Mammoth Festival
Mammoth Lakes
July 31 – August 3, 2025
Photos by Paul Piazza
The Mammoth Festival of Beers and Bluesapalooza celebrated its 29th year with a fantastic year of music, beer tasting and an overall sense of united blues community. People travel from all over to attend the annual festival, which happens in early August.
”Mammoth Lakes is a beloved community, so it starts with the surroundings. But then comes the combination of award-winning craft brewers and world-class music. There is no other event like it on the West Coast,” said Omega Productions President Rich Sherman, who produces the annual event.
Indeed, Mammoth Lakes provides an exceptional setting for this unique festival. With the beautiful Eastern Sierras as a backdrop and incredible nature and recreation opportunities in the immediate vicinity, it’s a dream destination.
The festival, which celebrates craft beer and a variety of styles of the blues and other soulful music, kicked off with a powerful Thursday night set by Samantha Fish. The sharp-dressed blues provocateur has evolved into one of the great young performers of the genre, spearheading a new era of blues revival. She recently released her tenth album, Paper Doll and it serves as a testimony to her vocal and guitar evolution. She and her band played a fiery set, exhorting the opening night crowd to revel in the energy emanating from the stage. Last year, she and the band opened for The Rolling Stones.
Friday night’s headliner was Marcus King, the young soulful voiced, guitar firebrand from North Carolina. After roaring out of the gates with the flat-out boogie jam “The Well,” King treated the crowd to a few new tunes from his upcoming record Darling Blue and mixed in a number of soulful numbers from his six solid records. The band wrapped things up with a beautiful version of “Wildflowers and Wine” that segued into a blistering “Ramblin’ Man” before they said goodnight. King and his band have been touring non-stop and last year played some huge venues opening for country mega-star Chris Stapleton.
Saturday was the imperial craft beer tasting and a number of breweries had on some of their finest tapped for festival goers to sample throughout the afternoon. There was also a fun costume contest.
Beers ranged in all weights and styles from a variety of regions in California. The night was closed out on the big stage by Louisiana native and fiery guitarist Tab Benoit. He blasted through a set of dark, mysterious and beautiful swamp blues that kept the crowd rocking into darkness. Benoit hosts one of the biggest events at Jazz Fest in New Orleans annually, the Voices of the Wetlands. He has a stuffed alligator that resides on his amp while on the road.
Sunday featured a pair of musical titans to close the day. In the afternoon, Steve Earle, the alternative country song-writing genius entertained with some of his best tunes. Earle is one of the great storytellers of our time. More recently, he has also had a very successful acting career in television including a featured role in both The Wire and Treme, among many others. Later in the evening, traditional blues master Robert Cray closed the festival with a very strong set. The five-time Grammy winner, who had just turned 72 two days earlier, showed that like a fine wine, he has aged very well, with a blissful performance of some of his most well-known numbers.
Naturally, throughout each day, there were a number of fantastic sets by national and regional artists. There is a Main stage and a smaller stage called the Minaret Stage. During set changes on the main stage, some of the emerging and regional acts perform.
Some other notable performers on the main stage were the national acts ZZ Ward, Reverend Peyton and his Big Damn Band, Vanessa Collier, and Monophonics. There were also a number of great emerging regional acts on the Minaret Stage including Boston’s Quinn Sullivan and Sacramento’s Katie Knipp. One of the biggest surprises was Atlanta’s Zack Person. The tall, lanky guitarist unleashed some six-string fire on the crowd at the Minaret Stage, but also had an epic sit-in with Samantha Fish on the Main Stage. Keep an eye out for him and his trio next year.
As the festival continues towards its 30th year, it also marked the festival’s final year at the Woods site, a ten-acre forested area down the hill from Mammoth Brewing Company. That land has been sold, so next year the festival will relocate to a new, yet to be announced area just in time to celebrate its 30th year. “The location, craft beer and music is a combination that is unique, and while we see that other festivals are struggling, we think that the attendees of Bluesapalooza have not cut this August weekend from their calendars. We are grateful, considering the nationwide downturn in the festival industry,” said Sherman.
One attendee, who comes back to Bluesapalooza year after year is Sacramento’s Jeff Stiles. “I have a reunion of friends from the street I grew up on, who drive five hours to the festival,” said Stiles. “I meet new people at the festival every year and some become annual acquaintances. The straight up blues and soulful music can’t be beat. And I am able to try a variety of brews I could never find back home.”
