Miles City Bluegrass & Pie Festival

On a Friday in September the doors of the Home Show Building at the Eastern Montana Fairgrounds open at five o’clock, and the food court opens with them for dinner. The 2026 festival, the 28th, ran September 18 through 20. At 5:30 the Open Stage begins. When the 2025 festival was announced, the Lively Times listing invited everyone to bring an instrument for it. Figuring It Out followed at about 6:30 and Special Consensus at about 7:30; the festival’s own schedule hedges both times with “ish.” At 9:30 the After Hours Open Jam starts. After the 2026 Friday the festival posted: “Quite possibly our biggest Friday night ever is a wrap. Let’s do it again tomorrow.”

Special Consensus came to Miles City with eight IBMA awards and two Grammy nominations, according to the festival’s ticket page, and played the Friday only. By Sunday evening the band was on stage at the Roman Theater in Red Lodge. Those who stay the weekend camp on the grounds, free for the length of the festival.

Five bands on the hour

Saturday doors open at nine, when, the schedule says, “Breakfast is ready.” From ten in the morning to seven at night the 2026 bands rotated on the hour, each playing twice: High Plains Tradition, The Woodpicks, Figuring It Out, Montana Standard, and Kenny & Amanda Smith, the Saturday headliners, billed as award-winning. At eight came the Band Scramble, and after it another After Hours Open Jam. The Miles City Star reported informal jam sessions through the weekend, open to musicians of all ages and experience levels.

Sunday opens again with breakfast at nine. A workshop at ten is the place, as the ticket page puts it, to “pick up pointers from the pros.” In 2024 the same hour was listed as a workshop and invocation. The five bands play once more through the afternoon, Montana Standard at one and Kenny & Amanda Smith last at five. At six come the raffle drawings, entered on the schedule as “Raffle Drawings, Hugs and handshakes.” The festival notes that its schedule “is tentative and may change as needs arise.”

The Star counted locals and travelers turning out “in the dozens” for the 2026 weekend.

The Back Porch and the pies

The food court was recently renamed “The Back Porch.” On the 2026 Saturday it served ribs, pork belly burnt ends, and a Southern-style shrimp boil. The festival’s own account of the food runs from hearty savory dishes to sweet ones. It names the homemade pies, baked by local bakers, as the fan favorite.

The pies account for the second name. The festival’s site calls itself the Miles City Bluegrass Festival on most pages, and its About page explains that the event is “lovingly dubbed” the Miles City Bluegrass & Pie Festival for its two standout features, the music and the food court. In 2025 the Lively Times listing announced the 27th edition as “Montana’s favorite bluegrass festival,” celebrating with “a world-class line-up of entertainment and return of the pies.” That year Visit Montana’s listing also mentioned food trucks.

From the Miles Bluegrass Association, 1998

The festival dates its founding to 1998. The Miles City Star traces it to informal gatherings among members of the Miles Bluegrass Association, which grew into a weekend that draws musicians and bluegrass fans from around the region. A nonprofit puts it on. In 2024 the Forsyth Independent Press reported that all proceeds go straight into putting on the next year’s festival. The Miles City Area Chamber of Commerce lists Mike Grenz as its contact and places it on the third weekend of September each year. The 2024 newspaper account had it as the third full weekend.

The lineup turns over from year to year around a few returning names. The 26th festival, September 20 to 22, 2024, brought Dalton Harper, the Edgar Loudermilk Band, The Bluestems, and Cotton Wood, alongside Montana Standard and High Plains Tradition. Dalton Harper closed both the Saturday stage, at nine, and the Sunday stage, at five. The Band Scramble that year ran at ten on Saturday night. The newspaper’s photograph showed Milestown, a local group, at an earlier festival. The 2025 main stage held Nick Dumas and Branchline, The Waddington Brothers, Song Dog Serenade, Release the Squirrels, Figuring It Out, and High Plains Tradition. The Woodpicks have returned several times.

The 2024 raffle was sponsored by Murdoch’s Home & Ranch. Its prize was a Ruger American Gen II .308 Winchester rifle with a 20-inch barrel, a Vortex scope, a 48-inch case, and 20 rounds of ammunition. The winner had to be legally eligible to buy a firearm.

High Plains Tradition first played Miles City in 2006 and has appeared at nearly every edition since. In 2026 it opened the Saturday music at ten in the morning.