NACOGDOCHES, Texas – The Red Brick Bluegrass Festival, formerly known as the Blueberry Bluegrass Concert in the Park, is set for Saturday, May 3, from noon to 9 pm at Nacogdoches County Exposition and Civic Center.
This free family-friendly concert is made possible by Presenting Sponsor Rex Perry Autoplex and will feature The Purple Hulls, Beatlegras, Riley Gilbreath and Lone Star Blue, Catahoula Drive and Steve and Sheryl Hartz.
For 8 years, bluegrass fans have braved the summer heat to enjoy the Blueberry Bluegrass Concert in the Park, which kicked off the annual Texas Blueberry Festival in Nacogdoches. With the move to a Saturday in spring, organizers hope more people will be able to spend more time enjoying the music, food and festive atmosphere.
“The Red Brick Bluegrass Festival is BACK!” organizer Scott Waller said. “We were all bummed when we had to cancel in 2024 due to flooding at the event venue. We said then that we would be back better than ever. Well, we’re back, and better than ever! We’ve moved to the Nacogdoches County Exposition and Civic Center for the ease ofparking and comfort of all.”
The festival also will feature food trucks with some great options for delicious food, cold lemonade, and snow cones. Organizers encourage attendees to bring comfortable lawn chairs. The event is family-friendly, so please leave your pets, coolers and alcohol at home. For more information, please visit www.redbrickbluegrass.com. There will be some chairs for rent at the venue.
The Red Brick Bluegrass Festival is presented by Rex Perry Autoplex, Diamond Sponsor Eaton, Platinum Sponsors Commercial Bank of Texas, Ferrara’s Heating & Air Conditioning and Cataract Glaucoma and Retina Consultants of East Texas, Gold Sponsors Laird Funeral Home and Excel ER, and Silver Sponsor The Fredonia Hotel. The Red Brick Bluegrass Festival is also very grateful for all the support from the team at Visit Nacogdoches.
THE ACTS
The Purple Hulls are identical twins Katy Lou and Penny Lea Clark. The Clark sisters were raised on a working family farm in Kilgore, and they paid for college with money from the family’s purple hull harvest. After graduation, they moved to Nashville, where they began touring with various country artists and writing songs for Nashville’s largest publishing company, Sony Tree. The sisters returned home in 2012 to care for their terminally ill father, and they stayed in East Texas after he passed away, helping their mother with the farm while continuing their music career.
Beatlegras performs classics by The Beatles with a bluegrass twist. The band, started by guitarist/vocalist Dave Walser, features bassist George Anderson and multi-instrumentalist Milo Dearing on fiddle, flute, dobro and anything else with strings.
Riley Gilbreath, a bluegrass/country artist from Crowley, Texas, was named The Texas State Banjo Champion in 2019, at age 15. In 2021, Riley formed Lone Star Blue, which includes David Sawyer on upright bass and tenor vocals, Bryan Hollifield on banjo and baritone vocals, and Sam Smith on mandolin. They placed first in the International Bluegrass Band Championships at the 2025 SPBGMA Band Contest and Awards Convention in Nashville.
East Texas bluegrass lovers may recognize Catahoula Drive, a Pineville, La. four-piece band, from past Blueberry Bluegrass Concerts in the Park. Band members are Jamey Alwell, (guitar and lead vocals), Dennis Stewart (mandolin and vocals), Tres Nugent (string bass and vocals) and Greg Stewart (banjo and vocals).
Since 1977, Steve Hartz has been building, repairing, and playing stringed instruments at the General Mercantile and Old time String Shop on the square in downtown Nacogdoches. In 1998 he started his own recording company and received a Crossroads music award for his first CD, Crooked Steep and Rocky. This was followed by two East Texas-inspired book-and-CD projects, By the Muddy Angelina and Settlers of the Western Woods.