About Us :

The Blissfest Music Organization is a non-profit educational and performing arts organization based in Northwest Lower Michigan, which has been in existence since 1981. The Blissfest provides year round folk arts programming in Emmet County including its annual festival at the Blissfest Festival Farm located near Cross Village, Ml. The organization is affiliated with the National Folk Alliance Organization, as well as other Michigan-based non-profit folk arts organizations. Blissfest accepts charitable donations and is an IRS designated tax exempt organization.

Mission :

The Blissfest Music Organization's purpose is to promote and preserve the diversity and heritage of all traditional and ethnic music, dance, and crafts; to support creators and innovators of these folk arts; and to provide opportunities and resources that educate and encourage community participation.

History :

Blissfest is part of the second wave of the folk revival started in the early seventies. Blissfest initially developed from a small arts club called the Spectrum Center which was located above the Grain Train in Petoskey. It was a center for local artists, folk musicians, dancers, and movie buffs to gather. The idea for the Blissfest music festival started as a joint fund-raising effort between the Spectrum Center and an alternative school in Bliss, Michigan, called the Bliss School.

Blissfest seemed the only logical name for the event. The first Blissfest was held for one day under a big maple tree in a potato farmer's fallow field in Bliss Township in the summer of 1981. That first festival was followed by many others; at first rotating with the farmer's available fallow field, finally ending up at our current permanent location, the Bliss Festival Farm.