The Historic Sutter Creek Ragtime Festival is ready to bring the fun filled music of Ragtime to the Main Street of Sutter Creek, August 7th – 9th 2026. This year we will celebrate our 28h annual festival celebration. This prestigious festival brings the exuberant sounds of Ragtime, Boogie Woogie, Stride and Early Jazz to the quaint town of Sutter Creek, nestled in the Sierra Foothills, every second weekend in August. We not only have top notch Ragtime and stride pianists from around the country this year, but we have the electrifying Pacific Coast Ragtime Orchestra, The Pianophiends, Charlie & Miss Mable and Ivory and Gold.
Many of the performers have been a part of the festival for over nineteen years now and say that this is their favorite festival in the country and they can’t wait to come back and share their music with festival goers and locals.This year our talented performers range from aspiring youth performers to nationally recognized artists/pianists who travel around the country and abroad to entertain.
Some of our current lineup includes: Frederick Hodges, CarlSonny Leyland, (Inductee into the Boogie Woogie Hall of Fame), Paul Orsi, Danny Coots, ( Drummer Extraordinaire). Pacific Coast Ragtime Orchestra, Jeff Barnhart, Sqeek Steele, (Guinness world book record holder of most songs played from memory on the piano), Matt Tolentino (Versatile Accordionist), Don Neely, (Founder of the Royal Society Jazz Orchestra), Vincent Johnson and some more amazing youth performers coming to Sutter Creek for the first time and many More.
Our festival’s theme will focus on Ragtime compositions that have been composed for Sutter Creek over the past 27 years. There will be a 60 minute concert showcasing these wonderful Rags. With this theme, we are also holding a “Ragtime composition Contest.” New rags composed this year that are Sutter Creek Related in title or influenced and have not been played publicly. There will be a $250 prize for best judged Rag. (Details for this contest and scholarship applications are on the website)
This year we are excited to have an APP for the Festival which can be downloaded onto your Mobile phone, Tablet and other devices. All the information about the festival, local and historical points of interest, venues and also including all the performers and their performance schedules throughout the weekend will be at your fingertips. App will be available on July 1st.
Within our three day festival there will be a Saturday evening Concert, A Sunday Finale Concert, Silent Movies with piano accompaniment, Jam sessions, Many duets sessions and our special recurring Youth Showcase, featuring 6-8 aspiring pianists from elementary school age up to freshman in college age, all showing off their talent. A $1000 scholarship is being awarded again this year to a deserving youth performer along with the Annual Tom Brier $2500 scholarship to aspiring youth 16 – 22 that have music as a pursuit for their future.
The festival starts at 4 PM on Friday and runs through 4 PM on Sunday. Musicians perform at 7 venues along Main street Sutter Creek. Venue Locations are the Hotel Sutter, Choc-O-Latte, Sina’s backroads, Brinnwood Inn, LeMesa Tasting room, The Community Center, and the City Hall Auditorium which is the festival Headquarters. Our information/sales table will be set up in front of the auditorium and will be open at 2 PM on Friday and remain open during the festival hours through Sunday. There you can purchase your badges, T-shirts, Music/CD’s/folios, Ragtime Fedoras and more. Badge prices are listed on the website and can be purchased online or in person at the sales table when you come into town. All proceeds go to support our performers, our musician Scholarship fund and to the continuance of the future of the festival in bringing great inspiring music to the Gold Country for years to come. Make a trip into Sutter Creek and peek inside our venues and get hooked on America’s own Turn of the Century music Craze, RAGTIME!
For more information visit: www.historicsuttercreekragtimefestival.com
or call 209-304-0835 or email us at historicsuttercreekragtime@gmail.com
The official YouTube channel for the festival is here:
https://www.youtube.com/@suttercreekragtime
You can also view our facebook page at the link below.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61575308485434
