Inaugural Whitefish Music Event Aims to Bring Community Together and Support Local Artists

An indoor music event will debut on the outskirts of Whitefish this weekend as community favorites gather to perform in support of a new nonprofit geared toward covering local musicians’ unexpected medical costs. 

Star Meadows Ranch, which is located about 30 miles west of downtown Whitefish, will host the inaugural Rhythm & Roots festival on Saturday, March 14, with Flathead Valley musical acts and DJs performing from noon through 2 a.m.

The 360-acre Star Meadows Ranch is a family-run business and while the venue is typically a destination for private events like weddings and retreats, Rhythm & Roots is the ranch’s first public music event.

The event will also mark the first partnership between the ranch and Kate Preston, with the music festival initiating the launch of Preston’s new promotion company, Mountain Mama Presents.

“We’re super excited to be able to offer live music events that are community-oriented and focus on community building and having it be kid friendly and celebrating local musicians and regional artists from our valley and throughout Montana,” Preston said.

A self-proclaimed avid music lover, Preston has seen countless shows in the valley that have spanned across musical genres, she said.

“I have taken in any show I can, from the Northern, the Remington, Under the Big Sky,” Preston said. “Anything I can do, so I’ve developed a pretty big network of musicians that I personally know and then also the musicians that I do know were able to connect me with other musicians in the valley.”

A love of music was an interest Preston discovered she shared with ranch owner Sam Krueger a couple of years ago while coaching both their sons’ soccer team, she said.

“We just organically started talking about live music during one of the practices and she had shared that she was interested in having live music events up at her ranch, and I shared with her that it was also my passion to [build] my music promotion business that I’ve been working on,” Preston said. “At the time things didn’t work out due to just scheduling things and the capacity that we both had. Then we reconnected at a coffee shop a couple months ago and she had shared she wanted to revisit that idea, and I was in a much better place to have the capacity to take this on.

“Within a couple of weeks, we had a name for the event, we had artists for the event and we have been working together tirelessly ever since that day in January.”

What started as chitchat on a soccer field has now quickly developed into Rhythm & Roots, an all ages, family friendly event that will feature musical acts spanning Americana, bluegrass, rock, funk, jazz and all-around Montana-roots-inspired sounds.

Local artists performing include Jake Simpson and Andy Dunnigan of The Lil Smokies, Hotdayum, John Dunnigan, Brent Jameson Trio, Smokering Drifters, Christiane Hinterman, Kelly Diane, Rylee Mix, DJ Reidardie and Mt. Everett.

All live music will take place indoors. Outdoors, guests will find space to gather around fire pits and enjoy an open area where kids can play throughout the evening. Stumptown Art Studio will bring a craft and North Valley Music School will have an instrument petting zoo. There will also be a full bar and food trucks.

A top priority for the organizers is creating a positive, family friendly environment, with Preston highlighting the shuttle that will be available to take guests from Whitefish to the ranch. The shuttle will run from 11 a.m. to 2:15 a.m. on Sunday, taxiing festival goers between Pin and Cue in Whitefish and Star Meadows Ranch. 

Another key focus of the single-day music event is raising funds and bringing awareness to Preston’s new nonprofit: the Resilient Strings Foundation.

The Montana-based nonprofit is dedicated to supporting the mental health and medical care needs of working musicians across Montana. Through wellness grants, access-to-care partnerships, and community-supported funding initiatives like Roots & Rhythm, the foundation helps ensure artists can continue creating the music that brings communities together.

Preston created the foundation a couple of months ago to help address a need and fill what she saw as a gap in aid for her local music community, she said.

“It was created in part due to my personal experiences with friends and families that are musicians themselves and just have overall struggled when it comes to unexpected medical costs, or if they need access to mental health resources; the inability to have additional funds that folks may have through salary jobs or government jobs or things that have a more structured benefit plan,” Preston said.

While still in the early stages, Preston aims to expand the nonprofit and quickly develop a structured pathway for local musicians to officially apply for assistance for mental health or medical care cost reimbursement, she said.

“Starting small, hopefully I’ll help five musicians,” Preston said. “Hopefully going forward I’ll help hundreds. Maybe there’s someone that’s playing at the event that needs help and can access these resources that can directly benefit somebody from this event.”

Several local businesses, such as Super 1 Foods, Sage and Cedar, Sapari Boutique and Box of Rain Organic Garden Center, have donated a service for the event or a good for the raffle, with 100% of the sponsorship proceeds and raffle going toward the Resilient Strings Foundation, Preston said.

Click here to learn more about Roots & Rhythm and here to purchase tickets for Saturday’s festival. 

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