Club Passim to Celebrate 25 Years of Campfire Festival Labor Day Weekend

Club Passim’s annual Campfire Festival returns for its 25th year with 67 artists on the lineup. A festival set up to highlight Boston’s extensive folk music scene, the lineup is loaded with familiar acts like Rose Polenzani, Liv Greene, Hank Wonder and rising stars like junior rail transit, Genesis Fermin and Nicolas Emden. With live music running from Friday, September 1 to Monday, September 4, the festival will begin with a special anniversary kickoff August 31, featuring stories from the past 25 years of Campfire. Tickets can be purchased by day or a full-festival pass and are available now at Passim.org. 

Campfire gives audience members an intimate take on the music festival experience. Guests are not stuck in a giant field racing from stage to stage to see an artist while shoulder to shoulder with 10,000 people. Instead, this festival is more akin to a peek backstage at the big festivals where you will find artists trying out new music, bouncing ideas off one another, and creating new connections with fellow musicians. Campfire is a festival of experiments and discoveries, swapping between songwriter rounds and band sets as the audience get a glimpse of a music scene that is much bigger than one room. Anais Mitchell, Lake Street Dive, Tall Heights, Alisa Amador, Lori McKenna, Josh Ritter, Jake Blount, Mary Gauthier, Regina Spektor, and so many more well known artists have graced the stage for Campfire, and the next big act could be getting their start this year. 

“Campfire started as a wild idea to get new folks on stage in front of a friendly audience and it has grown into one of our best tools for developing artists,” says Matt Smith, Managing Director of Club Passim. “It’s like a homecoming for both the performers and the audience, but with an ever-expanding reach.”

The festival will kick off with a special 25 Years of Campfire anniversary event Thursday, August 31 at 7 PM as Cindy Howes & Lizzie No of the Basic Folk podcast share stories and music from the past 59 campfire festivals. Then Friday through Monday, live music fans can hear Campfire veterans play, including Classic Country/Southern Soul trio band Hank Wonder, folk singer-songwriter Rose Polenzani, renowned fiddle player Mark Simos, Liv Greene, and award-winning writer and performer Rachel Sumner.

Patrons can experience campfire in-person or watch the weekend live streamed.  

Click here to see the entire lineup for the 2023 Labor Day Weekend Campfire Festival.

Campfire Festival takes place over Labor Day Weekend on Friday, September 1 from 6 PM to 11 PM, Saturday and Sunday from 2 PM to 11 PM and Monday, September 4 from 2 PM to 10 PM. Single-day tickets ($10) and full-festival tickets ($25) can be purchased at passim.org.  Tickets for Thursday’s 25 Years of Campfire Celebration are $25. A livestream will be available with a suggested donation. To see the full schedule and purchase tickets visit passim.org/campfire.

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