Overview Black Bear Americana Music Fest is a three-day camping festival of roots music at the Harwinton Fairgrounds in northwest Connecticut, where the 2026 weekend ran from Pure Prairie League on the Friday night to a Sunday Morning Spirit Revival, with songwriting workshops taught by the performers in between. More than 50 bands play four stages - the Main Stage, the Acoustic Stage, the Workshop Stage and the Gazebo Stage - across rock, blues, folk and bluegrass, and people camp on the grounds in tents and RVs. The festival started as a fall event in Goshen before moving to August in Harwinton, and it billed its 2027 edition as the ninth. On site The fairgrounds are tree-lined, with food trucks, craft drinks, artisan vendors and a merchandise building between the stages, and the site has its own named corners like the Orange Tarp and the Jamboree Jam Tent. The Workshop Stage runs classes all day: in 2026 that meant songwriting with Shanna in a Dress, publishing and song placement with Nini Camps, hand drumming with Lil' Chris Cirullo, ukulele with John Concillio, a performance critique from Vance Gilbert and a session taking apart Simon and Garfunkel with Belle of the Fall. Each day's workshops closed with a sunset song swap, and the Main Stage wrapped by 9:30 at night. Audience Most of the crowd comes from Litchfield County and the rest of northwest Connecticut, with visitors from across the state and New England, and the festival builds the weekend around young families: children 17 and under got in free in 2025. With camping on the grounds, campers are on site from Friday to Sunday, and the workshops and jam tent put a share of the audience on instruments. Talent and Influencers The Slambovian Circus of Dreams headlined the 2026 Saturday and the Adam Ezra Group closed the Sunday, on a bill that also carried Michael Glabicki of Rusted Root with Dirk Miller, Ryan Shupe and the RubberBand, Joe Crookston, Vance Gilbert and Palmyra. Shawn Mullins, Howie Day, David Wilcox, Jeffrey Gaines and The Dreadnoughts played in 2025, the festival's seventh year. Brand presence Sponsor levels are named for bears, from Baby Bear to Black Bear. The top level holds the naming rights to the Acoustic Stage and a meet-and-greet with a headliner, and the levels below carry a main-stage logo, a prime vending space, signs on site and camping with electric. Add-ons put a partner's name on the Workshop or Gazebo Stage or the children's program, or book a Campfire Jam Session: a festival musician at the partner's campsite for a half-hour evening set. Hoffman Automotive, Litchfield Distillery and D'Addario have appeared on the sponsor list.