Prairie Loft Presents:

17th Annual Flatwater Music Festival

Friday and Saturday, June 21-22, 2024 at Prairie Loft Center for Outdoor & Agricultural Learning in Hastings, Nebraska. Each year over 1,000 people from across the Midwest enjoy two nights of live music, fantastic food, local artisan vendors, and outdoor activities for all ages.

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LIVE MUSIC

Main stage performances take place on a refurbished stage trailer with historical connections to USO performances around Nebraska, featuring an eclectic mix of folk, Americana, and bluegrass performers.

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LOCAL FOOD & BREWS

Explore the tastes of the area with locally crafted brews and delicious food trucks.

Make the experience count by trying something new each night!

NATURE

OUTDOOR FESTIVAL

AN EXPERIENCE LIKE NO OTHER
Nestled between historic barns, surrounded by farmland, fireflies and friends who become family. Flatwater Music Festival is the must-attend event for Americana, Folk and Bluegrass fans in the midwest.

Get Tickets Today!

FLATWATER LINEUP

  • Gracie's Uncles three-piece band posed with instruments.

    GRACIE'S UNCLES

    FRIDAY // JUNE 21 // 7:00 P.M.

    Gracie’s Uncles musicians live in Hastings, Nebraska and have been playing music together for more than a decade. Matt, Craig, and Amy play eclectic Americana. combining three-part harmony with guitar, banjo, bass, dobro, mandolin, harmonica, clogging, and more.

    You never know what they’ll come up with next, but you can be sure it’ll be a good time!

    Find upcoming gigs and more info about Gracie’s Uncles on Facebook.

    P.S. Gracie was Craig’s hound dog, who loved to hang out with the band for many years.

  • Maygen & The Birdwatcher 4-piece band posed leaning agains a wall.

    MAYGEN & THE BIRDWATCHER

    FRIDAY // JUNE 21 // 9:00 P.M.

    The past few years have been quite a stir for the Minnesota progressive folk-rock-country sextet Maygen & The Birdwatcher. In late 2021 they released their debut full-length album, Moonshine – (which Americana UK wrote is “stunning”) – earning them Midwest Country Music Awards for Album of the Year and Americana Artist of the Year) and landed opportunities to join festival stages with bands like Old Crow Medicine Show, Paul Cauthen, Grace Potter, and even support a childhood favorite, Travis Tritt.

    They continued the momentum in late 2022, releasing Moonshine’s companion EP, with the “lively and charming” (Adventures in Americana) Bootleggin’ At The Flower Shoppe. With Maygen & The Birdwatcher taking home wins for the 2023 Album of the Year and Americana Artist of the Year at the Midwest Country Music Organization’s annual awards for Bootleggin’ At The Flower Shoppe.

    The Americana band adventurously blurs the sounds of country, bluegrass, folk, and blues. Lead singers Maygen Lacey, and Noah Neumann intentionally work to draw on their vastly different musical influences and vocal styles to bring a fresh and unexpected mix of songs to light. From beauty to grit, sadness to silliness, the common thread is that this crew loves music, and playing it together, and it shows.

  • National Park Radio 2-piece band posed.

    NATIONAL PARK RADIO

    SATURDAY // JUNE 22 // 7:00 p.m

    National Park Radio is a nationally touring indie-folk “power duo” based in the Ozark Mountains of Northwest Arkansas. With an impressive and consistently growing grassroots fanbase across the U.S. (and the world), husband and wife duo Stefan & Kerrie Szabo have made a name for themselves over the past several years with their beautiful harmonies, incredibly inspiring and relatable songwriting, and their unique and energetic live shows.

    What makes National Park Radio unique?

    Aside from their incredibly relatable songwriting and harmonies that connect with so many of their fans, their high-energy live shows - created by the duo bringing in a unique setup and multitasking configuration - brings a new level of sound created by just two people on stage. National Park Radio has been described as the “biggest sounding indie-folk duo” that there is, and between the two of them, many say they create the sound and energy of a 5-piece band.

  • The Talbott Brothers musicians posed.

