By Pat Sherman
SDUN Assistant Editor

Some of the best free live music and craft brews in Southern California will be on tap April 24 and 25 during the 37th annual Roots Fest on Adams.

The event – 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday – will include five music stages and as many as 170 vendors, including food, arts, crafts, clothing and more.

Close to 60 acts will perform during the two-day festival, featuring sounds from folk and Delta blues to gypsy jazz, reggae and rockabilly. Highlights include former X front man John Doe, San Diego blues singer Candye Kane, Nickel Creek fiddler Sara Watkins, Kid Ramos, Steve Poltz, Gregory Page and Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket.

Doe, whose most recent project was an album of classic country songs recorded with the Sadies, headlines on the Hawley Stage at 6:30 p.m. Saturday. Watkins will perform songs from her John Paul Jones-produced solo CD at 3:15 p.m. Sunday on the Hawley Stage, followed by Steve Poltz & the Flight Attendants.

The event, held along Adams Avenue in Normal Heights, usually draws between 30,000 to 40,000 people, said Jim Schneider, executive director of the Adams Avenue Business Association, which produces Roots Fest. Schneider expects to attract even more revelers this year, as the event has merged with the annual San Diego Healing Arts Festival, previously held in Balboa Park.

The Healing Arts Festival features booths and professionals promoting massage, yoga, chiropractic, acupuncture and other holistic and alternative healing practices.

In an effort to better manage the crowd, festival organizers are offering a bicycle valet, where patrons can check their bicycles in a secure area while attending the festival.
Schneider said organizers hope “to encourage people to ride their bikes as opposed to driving a car to kind of ease the strain of parking in the neighborhood.”

Also new this year will be a craft-beer tasting area along 34th Street.

“We’ve got some of the pubs and clubs of Adams Avenue along with quite a number of breweries – Stone, Karl Strauss and a lot of the craft brews throughout San Diego County and beyond,” Schneider said.

The event, formerly known as the Adams Avenue Roots & Folk Festival, was formed in 1967 by local music historian and record-store owner Lou Curtiss as the “San Diego Folk Festival.”

Despite another name change this year, Schneider said organizers intend to keep the event true to its roots while keeping it “fresh and new every year.”

On Saturday, the festival will include a sampling of fresh produce that will be available at the business association’s new weekly Adams Avenue Farmers’ Market, which kicks off May 12 from 3 to 7 p.m.

Roots Fest on Adams is the association’s second largest event of the year, after the Adams Avenue Street Fair in late September, which is billed as Southern California’s largest free music festival.

For a complete lineup of festival performers and times, click here.

WHAT: Roots Fest on Adams
WHEN: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. April 24; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. April 25
WHERE: Adams Avenue, Normal Heights
COST: Free