The Yellow Pine Harmonica Festival marks the biggest fundraiser of the year for this small rural village located in the mountains two-and-a-half hours northeast of Cascade.
This free music festival has been happening for 32 years and people have already started showing up for this classic Idaho event.
"You would not believe the mayhem happening on the road outside my house," said laughed Deb Filler, one of the organizers who looks forward to welcoming people to Yellow Pine every summer.
Filler told us the forest service campgrounds have already filled up, but there are spots at the golf course they converted into a campground and people can also find dispersed camping in the area.
This year the festival brings in three professionals performers in Mark Hummel, Lee Oskar and Charlie Musselwhite, it's quite the lineup considering these musicians come on their own dime because they want to be at this festival.
"People up here have made life-long friendships we are so laid back and we are unique in the fact that this is a free festival," said Filer. "It doesn’t cost you to attend and listen to the music, or attend the demos, there are so many opportunities to do stuff as well as be out in the beautiful Idaho backcountry."
Organizers have worked to make this a family-friendly event and that includes several other things to do besides listen to live music.
"There’s tons of stuff for people of all ages to do we have the great harmonica run on Saturday, we have two harmonica workshops taught by these professionals, water color painting, wood carving and fly fishing," said Filler. "We have harmonica lessons for children, we have some locals who have been here all their lives telling stories and much more."
The Yellow Pine Festival starts on Friday and runs through the weekend, it is a long drive, but if you take the right roads it is paved all the way to Yellow Pine.
