High Sierra Music Festival Founder Roy Carter Has Died
Carter, who was also one of the original founders of DelFest, was 68.
By Andy Kahn May 1, 2024 • 11:27 am PDT
Roy Carter, an original founder of High Sierra Music Festival and longtime talent buyer for the event, died on Monday, April 29 at age 68. Carter, who was also among the founders of DelFest, died from congestive heart failure.
A statement provided by High Sierra Music Festival follows:
Roy Carter, one of the original founders of the High Sierra Music Festival and DelFest has died of congestive heart failure on Monday, April 29, 2024, age 68. He founded the High Sierra Music Festival in 1991 at a time when camping music festivals were single genre events. There were bluegrass, rock, folk, and jazz festivals, but High Sierra Music Festival was a pioneer in the concept of combining different genres at one event.
Subsequently, the festival nurtured the burgeoning jam scene helping boost the careers of acts such as The String Cheese Incident, Leftover Salmon, Yonder Mountain String Band, The Slip, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Umphrey’s McGee, and many others. Roy had a keen eye for talent, and was known for booking bands very early in their careers such as Billy Strings, The Revivalists, The Avett Brothers and The Lumineers.
He got his start in the business doing publicity for clubs and venues as well as creating recycling programs for festivals and music events. In 1991, he along with three other partners started High Sierra Music Festival in Leland Meadows, CA. The festival moved to Bear Valley in 1994 then to Quincy in 1998 and back again in 2000 where it has been ever since.
The festival pioneered featuring rock, acoustic, bluegrass, jazz and folk all together in one weekend to the delight of fans of world class music and spawned a community whose members reunite each year to enjoy their favorite event with family and friends. Fans have met, married, created families, and raised children going to High Sierra, and some of those kids are having kids of their own and bringing them to the festival.
The 33rd annual High Sierra Music Festival will take place July 4 – 7, 2024 in Quincy, CA and will feature Primus, Ziggy Marley, Greensky Bluegrass with Holly Bowling, Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew Remain in Light, the California Honeydrops, and many more.
Roy Carter is survived by his wife, Carla and daughter, sister Anne and brother Bob. In lieu of flowers, Roy has requested donations to the American Heart Association or your local food bank.
