The Mountain at the 2025 Lonesome Fest – photo © Dale & Darcy Cahill
Lonesome Fest held its tenth annual festival last weekend at Belgian Meadows Farm in Lebanon, Maine. Cecil Ables and Peter Dellea, good friends and producers of the festival, began the event in 2015 at Rock Maple Farm in Strafford, NH with a large event tent, a suggested donation of twenty-five dollars, and about seventy-five guests. While Ables and Delia never expected to make much, if any, money, they have stuck with their vision of a small regional festival in an area rich in musical talent.
For the first five years the festival was held at Ables’ Rock Maple Farm property. Abels says, “I think, like many folks, I wanted to share something that is special to me, with others, to create a mutual experience of joy, to bring people together in a time when we are all so busy. These days, we tend to all live in our own little bubbles. Lonesome Fest has successfully done just that for the past ten years.” The festival, spread by word of mouth and social media, gained traction and the following year the audience reached approximately one hundred and fifty bluegrass and music lovers. It was growing!
Unfortunately, the town of Strafford made it impossible for Abels to hold a commercial event on his farm for zoning reasons, and after years of meetings, compromises, and continued town objections, Ables and Dellea decided to move the festival to Belgium Meadows Farm in Lebanon, Maine. It was a good decision.
The new location offered more open fields for camping. The collection of wild mustangs, which owners Steve Collins and his wife Alicia, with their unique style of gentle training, are able place the mustangs in homes. The horses themselves offer a beautiful backdrop for the stage. Steve and Alicia are also generous music lovers, and they donate their land for the festival.
Ables says that the location in southern Maine gives him the opportunity to hire national talent as well as regional acts. This year the performers included the New England Bluegrass Band, The Hazel Project, Harvey Reid and Joyce Andersen, The Mountain, Cormac McCarthy, TJ Wheeler Band, Unsung Heros, Tom Pirozzoli, and singer/songwriter Rachel McCartney.
The attendance price for the day is now up to forty dollars with kids getting free admission. With that comes rough camping and an intimate setting for this year for the 250 plus guests. Mr. Sippy Southern BBQ served up a delicious menu of pulled meat of every kind, and of course collard greens were on the list of sides.
This is our tenth festival, and it feels like Lonesome Fest is on a roll. While the space could handle over 1,000 attendees, Abels knows that with that number the festival will lose the community feeling. Abels strongly believes that they are stronger together than apart. One festival goer attendee wrote on Lonesome Fest’s Facebook page, “What a great event! Nature – Art – Friends – Rhythm & Roots. We need more of that to pull the world together. Nice job!” We agree.
