Walnut Valley Festival

Now in its 33rd year, the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas, is the bluegrass Woodstock. With six stages featuring a veritable who's who of acoustic music (Hot Club of Cowtown; Men of Steel, pictured; the Wilders, etc.) as well as camping, games, arts and crafts, and more food than Thanksgiving, Winfield is an annual must for music lovers of every stripe. Among Winfield's highlights are the instrumental contests, where established players go head-to-head with hungry newcomers and total unknowns, often resulting in jaw-dropping displays of musical prowess and, in a few cases, creating overnight superstars -- if someone toting a hammered dulcimer can be called that.