Guillermo Martinez, who performed at Wheatland three times during the late 1990s with the band Los Bandits de Michigan, died on July 20, 2020. Guillermo was also a poet, a singer/songwriter, and he gave lessons to aspiring guitar and accordion players. Read more »

Longtime Wheatlander Martin “Lucky” Cates passed May 16, 2020. Sara Cates, his daughter said, “My dad Martin aka Lucky loved Wheatland for more than 40 years. His mother (the late Rosemary Miller) had volunteered at Wheatland since the beginning. He loved the drum circles, the dance classes and the Sunday morning worship at Main Stage […] Read more »

Friend “Banjo-Jim” Foerch wrote, “Rickey Novak passed away suddenly on April 29. He started attending the Festival, Wheatland Jamborees and Traditional Arts (TAW) in 1993. He was a walking library of the songs of the 50s – 60s folk rebellion and could be heard leading them with his guitar in jams at the Blue Water […] Read more »

Wheatland neighbor Ray Simon died on April 3, 2020. Ray and his late wife Ann raised 13 children together and were longtime supporters of the Wheatland Music Festival. According to Bruce Bauman, in the early days, Ray loaned Wheatland organizers his farm truck so they could haul the snow fence used to mark off sections […] Read more »

Dan Wernette died on March 13, 2020. His daughter-in-law, Rita, wrote that Dan, a relative of former festival site owners Mark and Gladys Wernette, “lived for Wheatland and is greatly missed.” Read more »

Longtime Hiawatha Festival organizer and Wheatland volunteer Pearl Taylor died on March 10, 2020. Pearl worked in the Info Booth at Traditional Arts Weekend and the fall festival for over 20 years. Longtime Wheatland volunteer Chris Cotton described Pearl as “a force in the traditional music and dance world for as long as I can […] Read more »

John McIlvaine “Mac” Benford died on February 15, 2020. Mac played at Wheatland during the 1970s and 80s with the Highwoods Stringband (Mac shown far right) and the Uncles and the Footnotes, and during the 21st century with Fat City Stringband. Bruce Bauman, another Wheatland founder, expressed that Mac and the late Tommy Thompson (Red […] Read more »