Flock Together Festival

Flock Together Festival Returns to Historic Ridgewood Ranch
A Celebration of Sheep and Agrarian Culture Comes to Willits on April 25, 2026
Willits, CA
April 25, 2026 10am to 3pm.

The thrills of ranch life take center stage this spring as Flock Together Festival returns to
the historic Ridgewood Ranch for a full-day celebration of sheep, farming, and agrarian
culture. Equal parts gritty workday and joyful gathering, the festival invites people of all ages
behind the gates of a working ranch to experience rural life in motion. At the heart of the event is live sheep shearing, happening all day as professional shearers work the floor while guests watch, ask questions, and help skirt wool. Around them, the ranch comes alive: spinners turn fleece into yarn, dogs herd sheep, grain is threshed and milled before being flipped into fresh pancakes. Lambs bounce through the grass, as a horse and equipment parade rolls by, and trombones sound. Many gather for a communal ranch lunch featuring ranch raised beef and lamb, served in working agricultural spaces.

Following last year’s wildly successful inauguration, when more than 200 people showed
up, despite freezing rain, the Flock Together Festival is expanding in 2026. The event takes place
in Ridgewood Ranch’s storied Dairy Barn Complex, including the Seabiscuit-era Mare Barn
and the 1960s Hay Barn and Dairy Parlor. This year, even more of the historic site will be
activated with demonstrations, hands-on activities, and immersive scenes highlighting the
daily work of the ranch.

“Flock Together is about opening gates and coming together in our working spaces,” says
shepherd Ryen Wright of Headwaters Grazing. “It’s a chance for folks to experience
agriculture not as an idea, but as the living, joyful, hard work we do together.”
Rooted in the belief that many hands make light work, the festival emphasizes connection,
curiosity, and collective joy. Visitors are encouraged to get their hands dirty, ask questions,
and experience farmers and ranchers in their natural habitat: working, teaching, and
celebrating together.

Planned activities include:
● Sheep shearing all day, with hands-on wool skirting
● Ranch-to-table lunch
● Sheep dog demonstrations
● Fiber arts demonstrations and activities
● Equipment parade
● Barn Theater film projections
● Grain threshing, milling, and pancake flipping
● Seed cleaning and wheat weaving
● Mendocino sheep ranching history
● Live music
● Soil science projections and microscope explorations
● Fire engine demonstrations
● Farmers market
● And more
Flock Together Festival takes place Saturday April 25, 2026, at Ridgewood Ranch in
Willits, California. All are welcome to join this energetic, all-ages celebration of rural
culture, working landscapes, and community.
Admission: $5 entry (kids free) $20 lunch $10 kids lunch. Discount if purchased in advance. For tickets:
https://www.headwatersgrazing.com/flocktogether
[email protected]