MENDOCINO CO., 9/8/26 — Morning fog hung low over the redwoods at Heartwood Mendocino during the third annual Huckleberry Jam, Sept. 4-6, bringing a sharp chill that had campers bundling in layers as they climbed out of their tents, which lined the campground lawn in rows. Kids ran loose, the first voices to be heard echoing across the venue, as adults made their way slowly behind them. By early afternoon the fog burned off into the warmth of bright sun, and by evening the music meadow was thumping while sauna-goers wandered the path back to camp wrapped in towels, steam still rising off their shoulders.
The festival, held just outside the town of Mendocino in Jackson Demonstration State Forest, sold out its camping and parking passes ahead of the weekend, drawing hundreds of attendees, ranging in age from infants to elders.
This isn’t an event you’d unknowingly stumble upon. The final stretch of Little Lake Road just before Heartwood is potholed enough that a posted hand-painted sign reads “Pothole City.” One family, visiting from the Bay Area, said they only found out about the festival because an employee at a store in Mendocino, Valerie, mentioned it while they were buying a sweatshirt. They hadn’t heard of Huck Jam before that conversation, and without it, they said, they never would have found their way up the hill to a private glamping property tucked this far into the woods. Other attendees came from out of the county, including a group from Sebastopol, though the crowd leaned local.
Heartwood Mendocino, the property hosting the festival, is owned and operated by longtime locals Khamoor and Tim Poehlmann, with their daughter Kiera Poehlmann producing the event.
Hucks and hoots
Music ran across two stages set in a meadow framed by huckleberry bushes bursting with fruit, which kids picked all weekend. A “Huckleberry Jam” sign hung over the main stage, with a “Hootenanny” banner beneath it in letters big enough to read from the trees, echoing the festival’s tagline “a hootenanny in the redwoods.” A second, smaller stage near the entrance was built into the bed of a restored vintage truck, decorated with dahlias and greenery, and hosted acts between the main stage’s sets.
Friday’s lineup included sets from Ashleigh Flynn and the Riveters and the Coffis Brothers, among others. Saturday’s acts included the Real Sarahs and Stillhouse Junkies, building into a joint set from John Craigie and the Coffis Brothers, and the night capped with a Tom Petty tribute that carried into a campfire jam. Sunday’s closing set was a late addition, added to the schedule after Dolly Parton’s death in late August. Musicians from across the weekend’s full lineup, including Craigie, the Coffis Brothers, Stillhouse Junkies, Back Porch Trio, Keeter Stuart, Taylor Rae and the Real Sarahs, gathered for a tribute set to close out the festival.
In the mornings, the meadow hosted yoga, tai chi, a songwriting workshop and a square dance. At night, kids watched projected movies on wireless headphones near the meadow, letting parents dance close by while the kids tuned into their own world. From a distance, it looked like a cluster of glowing green headphones floating in the dark, silent to anyone without a pair, the concert going full volume around them.
A Kid Zone offered crafts, bracelet- and batik-making, bubbles and face-painting, shifting from near the camp kitchen in the mornings to the music meadow once the bands started. The campground itself mixed Heartwood’s tent cabins with fields of personal tents pitched close together, plus the property’s well-known redwood tree shower, which has gone viral on social media, built into a hollowed-out trunk. A short walk from camp, Mendo Sauna ran a wood-fired sauna and cold plunges alongside massage services, and the Love Sound Bus parked nearby offering sound and light wellness sessions.
The Huck Jam didn’t skimp on great food. Good Thyme Herb Co. served gyros with grilled chicken, potato wedges, falafel and a lamb special starting Friday. Chico Rico fed festival-goers organic, gluten-free Latin food and Second Line Pleasure Club brought a crawfish boil Friday. A cider tasting ran Saturday afternoon, and mornings started at a breakfast cart serving coffee, burritos, chia pudding and granola topped with homegrown strawberries, taking Venmo on faith with no cell signal and handing over food anyway — very “hootenanny in the redwoods.”
A medic booth staffed by Starr CPR was on site throughout. A merch booth sold Huckleberry Jam T-shirts and sweatshirts, and a bar raised money for MUSE, the Mendocino Unified School Enrichment foundation, drawing some good-natured joking from the stage about “drinking for the kids.”
No cell service meant that for three glorious days, the sight of people hunched over their phones simply wasn’t there — replaced by kids chasing each other barefoot through the meadow, neighbors chatting at the breakfast cart and strangers dancing shoulder to shoulder until the last set came to a close.