Stage 5 is an unofficial stage at the Walnut Valley Festival

Walnut Valley Festival

The Walnut Valley Festival is a well-known acoustic music festival, held annually in Winfield, Kansas. The main genre of music is bluegrass, but other acoustic styles are represented...

, an annual bluegrass

Bluegrass music

Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...

 festival in Winfield, Kansas

Winfield, Kansas

Winfield is a city situated along the Walnut River in the west-central part of Cowley County, located in South Central Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 12,301...

, 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

Flatbed truck

A flatbed truck is a type of truck which can be either articulated or rigid. As the name suggests, it has an entirely flat, level 'bed' body with no sides or roof...

. 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

Traditional music

Traditional music is the term increasingly used for folk music that is not contemporary folk music. More on this is at the terminology section of the World music article...

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Several notables have played Stage 5. Among them: Tommy Emmanuel

Tommy Emmanuel

William Thomas "Tommy" Emmanuel AM is an Australian guitarist, best known for his complex fingerpicking style, energetic performances and the use of percussive effects on the guitar. In the May 2008 and 2010 issues of Guitar Player Magazine, he was named as "Best Acoustic Guitarist" in their...

, The Wilders, Beppe Gambetta

Beppe Gambetta

Beppe Gambetta is an Italian musician born in Genoa in 1955. An acoustic guitar flatpicker and singer, Beppe has been called a "virtual United Nations of influences: Italian, Ukrainian, Appalachian, Sardinisn, Celtic"...

, an early incarnation of the Dixie Chicks

Dixie Chicks

The Dixie Chicks are an American country band which has also successfully crossed over into other genres. The band is composed of founding members Martie Erwin Maguire and Emily Erwin Robison, and lead singer Natalie Maines...

, and Split Lip Rayfield

Split Lip Rayfield

Split Lip Rayfield is a vocal and acoustic instrumental group from Wichita, Kansas. Though they are sometimes classified as a bluegrass, alt-country or cowpunk band, their music draws on a wide array of influences.-History:...

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