Jam Inn Music Fest brings Yonder Mountain String Band to a winter hotel festival in Appleton

Feed the Dog's new festival takes over the Hilton Appleton Paper Valley Jan. 28–30, 2027, with Yonder Mountain, Pert Near Sandstone, Armchair Boogie and Charlie Parr.

The best part of a festival in the dead of a Wisconsin winter is that you never have to go outside. That's the pitch behind Jam Inn Music Fest, which calls itself "a brand new winter hotel music festival" and makes its debut Thursday, Jan. 28 through Saturday, Jan. 30, 2027 at the Hilton Appleton Paper Valley in downtown Appleton.

The host band is Feed the Dog, and the festival describes its idea as original music, community and winter fun under one roof. The official site has two buttons that sum up the weekend: buy tickets, and book your hotel. Tickets are sold through the festival's VenuePilot page.

The lineup as listed runs to 17 acts, with Yonder Mountain String Band the biggest name. Around them: Feed the Dog, Charlie Parr, Pert Near Sandstone, Armchair Boogie, Mungion, Useful Jenkins, Genevieve Heyward, Lunar Ticks and The Pistol Whippin' Party Penguins, plus Art Stevenson & High Water, Maygen & The Birdwatcher, Spare Change Trio, John Inghram Band, Drew Peterson, Shrimpvision and Jon Miller.

This is mostly an Upper Midwest bill, and that's its strength. Pert Near Sandstone helped launch the Blue Ox Music Festival in Eau Claire in 2015 and still hosts and curates it every June, so they know how to run a weekend where the music doesn't stop at the stage door. Armchair Boogie, out of Madison, is a bluegrass band that isn't afraid to wander into rock, funk and folk. Together they set the tone: string-band music played loose enough to dance to.

Plan your weekend around Yonder Mountain, but don't skip the smaller names. A hotel festival lives in its side rooms and lobbies. The acts lower on the bill, like Lunar Ticks, Shrimpvision, Spare Change Trio and Jon Miller, are the ones you'll walk past on the way to the elevator, and that's often where the best set of the weekend happens.

A hotel festival lives in its side rooms and lobbies.

For Appleton, the stakes are real. This is a first-year festival, and it is betting that people from around the Fox Valley and across the state will book a room in late January to hear string bands play down the hall. If it works, the Fox Cities get a winter tradition. If you're local, the easiest way to help it work is to buy a pass early and tell your friends who usually drive to Eau Claire in June.

Set times and room assignments haven't been posted on the official site yet, so check back before you go. In the meantime, book the hotel, pack something comfortable to dance in, and leave the parka in the room.

Sources: Jam Inn Music Fest (official site) (jaminnmusicfest.com); Jam Inn Music Fest tickets (VenuePilot) (tickets.venuepilot.com); Pabst Theater Group: Pert Near Sandstone & Armchair Boogie (pabsttheatergroup.com); Shepherd Express: Pert Near Sandstone w/ Armchair Boogie (shepherdexpress.com)