Southeast Ohio has a long history with country music festivals. Jamboree in the Hills was the region’s crown jewel for decades, a massive gathering at Brush Run Park that brought together some of the country’s biggest names and tens of thousands of fans every summer, until it ended in 2018. The years since have left a real gap in the regional country music calendar, one that die-hard fans have felt every July.
The Old Washington Music Fest arrived in 2024 with the clear intention of filling that space. Set at the Guernsey County Fairgrounds in Old Washington, Ohio, it launched as a multi-day country and southern rock festival with a tailgate-style atmosphere, onsite camping, and a lineup that punched well above what most first-year festivals can pull off. Regional media noted it as surprisingly large for an inaugural event, and the 2025 expansion confirmed that the surprise had legs.
Where It Takes Place
The Guernsey County Fairgrounds at 335 Old National Rd in Old Washington, Ohio, is the heart of the festival. Old Washington is a small community in Guernsey County, a part of Ohio that sits between Columbus and the Pennsylvania border, surrounded by rolling hills, farmland, and the kind of landscape that feels right for this kind of music.
The nearby city of Cambridge, the Guernsey County seat, serves as the closest hub for lodging and services for visitors who aren’t camping on-site. For the many attendees who do camp, the fairgrounds setup creates the self-contained festival environment that country music fans recognize immediately, the kind of place where you set up your chairs, meet your neighbors, and don’t leave for three days.
The Inaugural 2024 Festival
The first edition ran July 18–20, 2024, with a Wednesday pre-party featuring the Confederate Railroad kicking things off the night before the main event.
For a debut festival in a small Ohio community, the 2024 lineup was legitimately impressive. Travis Tritt headlined, bringing decades of outlaw country credibility to the stage. The Marshall Tucker Band covered southern rock territory. Craig Morgan, Hunter Hayes, Collin Raye, Little Texas, LANCO, and Buddy Jewell filled out a roster that represented a wide range of country eras from early 1990s giants to more recent names.
The atmosphere drew consistent comparisons to Jamboree in the Hills, the cooler-friendly, BYOB, tailgate-style setup that defined how Ohio country fans prefer to experience live music. Whether that comparison was immediate flattery or the result of many of the same fans showing up with the same expectations, it established a baseline identity for the festival in its very first year.
The 2025 Expansion
The second edition expanded in both scope and ambition. Running July 17–19, 2025, with an additional kickoff party on July 16, the 2025 festival stretched to nearly four days and brought in headliners that would anchor any country festival in the country.
Alabama was the marquee name of one of the best-selling country acts in history, a band whose run of hits in the 1980s and early 1990s defined an era of the genre. Having Alabama headline a festival in its second year is a significant booking by any standard.
Big & Rich brought their high-energy presence to the lineup. The Band Perry added a more recent chapter of country chart history. Sammy Kershaw, Aaron Tippin, Collin Raye (returning from 2024), The Bellamy Brothers, and Neal McCoy covered the classic country territory that this audience clearly loves. Michael Ray, David Lee Murphy, Danielle Bradbery, and A Thousand Horses rounded out a lineup that offered something for fans across multiple decades of country music.
The expansion from the 2024 to 2025 lineup tells a real story about what the organizers were building. The first year established the concept. The second year confirmed the intention: this is meant to be a serious regional festival, not a one-time experiment.
What Makes the Festival Experience Distinctive
The Tailgate Atmosphere
The Old Washington Music Fest isn’t trying to be a curated, controlled concert experience. The cooler-friendly, BYOB policy with a no-glass rule that’s standard at outdoor events sets the tone immediately. People bring their own drinks, set up their spaces, and create the kind of communal atmosphere that distinguishes country music festivals from general concert experiences.
Groups and families camp together, neighbors at campsites develop their own little communities over the weekend, and the music is as much a backdrop to the social experience as it is the main event. That’s not a criticism, it’s exactly what longtime country festival fans come looking for.
Camping Options
The festival offers multiple camping configurations to suit different preferences and budgets:
Electric RV camping runs around $250 and suits the more comfort-oriented attendees who want power access and the full RV experience. Generator camping at approximately $200 is a middle ground. Tent camping at around $125 is the most accessible option for groups willing to go a bit more minimal. Day parking runs about $10 per day for those who prefer to drive in rather than stay overnight.
The full weekend pass pricing in 2025 ranged from $275 to $300, with day passes around $115 positioning it as a premium regional festival experience while remaining accessible compared to major national touring festivals.
Food and Vendors
Food vendors round out the on-site experience, giving campers options beyond whatever they brought in their coolers. The combination of BYOB policy and food vendors is the classic festival balance: you’re not forced to pay inflated prices for everything, but you’re also not left without options.
Regional Significance
For Guernsey County, the festival isn’t just an entertainment event it’s an economic and tourism driver. Visitors traveling from across Ohio and neighboring Midwest states bring spending that flows through local businesses, hotels in Cambridge, and the general regional economy.
The Jamboree in the Hills comparison matters here beyond just atmosphere. Jamboree ran for decades and became a genuine anchor for tourism in Belmont County before its closure. The Old Washington Music Fest appears to be pursuing a similar long-term role for Guernsey County, and the growth from year one to year two suggests the community and organizers are both invested in making it last.
Regional media coverage has been consistently positive, describing the inaugural edition as something that exceeded expectations for a new festival and positioning it as an emerging fixture on the Ohio country music calendar.
Who Should Make the Trip
The festival is well-suited for a specific kind of attendee: country music fans who grew up with the genre through the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s and want to experience live performances from the artists who defined that era, in a relaxed outdoor setting with their own drinks and good company.
That said, the 2025 lineup also included acts with more recent profiles, suggesting the organizers aren’t limiting the appeal to pure nostalgia. The combination of classic names and current country voices gives the festival a broader range than a straightforward legacy event.
Groups work particularly well here camping together, setting up neighboring sites, spending three days in the same space with the music providing the rhythm of the weekend.
Getting There
Old Washington sits off US-40, the old National Road, in Guernsey County. Cambridge, Ohio, is the closest city with full hotel and lodging options for attendees who don’t camp on-site. The drive from Columbus is roughly two hours; from Pittsburgh, slightly less.
Conclusion
The Old Washington Music Festival has done something genuinely difficult in its first two years: it established itself as a credible regional event worth the trip, and then it grew. The 2024 debut impressed for a first-year festival. The 2025 edition Alabama headlining, a four-day stretch, a fuller lineup confirmed the trajectory.
Southeast Ohio has been missing a flagship country music festival since Jamboree in the Hills closed. Whether the Old Washington Music Fest grows into that role over the next decade is an open question, but the early evidence is encouraging. The bones are right: the atmosphere, the lineup philosophy, the venue, and the regional audience that clearly wants exactly this kind of event.
If you’re a country music fan in Ohio or the surrounding Midwest, this one belongs on your calendar.
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