A decade after it first set up amps between the stone facades of Historic Railroad Square, the free Railroad Square Music Festival returns to downtown Santa Rosa on Sunday, September 20, running from noon to 7:30 p.m. and packing in 35 artists across genres that range from traditional mariachi to freestyle hip-hop. The nonprofit event, open to all ages at no charge, takes over Wilson Street between Fourth and Fifth streets in the historic district.
Festival director and co-founder Josh Windmiller launched the event in 2015 to highlight and energize Sonoma County’s arts and music scene, according to The Press Democrat. The festival itself began in 2015 and was held annually until a two-year hiatus during the Covid-19 pandemic, before returning to live performances in 2022. Windmiller told the paper that the festival’s broader musical identity became stronger after that pandemic pause, and the lineup has since expanded to include hip-hop and banda music alongside its original folk and Americana roots.
A Lineup Spanning Genres and Generations
Mainstage acts this year include San Francisco folk-rock band The Sam Chase & The Untraditional and Petaluma bass-and-drum duo Toast Machine, per the same Press Democrat report. The Sam Chase last played the festival in 2016, and frontman The Sam Chase said Sonoma County feels like a second home for the band. Also on the bill are Sonoma County improvisational hip-hop duo Dark Matter Lives!, which will lay down beats for freestyle performances featuring Kayatta and Erica Ambrin, plus Petaluma native Ismay and Sebastopol artist Brightdarkdawn.
The festival opens with a land acknowledgment from Joe Salinas of the Sonoma County Pomo Dancers, followed immediately by a performance from Cantares de mi Tierra, the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts’ award-winning after-school mariachi ensemble, accompanied by ballet folklorico. That group, also known as Mariachi Cantares de mi Tierra, took first place in the California State Fair’s youth mariachi competition, earning the title of Best Youth Mariachi in California, according to Sonoma State University. The no-cost youth program, founded at the Luther Burbank Center in 2015, provides instruments, uniforms, and musical training to Sonoma County students.
New Stages and Family-Friendly Additions
For the first time, the festival will feature songwriter-in-the-round showcases presented by Secret Song Club, an event production organization based in Santa Rosa that stages listening-focused showcases and open mics in venues chosen to minimize background noise for acoustic performers, per Visit Santa Rosa. Nearly a dozen acoustic performers are set to appear across those showcases. Elsewhere, the Electric Railroad Station will host a rotating roster of house DJs led by DJ Tecni, while Second Hand Funk leads a set of funk vocalists and musicians…