©2010 www.nelsoncountylife.com : It was a fun time this past weekend across Nelson, kicking off Friday night.

Nelson County, Virginia
If you didn’t have a good time this past weekend in Nelson it’s your own fault! As summer is heading toward its end, lots of festivals kick off as we get closer to fall. The fun began Friday evening at Wintergreen Winery’s luna-see. It’s one of the first evening events launched at The Verandah, their new event facility.

On Saturday it was dueling festivals, one on the mountain, the other in the valley. Each offering something different. On the mountain at Wintergreen Resort, Wintergreen Performing Arts held their 5th Annual Blue Ridge Mountain Music Festival. It was a day long event of mountain and bluegrass music lasting until early evening.

Kicking off at roughly the same time down in the valley, it was the 2nd Annual Brew Ridge Mountain Music Festival over at Devils Backbone Brewing. This was a day and evening event packed with tons of groups and great microbrews from four different area breweries.

If you missed any of these, not to worry there’s lots more as we head into the final days of summer and get into full swing this fall!

Enjoy!

Photos By Hayley Osborne : ©2010 www.nelsoncountylife.com : Crowds of people packed the 2nd Annual Brew Ridge Trail Music Festival this past Saturday, August 21, 2010 in Roseland, Virginia. Click on any photo to enlarge.

Roseland
Nelson County, Virginia
By all accounts the 2nd Annual Brew Ridge Trail Music Festival was a success. The event was held this past Saturday on the on the grounds at Devils Backbone Brewing Company in Roseland, Beech Grove, to the locals! Our Hayley Osborne was in the thick of it to capture some of the sights at this year’s festival. Here’s a few random shots. Thanks Hayley!

William Walter & Company on stage at the 2nd Annual Brew Ridge Trail Music Festival.

Of course the festival is all about the brew. A variety of brewers were on there with hand crafted beers.

Every kind of beer immaginable, from the lightest to the darkest was on hand at the 2010 festival.

The all day and evening event had perfect weather unlike the 2009 inagural kickoff which started with rain but eventually became sunny.

Turbine on stage at the 2nd Annual Brew Ridge Trail Music Festival.

Fans dance to the tunes at the 2010 festival.

BRTMF is one of two major music festivals planned this year. The Festy will take place the weekend of October 9 and 10th at the same location.

LIke all good things, the fun day finally ended late Saturday night!

Brew Ridge Trail Music Festival on the web: http://brewridgetrailmusicfestival.com/

Roseland / Beech Grove
Nelson County, Virginia

Thanks to everyone who tried for the free tickets to this weekend’s Brew Ridge Trail Music Festival. Julia Yoder just won the last pair this morning in our NCL giveaway. Heather Taress of Crozet was Monday’s winner. Jennifer Fitzgerald and Michael Dalton each won a pair of tickets last week.! Congrats and thanks again to everyone who participated!

WE’LL SEE YOU AT THE FESTIVAL!

Earlier post
Time to giveaway our final pair of tickets to this weekend’s Brew Ridge Trail Music Festival being held on the grounds of Devils Backbone Brewing Company at the intersection of Routes 664 & 151 this Saturday, August 21st.

To try at the chance for this final pair of tickets, head on over to Tommy’s Audio Weather and listen on how to qualify to win! A $60 buck value!

Good luck!

Photo By Paul Purpura : ©2009-2010 www.nelsoncountylife.com : From last year's BRTMF at Devils Backbone.

Roseland/Beech Grove
Nelson County, Virginia
Update 8.14.10
Congrats to Michael Dalton over at The Miller School. He’s the winner of a pair of free tickets to the RTMF next weekend! Be watching and listening on Monday as we will be giving away another pair on Monday!

Again Congrats Michael!

Earlier post:
Time to giveaway more tickets to next weekend’s Brew Ridge Trail Music Festival being held on the grounds of Devils Backbone Brewing Company at the intersection of Routes 664 & 151.

To try at a chance for a pair of tickets, head on over to Tommy’s Audio Weather and listen on how to qualify! A $60 buck value!

Good luck!

The 2nd annual Brew Ridge Trail Music Festival kicks off Saturday - August 21st on the grounds at Devils Backbone Brewing. Click on image to see performance details.

