A mega-fest of live local music celebrates its 20th anniversary Sept. 11-13. The Bend Roots Revival will feature eight venues, 11 stages, more than 100 local bands and, conservatively, a couple hundred local musicians. All shows are free, mostly family-friendly and benefit arts education around the high desert.
Venues include, Bunk+Brew, The Commons, Greenhouse Cabaret, Just Joe’s Music, Lone Pine Coffee, M&J Tavern (ages 21+), Silver Moon Brewing and The Domino Room (ages 21+). The full schedule is online.
“To me, it’s like a huge summer party to celebrate the community of local musicians. It’s a special time to get together. It’s like a music-scene reunion,” said Jeshua Marshall, a local musician playing the fest. Marshall connected via phone as he drove from Nashville, Tennessee to St. Louis, Missouri, where he’ll play shows this week with Larry and His Flask before flying to Bend to play with his band, Jeshua Marshall and The Flood. They’ll take to the Revival’s Skjersaa Stage at Silver Moon Brewing from 8:45-9:45pm on Saturday, Sept. 12.
Marshall, 39, graduated from Redmond High School in 2004, lived in Bend for several years, and moved to Portland about 18 months ago. However, he still keeps his hand in the local music scene and secured the bookings for the Revival’s four Silver Moon Brewing stages. He said he loves the chance to return to Bend to visit with all of his musician friends and support a worthy cause.
“Almost every musician is donating their time to come together and raise money for schools,” Marshall said. “I think a lot of musicians feel a passion about keeping the next generation of musicians learning and growing.”
Last year, Bend Roots raised more than $6,000 between donations and merchandise and drink sales, said Mark Ransom, one of the Revival’s founders. A longtime Central Oregonian, he and his friend Brent Alan created the festival in 2006. The two men were hanging out near what was then known as the Les Schwab Amphitheater, although around it was nary a building except the desolate old mill across the Deschutes River. He said they “were listening from afar” to an amphitheater concert and talking about how many great musicians lived in Central Oregon. They hit on the idea of a day-long concert to showcase and celebrate all the local artists they knew. Fast forward a couple months, and the men convinced Parrilla Grill and Victoria Café to set up a couple stages in each parking lot. They invited a bunch of musicians, and the rest is history.
“It was a huge success. Everybody loved the idea,” said Ransom, who plays and teaches music around Central Oregon. In 2007, the Bend Roots Revival, as it became known, partnered with nonprofits to help support arts education, school theatrical productions and musical and art camps, and offer scholarships for private music instruction. Seven years ago, they officially created their own nonprofit, Bend Roots Fund. He said the blossoming of the revival into a three-day, multi-venue event has been exciting to experience, and while concertgoers love all of the varied live music, the musicians love the chance to see each other and play.
“You don’t get together to play music so that you can be on stage. You get together to play music. The more we’re singing and playing music together, the better the world is going to be, and that’s just a fundamental truth,” Ransom said. “It’s very hard to get into a fight when you’re in a good jam. I think music is a way to connect and bring people together. It’s a way to express, identify and differentiate emotions and sensations. It’s a way to cultivate a sense of beauty in ourselves and in the community.”
Ransom is playing two shows at the revival, including on Friday, Sept. 11 at The Domino Room with GBots & The Journeymen from 9:30-10:15pm, and then with The Mostest on the Casey Corner Stage at Silver Moon Brewing on Saturday, Sept. 12 from 9:30-11pm.
Among the highlights of the revival’s lineup, according to Ransom, are The Hasbens on Friday, Sept. 11 from 8:45-10pm on the Skjersaa Stage at Silver Moon Brewing; and Tony Furtado and Stephanie Schneiderman on Silver Moon’s Redbird Stage on Saturday, Sept. 12 from 6-7pm. He said there’ll also be interactive community jams, notable a drumming fest, at Joe’s Place, and then The Gospel According to Mark (Ransom) and Patrick (Pearsall) on Sunday, Sept. 13 at Bunk + Brew from 2-3pm.
“For 20 years, we’ve done it on Sunday morning, but now it’s going to be on Sunday afternoon,” Ransom said. “We invite a lot of the players from the event to come and play with us, and we focus on the gospel of music according to us.”
Bend Roots Revival
Sept. 11-13
Venues include Bunk+Brew, Lone Pine Coffee, M&J's, Silver Moon Brewing, The Commons Café, The Domino Room, The Greenhouse Cabaret and Joe’s Place
bendroots.net
Free but donations encouraged
This article appears in the Source September 10, 2026.
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