After 18 days, Deb Rouse, the Executive Director of the Kerrville Folk Festival, was able to take a moment to relax and enjoy the harmonies of the Rainbow Girls, a trio from Santa Barbara, California, who performed a medley of protest music that delighted the audience.

Sunday marked the final day of the 2025 Kerrville Folk Festival. It will take several days for Rouse and her team to analyze the festival’s impact, but it was clear that she was pleased with this 53rd edition.

“It’s been great,” Rouse said. “It’s been magical.”

Moments later, the penultimate closing act, Bob Schneider, energized the crowd with his lively performance. Schneider, a veteran performer who has played at Kerrville previously, received some of the loudest applause from the fans, affectionately known as “Kerrverts.”

“The lineup was good,” Rouse noted. “This is my second year, and I had a better idea of what to expect.”

Though the tradition-laden festival generally has few changes, this year Rouse introduced a new approach to the masters of ceremonies. While longtime MC David Oberman still participated, guest hosts filled in on significant days at the Kennedy Outdoor Theater. Among them was Rebecca Loebe from Center Point, who hosted on Sunday night.

“One of the interesting things about being the MC is that I do my own research about each band,” said Loebe, a New Folk winner in 2009. “I personally dislike it when an artist has someone on stage reading their bio. So, I’ve looked for little nuggets and bullet points about each artist to speak authentically and introduce them in an exciting way. It has been really fun for me to explore each artist and learn about them.”

The only downside of the festival was a late-night storm that disrupted the first-night finale of “The Wilder Blue” and caused chaos in the campground due to heavy rain and wind, which flooded campsites.

Despite this setback, the performances throughout the festival were exceptional, including a stunning set by “Next of Kin,” an Austin-based trio that has been performing together for a year. They are scheduled to appear at the Austin City Limits Festival later this year.

On Sunday night, the culmination of the work and preparation came to a satisfying conclusion for the Folk Festival, and now the planning begins for the 2026 festival.