    THE TALBOTT BROTHERS

    SATURDAY // JUNE 22 // 9:00 p.m.

    The Talbott Brothers were born and raised in Imperial, Nebraska, a rural midwest town located a stone’s throw from the Colorado and Kansas border consisting of two thousand people. Siblings Nick and Ty started writing songs at a young age after discovering their dad’s old guitar and vinyl collection and being introduced to rock and roll, blues and country music that their parents always had playing in the truck or at home. Not being born into a music community or having industry connections, they mowed lawns, loaded trucks and relied on their blue collar upbringing until they could afford a van on Craigslist to tour the country playing dive bars, coffee shops and honkytonks with a pile of burned CDs full of songs they recorded at a friend’s cabin, making one fan at a time along the way.

    Their song ‘We Got Love’ (2017) brought them national recognition selling out shows across the US and their albums ‘Ghost Talker’ (2019) and ‘Letters’ (2022) garnered attention from ‘Rolling Stone,’ ‘Billboard’ and ‘The Boot’; calling their music “cinematic,” “captivating blood harmonies” and “for fans of John Mayer, Mumford & Sons and Jason Isbell.”

    With over 3 million combined streams on Spotify, The Talbott Brothers blend their influences of rock, folk, pop and blues to create an infectious sound that is uniquely their own. They spent much of the last few years touring around the world, from headline shows to sharing the stage with Needtobreathe, Wild Rivers, Johnnyswim, ZZ Ward and many more. They’ve also dipped their feet into the festival circuit playing The Rock Boat, Portland Folk Festival and Pure Imagination Festival.

  • The String Beans 3-piece pose with silly faces.

    THE STRING BEANS

    SATURDAY // JUNE 22 // 3:00 P.M.

    From pop and country to rap and rock n’ roll, these goofy guys perform a wide variety of original, family-friendly songs about all the things kids love: animals, cartoons, food, science, sports and more! Each show is hilarious, inclusive and spontaneous, and each catchy tune is designed to get every audience dancing and singing along!

    Since forming in 2004, The String Beans have released 10 albums, appeared on dozens of radio and television programs, and delighted thousands of fans, becoming Nebraska’s favorite entertainers for pre-school through elementary-aged audiences, not to mention parents, teachers and communities.

    The String Beans perform at fairs, festivals, libraries, schools, churches, museums, zoos and more! In their hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska, the “Beans” sold out the Lied Center for Performing Arts and consistently set new attendance records at the Lincoln Children’s Museum’s “Music & Mozzarella” concert series. The band has also performed for the Governor’s Arts Awards Ceremony and in 2014 completed a tour of the southeast United States with performances in Missouri, Georgia, Tennessee and Florida.

  • THE SHADY STAGE // JAM SESSIONS // WORKSHOPS

    SATURDAY // JUNE 22 // LOCAL ARTISTS

    Local artists and performers are encouraged to take part in a variety of opportunities to perform, jam and learn at Flatwater Music Festival.

    The Shady Stage at Flatwater Music Festival highlights a variety of different talents. Looking fo

    Looking for a space to jam with others? Saturday is your day. Jam Circles pop up thoroughout the event and everyone is welcome to bring an instrument to join in!

    No performer is too young, only young at heart. If you are interested in performing on the Shady Stage, please contact Prairie Loft’s team.

Get Involved

Would you like to be a part of Flatwater Music Festival? Vendors, food trucks, sponsors & volunteers can sign up below. A Prairie Loft team member will contact you to confirm your acceptance into the festival!

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VENDOR APPLICATION

Food trucks, activities and artisan vendor applications can be submitted online. A member of the Prairie Loft team will reach out to confirm acceptance to Flatwater Music Festival
June 21 & 22, 2024.

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Volunteer

Volunteering opportunities coming soon! Important jobs include pre-event setup, entry gates, parking support, kid’s activities management, and much more!

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Become A Sponsor

Our sponsor partners make Flatwater Music Festival possible! We are continually grateful for the community support and collaboration that happens each year during Flatwater Music Festival.