Finger Lakes Grassroots Festival 2011 Lineup

The Grassroots Festival Lineup has been announced and we’re looking at another great festival with some of the best world music to ever land in upstate NY. Host & headliners of the festival Donna The Buffalo are returning to the Trumansburgh Fairgrounds for the 21st anniversary of the festival.

We’re excited for NYC based afro rockers Balkan Beat Box from New York City. The internationally touring band is known for their high energy live performances at festivals such as Bonaroo and Paleo.

“Their name, their personal history and the enthusiastic media & audience reactions suggest a link with the so-called Gypsy Rock movement, but their scope is reaching way beyond that: Balkan Beat Box really transcend categories (pop, electronic dance music, world, rock) by creating a new breed of 21st century music, deeply connected to their folk upbringing yet forward-thinking, which appeals to audiences across the geographical and stylistic borders.”

The festival located just outside of Ithaca NY features world music as well as local bands. We’re excited to see the return home town favorites of John Brown’s Body, national touring Rochester natives Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad, Jimkata, and 10 Ft Ganja Plant’s Kevin Kinsella. Last year we were told that Keith Frank would be retiring from performing but we’re glad to see him back on the schedule this year!

Here’s a look at a couple of the other headliners.

“Seun Kuti is the scion of Afrobeat, carrying on the legacy of his father, Fela Kuti, Afrobeat pioneer, radical politician, human rights activist, and all-around legend who inspired multiple biographies, documentaries, and even a hit Broadway musical. After Fela’s death in 1997, Seun — then only 14 years old — had the foresight to keep his father’s band, Egypt 80, together, quietly planning his own debut which would take place nearly a decade later. Since then, he’s wowed the world music and indie rock communities and an incredible live performer.

Tinariwen will also be performing. He met in Ghaddafi’s rebel camps in the early 1980s, played the Grassroots Festival once before (in 2005.) They’ve played every major music festival in the world, including Bonnaroo, Glastonbury, Roskilde, and Coachella, they’ve opened on tour for the Rolling Stones, and they’ve won a stack of international awards.” – Grassroots Festival

The festival has something for everyone with The Town Pants celtic rockers from Vancouver, “neo-primitive post-gothic proto-folkpunk gospel” with The Horseflies, & The Woody Pines described as “‘an intoxicating blend of rural and urban stringband, country blues, ragtime and jug band music.”

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