Ventura, CA (July1, 2010). For the eighth year, the Ventura Hillsides Conservancy will present the annual Ventura Hillsides Music Festival in Arroyo Verde Park – this time, on Saturday, September 25, 2010. The show will again be presented in Arroyo Verde Park. Singer-songwriter Emmylou Harris, whose work in the early 1970s helped kick start the alternative-country movement, will headline. Sharing the bill with Harris will be WPA, a new ensemble featuring Glen Phillips from Toad the Wet Sprocket and Sara and Sean Watkins from Nickel Creek. The event will mark the return of Phillips, who played a solo set at the 2004 Festival. Two additional acts will be announced later this summer.

Emmylou Harris will headline the 2010 Ventura Hillsides Music Festival

The Ventura land trust's annual fundraiser has become a popular local celebration of music and conservation that raises funds and awareness for the Conservancy's land conservation and restoration work.

Harris recorded her first album in 1969 and two years later she began touring and recording with Gram Parsons. The material they recorded together before Parsons’ death in 1973 helped blaze alternative-country’s path. In the years that followed, Harris blossomed as a solo artist, winning her first Grammy in 1976 for best female country vocal performance. In 1980, the Country Music Association named her vocalist of the year. Her most recent album, “All I Intended to Be,” was released in 2008 and debuted at No. 4 on Billboard’s country albums chart. It featured collaborations with Dolly Parton, Vince Gill and the McGarrigle sisters. That same year she was inducted into the CMA’s Hall of Fame.

Tickets are priced at $45 for general admission and $150 for the Gold Circle seating. Discounted ticket packages, good for four-, six- and 10-ticket orders, will be available. Tickets are available to Conservancy members during the month of July. New or returning members are welcome to join and take advantage of early tickets. To order or join, call 805-643-8044 or visit www.venturahillsides.org. General ticket sales commence on August 10.

The Ventura Hillsides Music Festival is sponsored in part by a host of community partners including Patagonia, Rabobank, Firestone Walker Fine Ales, Castoro Cellars, L’Acoustics, Rat Sound, and the Wright Family Trust. More details about the 2010 Festival are available on the land trust’s website at www.venturahillsides.org.

The Ventura Hillsides Conservancy is dedicated to permanently preserving the hillsides, canyons and open space that contribute to the unique character and natural environment of the Ventura region.

Click here to read past news releases from the Ventura Hillsides Conservancy.


Stephen Svete
Email: press@venturahillsides.org