Stage 5 (or, originally, "Stage V") is an unofficial stage at the Walnut Valley Festival, an annual bluegrass festival in Winfield, Kansas, United States.
Set up in the Pecan Grove campground, the informal stage began in 1987 when camper Russell Brace and friends built it on the back of a flatbed truck. The stage is so-named because the festival proper has four main stages.
The stage was immediately popular and is now a cherished tradition at the annual event.
Audiences at Stage 5 can usually expect to hear typical acoustic string instruments. However, many musicians, while there, part from traditional bluegrass styles and emphasize a looser, more rock-oriented interpretation of roots music.
Several notables have played Stage 5. Among them: Tommy Emmanuel, The Wilders, Beppe Gambetta, an early incarnation of the Dixie Chicks, and Split Lip Rayfield.
Famous quotes containing the word stage:
“I know that each stage is not going to last forever. I used to think that when he was little. Whenever he was in a bad stage I thought that he was going to be like that for the rest of his life and that I’d better do something to shape him up. When he was in a good state, I thought he was going to be a perfect child and I would never have to worry; he was always going to stay that way.”
—Anonymous Parent of An Eight-Year-Old. As quoted in Between Generations by Ellen Galinsky, ch. 4 (1981)