Washington County Oklahoma OK Mozart Festival
Late May in Bartlesville brings no midway and no livestock barn, only chairs in a museum garden, a chapel, a downtown hall, and a stage in Tulsa. The festival has carried several names across four decades, and each name belongs to a different layer of its record.
About the Festival in Its Own Layers
The verified event is the OK Mozart festival itself at Bartlesville, now presented under the OKM Music name. It is a multi-venue music festival, not a fair, with no fairgrounds anywhere in its record. There is no grounds admission to price, because the festival happens in concert rooms scattered through a town.
Bartlesville hosts the festival, and Bartlesville is the county seat on the historical encyclopedia’s own terms. The entry calls the city the seat of Washington County, and records selection as the seat at the Constitutional Convention of 1906. Dewey, