GREENFIELD — There will be music, music and more music when the 39th annual Green River Festival returns to the Franklin County Fairgrounds this weekend.

The festival will offer more than 40 bands on four stages between Friday, June 20, and Sunday, June 22, as well as on-site camping, a variety of children’s activities, handmade crafts available at the Makers Market, and an assortment of food options as well as local wine and beer.

One of the most anticipated events of the summer, this celebration of community and music brings in talent from all over. Some of the performers this year include Mt. Joy, Waxahatchee, Courtney Barnett, MJ Lenderman & The Wind, TORRES, Kevin Morby, LA LOM, Danielle Ponder and Kabaka Pyramid.

It is the second year that western Massachusetts and New York concert promoter DSP Shows has been responsible for running the festival. The company took over operation of the three-day event from Signature Sounds Presents of Northampton, which had been running the Green River Festival since 2013. Prior to that, the festival, which started out as a one-day event in 1986 to celebrate the fifth anniversary of radio station WRSI, was run by the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce.

In 2021, after taking a year off due to the pandemic, the festival moved to the fairgrounds from its previous home at Greenfield Community College.

Last year’s festival presented some major challenges for DSP Shows, as rain and thunderstorms led to delays on both Friday and Saturday, while a tornado threat loomed on Sunday.

“The weather was rather interesting,” said John Sanders, festival director and co-partner at DSP Shows. “We have a lot of folks on the festival who have been working there for a long time and they all agree that it was the worst weather they have ever experienced at the Green River Festival.”

But Sanders took it all in stride and realized that it could have been a lot worse.

“We were lucky in that it was just delays and it worked out that everyone got to play,” Sanders said. “There were no weather-related injuries and the tornado didn’t come.”

Sanders has a long history of booking shows in the Pioneer Valley and continues to do so in his role at DSP Shows, including booking the summer concert series at Tree House Brewing Co. in South Deerfield. However, he discovered that hosting a large, three-day festival isn’t easy.

“I learned that it’s very difficult, and it takes a lot of work and a lot of luck,” Sanders reflected. “And to continue doing it for the next 20-25 years, which is our plan, we need to make it fun and really worthwhile for us.

“Last year I booked a few bands that I thought Green River Festival fans might want to see and they might not have been my favorite bands,” Sanders continued. “This year I was like, ‘This is our festival and I’m going to book the bands that I want to see and make it the kind of festival I want to go to.’”

Festivalgoers will perhaps notice more indie rock on the lineup than in previous years, but the Americana sound that has been a mainstay of the festival is still there.

“I’m really, really super excited about the headliners — these are people that I listen to all the time,” Sanders said of the 2025 lineup.

One of the first artists that Sanders booked was MJ Lenderman, a singer-songwriter from North Carolina whose career is on the rise thanks to his most recent album, “Manning Fireworks,” and the song “Wristwatch.”

“When I booked him, I thought he was going to have a big year, but I didn’t have any idea of how big of a year it would be,” Sanders said. “I actually booked him in anticipation of getting Waxahatchee, who put out two of my most favorite records of the last few years.”

Waxahatchee is the moniker of singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield. She first performed at the Green River Festival in 2022 and is now scheduled to close the Greenfield Savings Bank Main Stage on Sunday. Her recent album, “Tigers Blood,” received widespread acclaim and led to a Grammy nomination this year. It features MJ Lenderman on guitar and harmonies, which is the connection referenced by Sanders.

Another group whose career is taking off is the quintet Mt. Joy, which sold out Madison Square Garden in September. The band members will treat the crowd to an indie rock set, including tracks from their new album, “Hope We Have Fun,” when they headline the Main Stage on Friday.

Australian indie rocker Courtney Barnett, known for her laid-back style and poignant lyrics, will close out Saturday night, one of only a few dates she’s playing this summer.

The Dean’s Beans Stage is known for featuring acts from around the world and is where the most dancing takes place. This year, it will welcome the Colombian psychedelic funk trio BALTHVS on Saturday and Jamaican reggae hip-hop artist Kabaka Pyramid on Friday, among others. The local band The Gaslight Tinkers will kick off the performances on the stage on Friday. The Brattleboro, Vermont-based group is stepping in as a last-minute replacement for Teke Teke, which had to cancel.

The Back Porch Stage takes its name from the Sunday morning radio show hosted by former Festival Director Jim Olsen and focuses on American roots music. Some of the acts on that stage include festival favorite Kathleen Edwards, former Carolina Chocolate Drops member Leyla McCalla and singer-songwriter Stephen Kellogg, who will all play on Saturday.

The Roundhouse Stage will showcase artists from Massachusetts, primarily from the Pioneer Valley, and is the only stage located indoors.

“The Roundhouse Stage is something we did for the first time last year and it has allowed us to book a lot more artists at the festival,” Sanders said.

DSP Shows has put together a diverse lineup of local talent that includes everything from the “gaze-y country” of Silvie’s Okay to the dream pop of festival alums Winterpills to children’s musician Mr. G. The queer post-punk band, Thus Love, from Brattleboro, will be playing on the Dean’s Bean Stage on Saturday.

Last year, DSP Shows made strides in improving the stages and the overall production values in presenting the festival. This year, one of the big changes will be the return of local beer. In 2024, Green River Festival fans loudly voiced their unhappiness over the fact that, in an area brimming with local breweries, none were represented.

“That was by far the biggest complaint we received last year, that there wasn’t local beer,” Sanders said. “We heard that complaint and found that it had merit.”

Festival organizers have joined forces with Amherst Brewing Co., putting together a group of local brewers located within 40 miles of the festival grounds. Participating businesses include The Brewery at Four Star Farms (Northfield), Bright Ideas Brewing (Westfield), Two Weeks Notice Brewing Co. (West Springfield), Leadfoot Brewing (Chicopee) and Berkshire Brewing Co. (South Deerfield). Amherst Brewing Co. even brewed a special beer for the festival called Green River IPA.

The other change that will occur this year is that the Makers Market will move from the infield to the barn area.

“We think it will make for a more lively market area and will also free up that space so we can provide more shade tents for festivalgoers,” Sanders said. “We are providing bigger tents where people can go to get out of the sun.”

Free shuttles will run from the center of Greenfield to and from the fairgrounds starting an hour before the festival starts and continuing until one hour after the festival ends. Greenfield offers free parking during the festival, and on-site parking permits can be purchased at greenriverfestival.com. Gates open at 3 p.m. on Friday and noon on Saturday and Sunday.

Weekend passes are $218.50, two-day passes are $169.84, and single-day and teen passes (must show proof of age) are $110.35. Tickets are available at greenriverfestival.com. There will be a pop-up box office at the Iron Horse in Northampton on Thursday from 4 to 8 p.m. with reduced-price tickets. Wristbands can also be picked up at the pop-up event. Kids ages 12 and under enter for free and there are plenty of activities and music geared toward them.

VIP tickets with additional benefits such as special viewing areas are also available. Camping has already sold out.

Sheryl Hunter is a freelance writer who resides in Easthampton. Her work has appeared in various regional and national publications. She can be reached at soundslocal@yahoo.com.