Thank you to every instructor, volunteer, board member, and picker for making BBU’s JamVal 2025 a success!
February 14 – 16, 2025 at the Sheraton Framingham Hotel
JamVal 2025 is a weekend-long bluegrass “non-festival” focused on jamming held over President’s Day Weekend (February 14 – 16, 2025). There will be dozens of workshops and jams hosted by loads of amazing musicians and teachers, and one big difference from usual festivals: no big stage show to distract from the picking!
JamVal 2025 Shirts Still Available for Purchase.
Head over to our online store at https://bbu.wildapricot.org/ to order a t-shirt, hoodie (only 1 left!), or BBU vest.
2025 Schedule is Here.
Check out all the great sessions we had.
We are very excited to announce that the BBU has a pre-release web app to help navigate the schedule of workshops and jams at JamVal. The JamVal Session Finder app is loaded with the full JamVal schedule and features a set of filters to show you a more focused list of sessions. To build your own schedule in the app, click the star icon to mark a session as a favorite, and then use the Favorites filter to show your personalized list. Send feedback to lottery@bbu.org.
Pricing for JamVal 2025 – Tickets available on Friday at the Sheraton. Online Sales are closed.
| Ticket | Members | Non-Members |
| Weekend Pass (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) | $65 | $70 |
| Friday Only | $25 | $30 |
| Saturday Only | $45 | $50 |
| Sunday | Free | Free |
| Age 22 and Under | Free | Free |
The Sheraton Room Lottery is now closed. If you are curious how it worked, check out the process here.
Room Lottery winners should be receiving emails from either services@sertifi.net and/or reservations@res-marriott.com to purchase their rooms within the next week or two.
12 Different Friday Afternoon Classes at JamVal 2025!
Friday, February 14th from 3 until 6 pm at the Sheraton in Framingham
The BBU is excited to announce 12 different classes on the afternoon of Friday, February 14th, immediately before JamVal begins. The classes are three hours long, from 3 until 6 pm, and the cost is $40 ($45 for non-members). All of the proceeds go directly to the teachers (the BBU doesn’t take a cut), and you don’t have to attend JamVal to join one of these classes. Here are the classes and teachers:
For high-intermediate and advanced musicians:
- Kenny Smith (2-time IBMA Guitar Player of the Year, Kenny & Amanda Smith Band)
- Maddie Denton (fiddle, IBMA New Artist of the Year East Nash Grass)
- Bill Evans (banjo, Steve Martin Banjo Prize winner and member of the American Banjo Music Hall of Fame)
- Mike Bub (5-time IBMA Bass Player of the Year, formerly of The Del McCoury Band, with whom he won nine IBMA Entertainer of the Year awards)
- — these JamVal All-Stars will be joined by:
- Nate Lee (mandolin, formerly of The Becky Buller Band)
- Roger Williams (Dobro, BBU Heritage Award Winner)
For beginner and low-intermediate musicians:
- banjo — Catherine “BB” Bowness
- guitar — Flynn Cohen
- mandolin — August Watters
- lead singing — Taylor Ackley
- harmony singing — Tony Watt
- bass — Steve Roy
All of the classes will meet on the same schedule (from 3 until 6 pm on Friday, February 14th), so you can only sign up for one of them. It’s quite possible that the teachers would be willing to sit down with you another time during the weekend – just email them to ask!
All you need to do to register is to email your teacher directly. Class size is limited to 15 and pre-registration is strongly encouraged.