By Jim Welte, Mill Valley Chamber
Hey there friends, lovers of Mill Valley, live music and those that revel in our amazing community, for a variety of reasons—the current macro economic climate and profound changes in music festival economics, as well as the upcoming uncertainty related to the Mill Valley School District’s impending Middle School reconstruction and use of Friends Field—we’ve decided to take a pause in 2026 from producing the Mill Valley Music Festival.
In the meantime, we will continue innovating and serving our Chamber members and the larger community in every way.
A reminder: In May 2022, as communities across the country sought solace and, perhaps, even some joy, on the heels of a relentless, deeply disruptive pandemic, there was a great desire in Mill Valley and beyond to lift up our community, and instill a degree of excitement.
With the support of the board of the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce, along with many of our 450 Chamber members and individuals, disruption became activation in the form of Mill Valley Music Fest, initially a one-day event that largely sought to bring our community together again, to celebrate the arts and the bounty of all of the amazing people, places and things that we hold dear in the 94941. We wake up every day in service of community vitality.
The MVMF organizers leaned heavily on the support of the unbelievably generous business community, which gave us wings that sustained us for four years.In each year of the Mill Valley Music Fest, we pulled every lever possible to make this amazing event the best version of itself.
We produced a quartet of incredible live music events that directly connected with both our immediate neighbors and our friends and fellow music lovers all over the Bay Area and beyond.
We benefited a number of local non-profits in doing so, and we provided a ton of opportunities to create visibility to both our business community and all of Marin County. Each year, we leveraged the incredible generosity of individuals and businesses for good by turningCommunity Sponsorships into hundreds of scholarship tickets for students and artists – more than 500+ each year that have been distributed to those who might not otherwise be able to attend MVMF.
In that first year, the people behind the Mill Valley Music Fest had a collective feeling of overwhelming euphoria, as they digested, in real time, the monumental joy that surrounded them. It was a deeply strange feeling of needing to decompress, not from stress, or loss, but of the inability to fully grasp what unadulterated joy felt like.
We hope to get back to being a source of amazing music again in our community.
We’ll see you around town, and we’ll be back! Keep dancing…
Kiddos, Creatures & Porchfest.
Day One!
