2026 Festival Recap

August is over, but the Historic Sutter Creek Ragtime Festival 2026 was a highlight of the month. Three days of great music and musical magic brought this Gold Rush town alive with the sounds of Ragtime! The pianos were moved in on Wednesday and final preparations were made, including the BRAND NEW SWAMP COOLERS in the Auditorium! What a blessing. Music started at 4:00 Friday afternoon at 4 venues with some lasting till 11pm that night. Entertaining customers at the La Mesa wine tasting room and at Choc-O-Latte was a great time. The Auditorium and Hotel Sutter were perfect spots to relax and take in the ambience of the town and listen to great music. A fun addition was our ragtime Bingo game that had you listen for a song that was listed on your card and then checked off when a musician played it. The winner won an all events badge to next year's Festival! Some new faces including a great array of youth performers made a big splash this year! Lily Tao, John Patrick Hutchinson, John Beggs were some very talented newcomers that fit right in with the seasoned performers of the festival including, Paul Orsi, Richard Dowling, Matt Tolentino, Vincent Johnson, Anthony Sarginson, Eve Elliot and so many more. Two of the venues went until 11pm with music! Saturday dawned and soon the music began in earnest. First was at the Sutter Creek Farmers Market as Stevens Price started off the entertainment for the shoppers and then the ragtime youth took over for the next 5 half hour slots. All seven venues were hopping. Backroads Cafe, the inti mate B & B, Brinnwood Inn and the Community Center opened their doors for the ragtime craze. Saturday events included, silent movies with Squeek Steele and Frederick Hodges accompanying, The Chris Bradshaw Youth Showcase Concert, A concert of Sutter Creek Inspired Rags, A New Rag competition inspired by Sutter Creek, The Tom Brier Scholarship Competition and the Saturday Evening Concert. So much great music all day long. The Saturday Evening concert opened with the Sutter Creek Ragtime Band playing a rendition of "Baby Face" while Stevens sang in honor of his new granddaughter of just 1 week, who made an appearance at the concert to the sounds of admiring concert goers. After the concert, patrons went to Hotel Sutter for a big 6-man jam, or stayed in the Auditorium for the new "Cutting Contest". Hotel Sutter was going until midnight! Phew! Sunday was our hottest day of the festival, but nothing stops happy ragtime music! The morning started off at 9am at the Hotel Sutter for the Gospel Hymn Sing led by Jeff & Anne Barnhart and Squeek Steele. What a lovely time of singing the hymns and songs of faith. All the venues were jamming by 10am and soon it was time for the famous Sunday Afternoon Finale Concert which started at 2pm. What a fantastic way to end a successful festival. Raffle prizes were distributed, chairs put up, goodbyes were said and soon the evening approached but the ragtime music continued to permeate the hearts and minds of so many!

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