The Hill Country Picnic Celebrates 20th Anniversary June 27 & 28, 2025

It’s time to ring in the summer with the hottest music festival in the region

by Davis Coen

Access the 2025 North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic Digital Guide here

On June 27 and 28, 2025, the area’s finest performers of traditional, roots, blues, and rock will gather in Waterford, Mississippi, for what might be the biggest lineup yet.

The annual weekend family picnic and festival, which draws folks from throughout the Mid-South and beyond to enjoy live music, workshops, food, and camping, has only missed two years since it began in 2006.

In addition to the Main Stage, the Campground Stage returns for the milestone year, to help accommodate over 25 acts. Many artists have been on board from the get go, while others are just becoming mainstays.

Not only is it a landmark year for founders Sara and Kenny Brown, but the many hardworking volunteers who hustle behind the scenes doing various tasks are now getting much deserved attention. At last year’s Picnic there were 49 volunteers—some travelling from as far as New Mexico and Minnesota to offer their services—logging in an impressive 952 total volunteer hours.

Snag tickets here for the 2025 North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic

This year there will even be some coming all the way from the Czech Republic to contribute their time to the event.

As a non-profit organization, the Picnic has always embraced their volunteers, sponsors, and supporters who help pursue its basic mission, which is “to enhance appreciation and educate the public about the native art form of North Mississippi Hill Country Blues music, through performance, preservation, and interpretation.”

Robb Roaten from Memphis, Tennessee, who first attended the Picnic in 2015 and was “immediately hooked” before getting on board to help, understands the important role he and his peers play.

“The music is of course the main event, but the community, connection to history, and celebration of local creative culture makes for something far greater than the sum of its parts,” said Roaten. “We couldn’t do it without our volunteers and our sponsors who make putting this event on each year possible.”

Also, Roaten said, “approximately 35% have been volunteers for over 10 years,” which says a lot about the overall dedication. Volunteers help with a range of tasks such as site prep, artist hospitality, medical staff, parking, photography, raffle and merchandise tents, promotion, poster distribution across the Southeast, graphic design, and transportation of rental items.

Roaten has always been a fan of the “distinctive energy in the music coming from North Mississippi and how it has influenced the region.”

Other volunteers have been on board from the beginning, like Aby Koleski, who has been in charge of catering since the early years when the two-day festival took place at a 1,100-acres site in Potts Camp, Mississippi.

Aby and her late husband Don began cooking backstage and taking care of musicians around the third year, along with couple Ray and Nina Gandy.

Aby and her husband eventually enlisted their daughter Brandi and all three of their grandsons to become involved.
Two grandsons, Casey and Cody, worked for a short time before joining the Air Force and Navy, but William has been with Aby backstage taking care of folks for about twelve years—along with “adopted” son, Jason.

“We are a three generation Picnic family,” she said.

From Aby’s point of view, “Improvements have been made every year,” especially compared to the old days in Potts Camp.”

She called it a “Well oiled machine,” much due to the loyalty of the volunteers. “You basically have the same people working back there every year, and they know what needs to be done and how.”

Aby feels that the Waterford site has an advantage because the facilities are “built and designated” specifically to accommodate the event.

Snag tickets here for the 2025 North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic

For most attendees the Picnic is a weekend event, but Aby calls it a “four-day affair,” because it requires her and the crew to arrive on Thursday to set up and make full use of every provision.

Aby and company will get their much loved hamburgers and hot dogs going on Friday, then usually do barbecue on Saturday.

And, even though she may not remember every musicians’s name, there are some she’s seen almost every year, and will always greet her with “hugs and ‘Good-to-see-yous!’”

She said, “It’s really, really awesome. I feel like we were blessed to be able to do this to help Kenny and Sara. I have always let my grandkids know how special it was that they even had the privilege of being there, because it’s just a life experience that they would never get anywhere else.”

Dwight Bradshaw, a friend of Kenny’s since before the Picnic began, recalls the old days in Potts Camp, where he helped with everything from setting up, to doing wiring and construction work, to sitting in when a medical team member wasn’t able to make it.

“It’s unique to me about the best way to describe it,” said Bradshaw. “It’s just like the music’s coming out of the ground.”

Snag tickets here for the 2025 North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic

Another longtime volunteer is Archie Storey, who has also helped the Browns since the Potts Camp days.
He remembered selling t-shirts in the early days when the only vendors were R.P. Funderburk— who turned making bird houses into an artform—and the Boy Scouts selling merchandise.

Archie and his wife Kristie created a vendor village where they sell everything from handmade cigar box guitars to paintings to tie dyes.

He recalled a memorable vending experience once when a man approached asking questions about cigar box guitars several times throughout the day, but mostly just to escape the hot sun.

Archie explained to the man that cigar boxes are more about encouraging the craft and history and that different ones were prices, but the would-be customer was still standoffish.

“My theory is if you’re interested in mine, that you can go and build your own,” he said. “It’s just a box and a stick.”

The man eventually purchased a cigar box, and told him, “It’s just because you’re so honest.”

Sharing this beloved craft with others is the important part. The “premise behind building cigar box guitars is to help,” Archie said.

He also recalled that what got him started decades earlier was watching a video of Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars playing one.

What it comes down to is a “big happy family,” and that it will be a good time to sit back and reminisce on the 20 years, and appreciate what the Browns have accomplished.

“It’s an actual family picnic,” he emphasized. “I think when they named it back in the day, they named it perfect—because that’s what it is. To see what Sara has done over the past 20 years to help preserve a genre of the blues that almost was undiscovered by the masses up until the late 90s—it’s an amazing thing.”