With the howling winter hounds coming home in the form of shit-tons of snow and cold, the festivals are flying south for the winter. Many are landing in the Caribbean or on the coastal beach towns of Mexico, and all brought to you by Cloud 9 Reservations. Here is a line up of the best and funnest as far as I can tell from the fireplace heated couch in my living room at home.

This is just an FYI so you can get it on your calendar for next year. The joint is sold out, but if you are really adventurous you can get on their waiting list. You may have to wait til next year cuz the promoters might be deep in by now and won’t rejoin the sober for a couple of weeks. That’s my guess, anyway. You can take to from here.

Now this is my cup o’ tea. Any festival with Yonder Mountain String Band on the roster is going to be on my list of things to do before I die. (That “bucket list” thing is so cliche it is annoying…just saying) The third year of Strings & Sol will once again spend four nights at the Now Sapphire Resort in Puerto Morelos, Mexico. For those of you who don’t know Mexico, Puerto Morelos is between Cancun (to the north) and Playa del Carmen (to the south). Full sets by five bands along with special guests on a stage on the beach. This is a tropical bluegrass adventure like no other! Beam me up Scotty!

Featuring shows from Slightly Stoopid, Citizen Cope, G. Love & Special Sauce, Steel Pulse, and Dirty Heads right on the beach, Closer to the Sun is a four night all-inclusive concert vacation at Now Sapphire Resort & Spa in Puerto Morelos, Mexico. They say you can take your vacation up a notch by booking an excursion, such as visits to the Tulum Ruins, zip-lining, snorkeling, golf, and more! They suggest that a feature artist may be there with you too. How fun to hit the zip-lines with G. Love. Love him!

Rounding out the Winter Festival lineup is this classic:

January 6-11, 2014

This jam has been going to 13 years now and is probably the cruse that started it all. Check out this lineup:

Pretty Lights * Umphrey’s McGee * The Word * Galactic * Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe * G. Love & Special Sauce * Lettuce * Charles Bradley * John Scofield * Snarky Puppy * Steve Kimock * Bobby Vega * Jeff Chimenti * Bill Vitt * Dan Lebowitz * John Kimock * Preservation Hall Jazz Band * The Motet * Break Science * The Revivalists * Elephant Revival * The Nth Power * M&Ms * Dragon Smoke * Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds * Kung Fu * Fruition * The London Souls * California Honeydrops * New Orleans Klezmer All-Stars * Everyone Orchestra * Eric Krasno * Nathan Moore * David Murphy * George Porter Jr. * Ike Stubblefield * Mike Dillon * Roosevelt Collier * John Gros * Anders Beck.

There you have it folks. By the time you’re done with all this you’ll need a couple of months to sober up and the next festival season will start.