Roseland/Beech Grove
Nelson County, Virginia

Updated @ 2:30 PM
Congrats to Jennifer Fitzgerald of Arrington! She picked up a pair of tickets to the BRTMF on August 21st!
Be watching for our next giveaway later this week on Friday!
Congrats again to Jennifer!

Earlier Post
It’s just days away! The 2nd annual Brew Ridge Trail Music Festival is back again this year! Bigger and better! Gates for the 2010 BRTMF will open at 12 noon. Click here for general info.

Nelson County Life is giving away tickets to this year’s festival! We’ll be giving away a pair today! To try for your chance, simply head on over to Tommy’s Audio Weather, listen to the weathercast and you’ll get instructions on how to try for you free pair of tickets today! – We’ll be giving away more, so be watching for the next announcement. That’s a $60.00 deal for the lucky winner!

This year’s lineup is an exciting one. Click here for the entire list!

In addition there will be some of the best beer around from four award winning breweries from right here in Nelson and the area, including hard cider too! See the lineup by clicking here!

We’ll be telling you much more as we get closer to the festival, just under two weeks to go!

But remember, to get you chance at a free pair of tickets today, listen to Tommy’s Audio Weather by clicking here!

Good luck!

Brew Ridge Trail Music Festival on the web: http://brewridgetrailmusicfestival.com/

The Official Brew Ridge Trail on the web: http://brewridgetrail.com/

Jacque Landry, (partner & brewer South Street Brewery) Matt Nucci, (brewer and co-owner Blue Mountain Brewery) Mark Thompson, (owner and brewmaster Starr Hill) Aaron Reilly, (brewer Devils Backbone) and Jason Oliver, (head brewmaster Devils Backbone) stand by one of the two tanks of a collaborative brew being made for release at this year's Brew Ridge Trail Music Festival in August.

Crozet
Albemarle County, Virginia
What happens when you get five of the best brewers together in one room? A totally awesome beer is born! Five different brewers spent much of Friday at Starr Hill Brewery in Crozet working on a special batch of beer that will be released at this year’s Brew Ridge Trail Music Festival being held on August 21st at Devils Backbone Brewing Company. “It’s a new style that’s been made popular on the west coast called a Black IPA. All of us sort of collaborated on this recipe,” says Jacque Landry, partner & brewer at South Street Brewery in Charlottesville.

Four Different Breweries all have a hand in making the special collaborative brew:

-Blue Mountain Brewery in Afton

-Devils Backbone Brewing in Roseland

-South Street Brewery in Charlottesville

-Starr Hill Brewery in Crozet

Mark Thompson, owner of Starr Hill Brewery in Crozet, talks to a reporter from CBS-19 about the special brew to be released in August at the Brew Ridge Trail Music Festival here in Nelson County.

“It’s 25 barrels which is about 50 kegs of beer. It’s just an opportunity for all of us to get together and come up with a special brew, Jacque continues.

Matt Nucci of Blue Mountain Brewery in Afton (left) looks on a Mark Thompson, owner of Starr Hill Brewery in Crozet, checks the special batch being brewed. Jacque Landry, brewer and partner at South Street Brewery in Charlottesville, enjoys a sample of the beers that will be available at the BRTMF in August.

The beer won’t be available until the Brew Ridge Trail Music Festival kicks off next month.

See you there on August 21st!

Photo Courtesy of Sue Battani : One of the 6 jumbo garbage bags containing a combo of paper napkins, paper cups, corn cups, & food waste recycled from this past weekend's BRTMF.

Nelson & Albemarle County, Virginia
This past weekend’s Blue Ridge Trail Music Festival was a complete success, but after the festival comes the cleanup! And a festival with over 1000 people creates lots of trash. The organizers of the event, Cerberus Productions, in conjunction with www.myrecyclingclub.com in Albemarle County made sure as much of the waste created from the event was recycled. “John (John Spagnolo of Cerberus Productions) did a great thing and elected to purchase ‘corn’ cups for the event that are made of 100% corn husks and are bio-degradable and those cups were filled with quite a bit of beer on Saturday to be sure.” Eventually those cups along with paper napkins, paper cups & food waste were delivered to Royal Oak Farm in Evington, VA (Above photo)

“We started My Recycling Club (www.myrecyclingclub.com) in July ’08 when we heard from several people in Albemarle county that they wished they had help getting their recyclables collected. We began a pilot program for 12 customers and since last summer our client base has grown to over 120 individual customers and businesses, including Keswick Hall, Blue Mountain Brewery, and Devils Backbone,” says Sue Battani of My Recycling Club.

