Michael Martin Murphey’s “Westfest” Returns

After a five year break, Western Music Hall of Fame member Michael Martin Murphey’s Westfest® 2010, is officially set to be held at the Garfield County Fairgrounds in Rifle, Colorado, August 12-15.  

For 2010, talent has been booked with a sensitivity to the love of the outdoors of the Western Colorado region. Many of the performers, like country star Craig Morgan, are confirmed outdoor adventure enthusiasts.

Murphey is a horse and cattle rancher; his Rocking 3M Ranching Co. has been active in New Mexico, Texas, Wisconsin, Colorado and Kansas. His wife, Karen, and three of his daughters are professional horse trainers.

Confirmed to perform are Morgan, James Otto, Guitarists James Burton and Doyle Dykes, Bill Miller, Peter Rowan, Don Edwards, Waddie Mitchell, Trailer Choir, Ryan Murphey, Carin Mari and Pony Express, poet Sarah Murphey, The Prairie Rose Wranglers, and a host of local cowboy singers and poets, Indian musicians and dancers, Mountain Man Story Tellers and hundreds of Western Lifestyle Arts and Crafts Masters. 

New this year will be The Westfest Outback Outdoors Exhibition with web-based hunting star, Trevon Stoltzfus, and the Westfest Ranch Sorting National Championships. Murphey will be leading daily trail rides that begin 20 minutes from the Westfest grounds. 

Murphey founded Westfest in 1986 as a way to preserve memories and images of the Old West.

“I wanted to present the West to people who might otherwise perceive it only through a movie director’s tunnel vision,” said Murphey. “The West has become synonymous with fantasy. If Hollywood trends are any indication, the movie screens are alive with politically correct Indians and environmentally-challenged villains. Today, Cowboys and Indians are united in their quest for open range and a life of freedom. I want to show the Real American West!”

Westfest tickets are available by clicking here.