NimbleFingers Festival Returns to Sorrento This July
The NimbleFingers Festival features a mix of internationally recognized performers, emerging artists, and unforgettable live collaborations. (photo credit: Peter Mynett)
By Tanya Guenther, Director
The NimbleFingers Festival features a mix of internationally recognized performers, emerging artists, and unforgettable live collaborations. (photo credit: Peter Mynett)
The hills above Shuswap Lake will once again come alive with the sounds of fiddles, banjos, guitars, and harmonies this summer as the NimbleFingers Bluegrass & Old-Time Music Festival returns to Sorrento Centre on Saturday, July 11, 2026.
Over the past 30 years, NimbleFingers has become one of British Columbia’s best-loved celebrations of bluegrass and old-time music, drawing musicians, music lovers, and families from across Canada and beyond to the Shuswap each summer. After many years as an August event, organizers shifted the festival to July beginning last summer.
While the event includes two weeks of music workshops and camps running July 5–17, the public festival day in the middle has become a major summer highlight for the region. The one-day festival features live performances throughout the day and evening, informal jam sessions around the site, dancing, food vendors, artisan vendors, and the welcoming atmosphere that NimbleFingers is known for.
Festival organizers say the event continues to grow both as a music destination and as a gathering place for people who simply enjoy spending a summer day surrounded by great live music in a beautiful setting.
“What makes NimbleFingers special is the atmosphere and the sense of community that’s built around it,” says Festival Director Tanya Guenther. “People come for the music, but they stay for everything happening in between—friends reconnecting, families spending the day together, musicians jamming under the trees, and discovering artists they may never have heard before.”
The 2026 festival lineup will feature a mix of internationally recognized touring artists, Canadian favourites, emerging performers, and collaborations that audiences can only experience at NimbleFingers. Artist announcements and festival schedules have already begun rolling out through the organization’s website and social media channels.
In addition to the performances on stage, visitors can expect the grounds to be filled with spontaneous music throughout the day as workshop participants and festivalgoers gather and play music together across the site.
The event also brings a noticeable boost to the local economy each summer, with hundreds of visitors staying in the region, dining locally, shopping in nearby communities, and extending their stays to explore the Shuswap area.
Many attendees describe NimbleFingers as part festival, part reunion, and part summer tradition.
The workshop portions of the event continue to see strong demand, with many classes filling up within the first hour of registration opening. Organizers note that interest in acoustic roots music, music camps, and community-based arts experiences has continued to grow over the past several years. With many longstanding music events no longer taking place following COVID, wildfires, and increasing weather-related uncertainties, gatherings like NimbleFingers have become even more important as places for people to reconnect through music and community.
For those not attending the workshops, festival day offers a chance to experience world-class live music in a uniquely welcoming setting.
“There’s a lot of heart behind this event,” says Guenther. “I’ve watched people form lifelong friendships here over the years. For many of us, NimbleFingers is about more than the music—it’s about reconnecting with people who feel like family and returning to a place that holds a lot of meaning.”
Festival tickets and additional event information are available on the website: https://www.nimblefingers.ca
