Way Over Yonder

Folk lovers are definitely not starved in LA. There's the Echo's summer-long Grand Ole Echo Sundays, Old Time is a Good Time's yearly Old Time Social, the Topanga Banjo Fiddle Contest and of course, the New LA Folk Fest—all of which mainly focus on amazing local acts. But when it comes to festivals featuring big-name artists, the pickins are slim: Diehard fans often travel to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in San Francisco, Pickathon in Oregon or even the Telluride Bluegrass festival in Colorado to get their fill. Enter Way Over Yonder, LA's first big ol' folk fest—and the West coast offshoot of Rhode Island's famed Newport Folk Fest, which has been introducing new folk acts (such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, maybe you've heard of them?) since 1959. Now in its second year and boasting impressive acts such as Local Natives, Heartless Bastards, Moses Sumney, Jackson Browne and Lucinda Williams, this two-day festival strikes a chord with music-loving Angelenos—and might just have folks traveling South to get their old-timey music fix for a change. Yip! Check out the lineup (which doesn't strike us as super folky, we must admit...) here.