2022 Wrap Up Report

2022 Logo Contest

The Three Rivers Folklife Society, and the Tumbleweed Music Festival, were absolutely delighted to announce that YM Cho, of Chicago and Arizona, was the winner of the Logo Contest for the 2022 Tumbleweed Music Festival!

Ms. Cho found out about our contest from an internet search, and we couldn’t be happier with the fabulous art that she’s brought us to symbolize this year’s Tumbleweed theme of “Dear Friends.”  Ms. Cho received the cash prize of $150 for her winning design, which was featured in all of this year’s publicity materials and merchandise for the Tumbleweed festival.

Congratulations and a huge thank-you to Ms. Cho for her winning design!  We’d also like to express our great thanks and appreciation for all the other entrants to this year’s contest; the planning committee was spoiled for choice this year, with a total of nine entries vs. our normal 3 or 4, and that led to a LOT of discussion, let me tell you!

Tumblweed 2022 was a LIVE Festival in Howard Amon park in Richland, Washington, from Friday, 2 September to Sunday, 4 September.

This past Labor Day weekend, the 26th Annual Tumbleweed Music Festival returned to being a LIVE festival in Richland’s Howard Amon Park, and by any measure, it was a remarkable weekend!  Our theme for this year is “Good Friends”.

The festival began on Friday afternoon with setting up the info booth and beginning to remember how to HOLD alive festival!  The Friday evening “New Horizons” concert brought us some remarkable performances from young singer/songwriters, some making this their first public performances!  They were Joelle Plummer, Gwen Good with Kaylie Dawes and Kira Maghan, Dylan Long, Saphryn Luna and Depth Charger.  We’re definitely going to be going after most or all of these folks to be openers for future Coffeehouses and Concerts!

Saturday morning saw our machine rev to life under perfect weather conditions for a full slate of performances.  We had new people volunteering to run sound for some of our stages, and not only did they all excel at their positions, they’re eager to return next year to do it again!  Walking around the park all through the day, every performer and attendee that committee members talked to about the festival used the same word:  “Wonderful!” Aside from a few small behind-the-scenes bumps, by golly we had a festival when and where we said we would!  One Saturday highlight was when the Mexican Folkloric dance group “Alegrias de Mexico” had so many young people dancing, they had to move outdoors onto the patio of the Community Center, where their lovely movements and flashing colors enchanted the large crowd who gathered to watch and provide extremely heartfelt applause!

Sunday saw a continuance of the perfect weather for another full slate of performances and workshops, and a continued joy in being together again.  A number of Tumbleweed first-timers were smitten with the festival and are eager to come back again, as eager as we are to have them return!  The long-awaited guitar raffle took place during the Sunday concert, with Niel Kierulff walking away with the prize (for a second time!) Thanks to Gene Weisskopf for donating the guitar in 2020!

At the same time as the live festival was beginning, the virtual segment of TMF2022 went live on our festival website https://tumbleweedmusicfestival.org, with 24 recorded performances (and one recorded workshop) from Tumbleweed family members as far afield as California and southeast England!  There is also a compilation of this year’s Jane Titland Memorial Songwriting Contest finalists performing their songs, including the announcement of the winners and the “People’s Choice” winner as well.  These performances, as with our two previous virtual festivals, will remain available online for the foreseeable future.

This year’s festival was truly (as always) an intense group effort.  The Tumbleweed Planning Committee was led by Co-coordinators Micki Perry (who handled the live festival) and David Carson, who have now passed on their positions to the new Coordinator for 2023, Katrina Knight.  Micki and David express their huge and heartfelt thanks to everyone on the committee who worked so hard all the year to pull this off once again.

​Jane Titland Memorial Songwriting Contest

On Saturday afternoon, the finalists for this year’s Jane Titland Memorial Songwriting Contest performed their songs live on the West Stage, for an appreciative audience and the three judges!  The finalists and their songs were:

  • Eli Ashley:  Dear Friends of Mine
  • Kat Bula:  The Ballad of Flinty
  • Ron Dalton:  Good Ol’ Friends
  • Kathe Davis:  Here’s to You and Me
  • Kaylie Dawes:  Love and Friendship
  • Steff Kayser:  The Space Between Our Fences
  • Larry Lotz:  A Distant Wind
  • James Tristan Redding:  Dear Friends
  • Eric Schaffer:  My Friend
  • Thaddeus Spae:  Dear Friends


This year’s songwriting contest winners were:

  • 1st prize : Eric Schaeffer
  • 2nd Prize : Kat Bula
  • 3rd Prize: Steff Kayser
  • People’s Choice Award: Kat Bula

2022 Performance Program