TRUMANSBURG, N.Y. -- Its been a tradition in Tompkins County since 1990. Now in its 26th year, the Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance continues to draw a big crowd to Trumansburg from both near and far.
For Conway Mallory, it's been a tradition since birth.
"I've been coming here since I was 11 months old," said Conway, who's from the Binghamton area. "One of the best things here is that you get to talk to a lot of famous people, and it just makes me feel better."
"Everybody comes out for it. It's like the national holiday in Ithaca, you know, everybody takes it off so it's almost like a reunion, you know, I see friends who I haven't seen all year. I see people from out of town who come back for it," said Miwa Robinson. an annual visitor from the Ithaca area.
Some of those out-of-town visitors say Grassroots is one of the closest festivals to one of legend that took place in the Hudson Valley nearly 50 years ago.
"Seeing 500,000 people and just overwhelmed by the spirituality, and I say I've never seen another place like Woodstock until I came here," said Marcel Donaj, an annual volunteer from Bennington, Vermont.
"Having such a variety of food here, and meeting different people and different cultures and tasting different peoples food and different cultures, and you're standing in line for one particular culture but you'll meet somebody else and have a conversation," said Rev. Olivia Armstrong, the leader of a local non-profit organization who is enjoying her second Grassroots Festival.
The Grassroots concerts will continue through Sunday.