience to find a member in the crowd to hug and remind them that all are all worthy of love, because "we're all just humans doing the best that we can."
Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue closed out the main events and brought the party. The audience grooved the night away to several funky brass tones, including their biggest hit, "Do To Me," "Rollin'" by Limp Bizkit and "Jump" by Kris Kross.
Day Three: Surprise Guests, Jam Out & Onesie Day
The final day was filled with many types of jams, groovy, funky, crunchy, psychedelic and beyond. One of the things that sets The Ramble Festival apart from other festivals is that some regional musicians decide to just come to the festival with instruments in hand and join in on the fun. Just a few days before the festival kicked off, Baltimore musical royalty, Cris Jacobs, announced he would come up to The Ramble Festival and join in. No money was exchanged; Jacobs just decided he could not sit out on such a magical festival just outside Baltimore.
The psychedelic punk-grass band Sicard Hollow kicked off the final day of music. It was followed by Just Right, Naptown Brass Band, a kid's set by Scrambled Greg (of Pigeons Playing Ping Pong), Shadowgrass, the 2024 Busking Competition, Natalie Brooke, Big Something, two sets of moe., and a late-night set by Big Something and Friends.
After experiencing the Naptown Brass Band during every second line, the audience got to feel the magic of a full set of their lively music when they took the stage at the Beer Hall. Bringing a lot of energy to the audience with big, bold, brass and heavy-drum sounds they performed a range of hits, including Mark Ronson's "Funk it Up," Grateful Dead's "Aiko Aiko" into "The Women Are Smarter," Beyonce's "Put a Ring On It," and Santana's "Oy Como Va."
Natalie Brooke, absolutely tore it up during her day set in the Beer Hall. She played Elton John's "My Life," among several other popular hits. Her sound was large and the audience's energy could be heard from outside of the venue. Some say "Never Miss A Sunday Show" to which we say "Never Miss A Natalie Brooke Show". Her set ended with an over-the-top explosive version, "Anyhow" by Tedeschi Trucks Band, featuring Hayley Jane and Cris Jacobs.
Sneezy provided a secret set right in front of the Beer Hall and after a super-lively performance the day before, this set was intimate and chill–fitting the tone of a Sunday afternoon. The small audience felt connected with each other and the band.
The sun shone brightly and audience members spread bubbles all around the fans who gathered to tune into the glimpse of magic. The band created an atmosphere that allowed old and new fans to ask questions.
On Friday, a festival go-er placed painted rocks with the names of performing artists throughout the festival grounds for others to find. A really special moment occurred when a young boy asked the lead singer to sign the Sneezy rock. Sneezy frontman Brett O'Connor looked in disbelief that someone had created a Sneezy-painted rock, and with joy, he celebrated this magical appearance and passed the newly found treasure around to band members as the band created magic for all to see in front of the Beer Hall.
Big Something took the main stage on Sunday evening, and they came in roaring with big sound and heavy-crunchy jams. The band opened with Tumbleweed and drove right into "The Breakers." Lining it up with a "Waves" followed by "Clouds." We peered to the side of the stage and saw Natalie Brooke running with an instrument box in tow. After running up the stage steps, she plugged and helped unleash a funktastic "Megalodon" with Big Something. This was followed by "Baltimore" by Nina Simone with a sit-in from Cris Jacobs on guitar and vocals. The set ended with a very heavy "Bob and Weave" with Al Schnier of moe. on the guitar, leaving the audience gassed up and ready to go, prepped for moe. and wanting more from Big Something.
What fans love most about moe. is their total eclectic expression and their wide variability, never knowing which fantastic version will appear. At this particular event, moe. took the ambient trippadelic route, with the most metaphoric summary of the entire 2024 Ramble Festival experience. Two sets of ambient Moe. classics morphed into long-winded journey's to peaks that brought the audience to the early 70s. The keyboardist brought out a flute, dropping the audience right back into the past era and with clean jam breaks bringing the audience back into 2024. Our artist-at-large, Hayley Jane, was not done with her exhaustive day of sit ins as she helped bring down the house with moe. For the band's second set of the evening, Cris Jacobs joined in for a truly jamtastic journey that rocked the soul.
Following moe.'s two sets, the audience headed to the barn for the final performance of the evening–Big Something and Friends, featuring sit-ins from Greg Ormont, Hayley Jane, Issac Hadden, Natalie Brooke and Michael Feeny of The Wright Avenue.
A magical moment occurred during the band's final song, "Love Generator." For the second year in a row, an engagement proposal happened at The Ramble Festival. Will this become an even more fantastic tradition to add the festival experience? Suspicions say yes, but even more reason to stay tuned.
Epilogue: The Music Never Stopped
The Ramble Festival is a reminder of musical festivals past – the special festivals that highlight the connection between the festival attendees, artists, musicians, and beyond.
"I've always wished I could've experienced the magic, music, and freedom of the 60s and 70s, and this weekend [at The Ramble Festival], that dream came true," says first-time Ramble Festival Attendee Aidan Brown.
It's almost indescribable to share the magic of this festival–it's an experience that has to be felt to be understood. Magic is found in the tiniest moments; it's like experiencing what it feels like to be a song played by a musician playing their own written music.
"Believe me when I say The Ramble Festival is like no other. A time machine to what festivals must've been like—it brings art, music, food, and some of the most amazing people you'll ever meet all to one place."
Aiden Brown // First Time Ramble Festival Attendee
"Believe me when I say The Ramble Festival is like no other," says Brown. "A time machine to what festivals must've been like—it brings art, music, food, and some of the most amazing people you'll ever meet all to one place."
The Ramble Festival will return to Camp Ramblewood for its fourth year on October 10-12, 2025. You can purchase tickets for Ramble 2025 here.
