If you, like me, are a fan of FloydFest, Rooster Walk Music and Arts Festival and Front Porch Fest, you’ll love Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance.

Hosted by one of MerleFest’s fan favorites, Donna the Buffalo, Shakori has a similar vibe and similar artists to the aforementioned festivals. But if you live in or near the Triangle, it’s just a short drive to Shakori’s home in bucolic Chatham County.

And for music festival lovers, it offers not one but two chances to camp out and catch some great live music each year — one in the spring and one in the fall.

I had the pleasure of meeting up and hanging out with some of my fellow die-hard festivarians (yes, it’s a word) at the spring 2017 festival featuring some amazing sets by Rising Appalachia, Violet Bell, Dangermuffin, The Mastersons and Steve Earle and the Dukes, just to name a few.

But if you don’t want to take my word for it, Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine named it among its Bests of the Fests of 2018.

And for $90, you can take advantage of the 2018 fall festival, Oct. 4-7, and its 50-plus acts including headliners Lettuce and, of course, Donna the Buffalo, as well as Ryan Mountbleau, Urban Soil and Shiloh Hill, among others.

But don’t wait. Tickets go up after Friday, Aug. 17, and before the rest of the acts are announced on Monday, Aug. 20.

In the meantime, catch some of the acts who presumably will be at Shakori this fall on “The Road to Shakori” tour.