Reflections from Sunshine Hootenanny & A New Front Yard

In Episode 65 I'm announcing our first-ever media residency at Florida Sand Music Ranch, recapping Sunshine Hootenanny 2025, and laying out an ambitious plan for on-the-ground festival coverage and live streaming throughout 2026.

This episode packs a lot in, so thanks for hanging with me. 

The biggest news is also the most personal: Music Festivals Podcast has officially entered its first-ever media residency, and this time, my front yard is permanent — at least for a while. Angus and I are now set up full-time at Florida Sand Music Ranch in Brooksville, Florida, where we’ll be living and working on site from December through April.

GROWING FESTIVAL COMMUNITY

Media-focused residencies at music venues are rare, but there are a few models out there — Red Rocks partnering with JamBase and Relix, Brooklyn Bowl hosting embedded media teams, The Caverns working with PBS and long-form film crews, and NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts operating as a permanent recording residency. Drawing inspiration from those spaces, this residency at Florida Sand Music Ranch feels like something new for festival-focused media.

Over the next five months, Music Festivals Podcast will cover 10 festivals hosted at the Ranch, producing live streams, recap episodes, daily short-form content, and a long-form documentary on the Will McLean Foundation, the nonprofit that operates the venue. Will McLean, often called the “Father of Florida Folk,” left behind a legacy deeply tied to this land, and documenting that story feels like an honor.

As far as I can tell, this is the first time a festival-first media brand has embedded full-time at a venue like this — and it’s shaping up to be a pretty special ride.

Looking beyond the winter, plans are also coming together for a Spring and Summer 2026 tour, running May through November. We’ll be on the ground at 20 to 30 festivals across the country, big and small, producing live-streamed performances, on-site interviews, recap episodes, documentary films, daily highlight reels, and a new concept we’re calling Tiny Fest Concerts — small, intimate performances filmed in unique spaces.

We’ll return to Florida in December 2026, and conversations are already underway with other venues in the South for next winter, as well as longer-term ideas with my longtime friend Christina Christian at Steel Horse Ranch in Salida, Colorado, potentially setting the stage for something similar in 2027.

Before all of that, though, we had Sunshine Hootenanny.

Sunshine Hootenanny 2025 returned to Florida with a lineup that delivered from top to bottom. Highlights included Eggy’s “Judy Blue Eyes” suite, Mountain Grass Unit, Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country, Moonstone Riders, Dandy Lush, Ship of Fools, Jessica Jones Project, Face the Fence, and the Terrapin Family Band featuring Al Schnier and Vinnie Amico of moe. Many of those artists joined us for interviews, and Moonstone Riders even stopped by for a Tiny Fest Concert.

The festival energy was strong all weekend, right down to the smaller pavilion where the silent disco lighting turned into one of the most unexpectedly cool late-night spots. Huge thanks to Turner Moore, Jillian Grant, and their entire team for pulling off a fantastic second year.

This episode also includes a long list of neighbor shout outs — from Ed, Lacy, Ryland, and Eisley McLachlen for the Ohio send-off, to the Van Wert crew for an unforgettable night with The Debutants at The Clyde Theatre in Fort Wayne. Special thanks as well to Jeff DePew and on-site property managers Tammy and Jason, who’ve helped turn this residency idea into a reality.

On the travel down here, Harvest Hosts once again proved to be a game changer, with memorable stays at Crimson Skye Farm in Pennsylvania, Hidden River Farm and Retrievers in North Carolina, and Whippoorwill Farms in South Carolina.

To cap things off, this weekend we’ll be live streaming Remedy Tree’s Forest Gathering Festival from the Ranch. Remedy Tree, a bluegrass and Americana band out of St. Augustine, Florida, has been quietly building momentum for years, earning an IBMA Ramble Showcase slot in 2023 and releasing their first album on Mountain Fever Records, Beyond What I Can See, this past September. They’ll be joined this weekend by fiddler Jason Carter, and it’s a lineup well worth tuning in for.

That’s it for this week, neighbors. Check out the live stream starting tomorrow, look for a full recap next Friday, and make sure you’re subscribed at musicfestivalspodcast.com to stay connected as this next chapter unfolds.

Festival Performance of the Week: Daniel Donato's Cosmic Country - LIVE at All Good Now 2025