HONESDALE, PA — When Roots and Rhythm takes place this year, arriving as it will on Saturday, June 20, it will be in a new location: the Wayne County Fairgrounds. 

“We all love being in Central Park,” said founding organizer Jamie Stunkard. “It’s just the reality set in.”

Roots and Rhythm is a free summer music festival that’s taken place in Honesdale since 2006. It relies on sponsorships and grants to cover its roughly $60,000 budget, something that’s become harder over the years. 

“Every year, it seems like it’s increasingly challenging, because expenses are greater and greater every year,” said Stunkard. The past few years have posed particular dificulties, as some of the grant funding Roots and Rhythm relied on (in particular a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts) has dried up. 

Last year, the festival fell into the red, Stunkard said. While it had some money in reserve to fall back on, festival organizers realized it couldn’t do that every year. 

Roots and Rhythm looked to the Wayne County Fairgrounds as a new, more cost-friendly home. The fairground has certain amenities—such as a stage, electricity and toilets—that the festival had to provide at its own cost in Central Park. 

Stunkard said that, when the situation became apparent, Honesdale Borough tried to work with festival organizers to figure out a way for it to stay in Central Park, While those talks ultimately did not keep the festival in the park this year, Stunkard said there’s hope the borough might be able to accommodate the festival better next year. 

“It’s just much more affordable for us to be out there [at the fairground],” said Stunkard. “People love the ambiance of being in Central Park, and being close to all the businesses in town, and being under the trees, and just the whole experience. We felt really good about [it]. We hope to be back there, [but] not for this year.”

What’s on offer

Roots and Rhythm has its regular slate of activies present at the new location. 

Headliners for the all-day festival include Darrell Nilisch, Organizing the Dead, Bill Kirchen, Miss Laurie Ann & the Saddletones, and Freight. 

There will be a shuttle running from the fairground to downtown Honesdale, said Stunkard. While details aren’t yet finalized, it will likely run from the festival to the Fred R. Miller Pavilion, he said. 

The usual food vendors, artists’ marketplace and beer garden will be present. Additionally, taking advantage of the expanded space at the fairground, there will be a car show with one to two hundred cars, said Stunkard.