In addition to the items mentioned above, more recycled items were sorted and delivered to McIntire Recycling Center in Albemarle County

· 1 jumbo-sized garbage can of glass bottles
· 2 jumbo-sized garbage cans of plastic bottles and jugs
· 1 large stack of cardboard and brown paper packaging

Sue says they will be back next at the 2010 festival! Pretty cool!

Photos By Paul Purpura : ©2009 www.nelsoncountylife.com : The grounds at Devils Backbone Brewing Company were packed by afternoon at the 1st Annual Brew Ridge Trail Music Festival.

Roseland
Nelson County, Virginia
It’s officially in the history books. After months and months of planning and coordination, and a somewhat soggy start to the day, The 1st Brew Ridge Trail Music Festival ended on a a very high note! Nelson County Life Magazine was a co-sponsor and emcee for the day long event.

Though the day started off with rain and clouds, the sun appeared by early afternoon the music was in full swing!

Though the day began soggy, folks made the best of it while the bands kicked off the festival.

The music lineup featured headliner Sons of Bill, fresh off their 2009 Bonnaroo Arts and Music Festival performance and sold out CD Release show at the Paramount Theatre in Charlottesville. The Infamous Stringdusters, whose 2007 album “Fork In the Road” was the IBMA Album of the year, will take the stage before Sons of Bill. Rounding out the lineup was Jesse Harper, William Walter & Tucker Rogers, Robbing Mary and Earl Knox.

Lots & lots of fun and dancing!

More photos and background by clicking here.

Plans are already being discussed to the 2010 Blue Ridge Trail Music Festival! See you there!

©2009 www.nelsoncountylife.com : The 1st Brew Ridge Trail Music Festival started a bit soggy, but ended beautifully as the sun came out for most of the afternoon and early evening.

Roseland
Nelson County, Virginia
Complete success! In spite of the rain for the first part of the day, the 1st Brew Ridge Trail Music Festival on the grounds of Devils Backbone Brewing Company was a total success. We’ll have a complete wrap up of the day’s activities on Sunday, along with tons of photos our Paul Purpura grabbed from the festival, but thanks to everyone who made the day fantastic!

It’s safe to say plans are already in the works for a 2010 festival!

The 1st Brew Ridge Trail Music Festival is today at on the grounds of Devils Backbone Brewing Company from 12 PM until 8PM tonight.

Roseland
Nelson County, Virginia
The 1st Brew Ridge Trail Music festival takes place today – Saturday, August 22nd on the grounds outside of Devils Backbone Brewing Company in Nelson County from Noon-8PM. Folks can spend the day enjoying the region’s best Bluegrass, Alt-Country and Roots Rock bands in a beautiful mountain setting. This outdoor celebration will feature beers from “Brew Ridge Trail” members Starr Hill, Devils Backbone, Blue Mountain and South Street. Albemarle CiderWorks, a new family-run Cidery in Albemarle County, will also be providing a variety of Ciders. A mountain bike race, “The Stampede on Horseshoe Mountain,” will also take place starting at 9AM with the race ending at approximately 11AM at the festival grounds entrance. Nelson County Life Magazine and Corner 106.1 will be the emcees for the day long event.

The entire grounds are ready to go for today's event, rain or shine!

The music lineup will feature headliner Sons of Bill, fresh off their 2009 Bonnaroo Arts and Music Festival performance and sold out CD Release show at the Paramount Theatre in Charlottesville. The Infamous Stringdusters, whose 2007 album “Fork In the Road” was the IBMA Album of the year, will take the stage before Sons of Bill. Rounding out the lineup will be Jesse Harper, William Walter & Tucker Rogers, Robbing Mary and Earl Knox.

Justin Billcheck of Cerberus Productions, the event’s co-promoter remarks: “My partner, John Spagnolo and I, couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity to put together a music festival here in Central Virginia. We’ve felt this area would welcome an event that features great beer and great music for some time now and what a great way to kick off The Brew Ridge Beer Trail.”

Gates will open at Noon today, with the 1st band taking the stage at Noon. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 the day of show. All ages are welcome.