8 Reasons Why We Consider Cherokee Creek Music Festival One of the Best Texas Music Festivals

We’ve been coming to Cherokee Creek Music Festival for the last 9 years and we keep coming back because it is one of the best music festivals in Texas. Here are just 8 of the reasons why we love this festival and think that you should add it to your music festival bucket list:

It’s hard to beat all of that!

The Venue at Cherokee Creek Music Festival

This year was the 13th annual Cherokee Creek Music Festival and each year it’s been held on a beautiful 8000 acre ranch in the Hill Country near Cherokee which is just 15 minutes north of Llano. A creek runs through the property and a couple dams with waterfalls create beautiful ponds that are stocked with fish. Next to the creek and large pond is a beautiful huge wood pavilion with towering stone pillars, luxurious artificial turf, huge wooden beams, a large stage, and seating for around 850 music fans. The entire front of the stage and surrounding the base of the stone pillars are beautiful floral arrangements – in fact, the entire festival grounds including the picnic tables are decorated with beautiful flower arrangements – a stunning setting!

A cool stone bridge leads from the parking area and campground area across another pond and to the stage with picnic tables with floral arrangements and umbrellas on one side and a couple of the ranch homes on the other side of the pavilion. The grounds for this home have swings, hammocks, rocking chairs, and a cool stone fire pit, all under some towering trees, for the music fans to enjoy. My words and pictures don’t do the pavilion and grounds the justice they deserve – you have to experience it to really appreciate it’s elegance and beauty.

Facing the picnic tables and creek on the right side of the pavilion is a line of 5 different food stations serving a variety of tasty free food and drinks (non alcoholic) on Friday evening and lunch and dinner on Saturday. Some of the food includes:

I think I was in heaven sitting by the creek, pond, and waterfall; dining on picnic tables with beautiful floral arrangements; devouring some tasty food; and listening to some excellent music!

The Fans at Cherokee Creek Music Festival

A large part of what makes Cherokee Creek Music Festival fun are the people who attend. It’s a good mix of business executives from oil and gas companies (a large majority of whom are sponsors) and their employees, big time fans of good music, lots of kids, a few dogs, and other fun music lovers from around Texas and the United States! The fans are friendly, sociable, and outgoing and very attentive when the music starts. It’s always fun to meet new fellow music lovers and reacquaint with folks we’ve met at previous festivals.

Cherokee Creek Music Festival is very kid friendly and I think they have as much fun as the parents – enjoying the playscape, fishing in the ponds, hula hooping, throwing a variety of balls, dancing, and enjoying the music.

Camping at Cherokee Creek Music Festival

The camping area is several acres within easy walking distance of the stage. It’s a big open pasture along one side of the creek and there is plenty of room to spread out. A handful of electric sites are reserveable and they back up to a large cluster of trees. There are several designated sites and when you arrive a volunteer will lead you to your site or an area where they would prefer you park your RV. The festival provided generators which are spread out in a couple sections and for a fee you can plug into them. There is a separate area for tents. Some of the sites are in an open pasture and others back up to a cluster of trees or are along the creek or next to a field of colorful wildflowers. From of the campsites it’s an easy walk, bike ride, ATV ride, or golf cart shuttle to the music stage. In the campground there is ice, trucks delivering water, and holding tank pump out trucks that will flush the RV holding tanks – all complimentary.

When you first drive onto the ranch you’ll see what seems like hundreds of big and beautiful Class A motor homes perfectly lined up in 5 or 6 rows – these are rentals that are privately rented (the rental company will deliver and set up the RV) or they are part of the sponsor program. Shuttles are available to run guests back and forth that stay at the Horseshoe Bay Resort.

The Music at Cherokee Creek Music Festival

This year the music started on Friday around 6 and all of the artists played for an hour except the closing act who played for a couple hours. Friday’s lineup included:

Wow, what a fantastic evening of music. Michael Franti & Spearhead were unbelievable with a lively, energetic, and entertaining set that including his going into the audience on several songs and singing and dancing with the fans or having fans join him on stage and for one song he invited all the kids to come on stage with him to sing and dance. And Michael seemed to be having as much fun as we were.

Saturday was over cast and scattered showers until around three but that didn’t stop the music from starting on time at noon.

Lineup at Cherokee Creek Music Festival on Saturday
Andrew Duhon	Sean Hayes	Shawn Mullins
Eric Hutchinson	Citizen Cope	Macy Gray

All of the bands were very talented and we heard a variety of instruments playing some superb music that got people out of their chairs and dancing and cheering and having a great time!

After the the music ended in the pavilion a DJ started playing some great music and Smoke on the Water, a huge custom built trailer with a large smoker and cooking area, started serving ribs, sausage, and brisket, beans, slaw, and bread – all for free. Plus some of the left over food from the pavilion area was brought over. And the late night party began!

The after hours party was a tradition that John Nolan, a retired oil and gas executive, started. He had a BBQ smoker and kitchen area custom designed and attached to large trailer with a waterfall on one end and named it “Smoke on the Water”. John paid for the BBQ on Friday and Saturday night and he flew bands in from around Texas to entertain the late night party people. Then each morning campers could stop by for a free breakfast.

Unfortunately, John passed away in 2018 and this years Cherokee Creek Music Festival was dedicated to his memory. Tee shirts and koozies had picture of him, John Nolan bobble heads were given to the sponsors, and several of the artists and fans paid tribute to John. A great guy and loved by everyone that knew him. And we felt his presence everywhere we went.

Our thanks go out to owner of the ranch (who never misses a set and enjoys the music as much as we do!) and all the volunteers and staff for everything that they did to make this one of the best music festivals in Texas! See you next year.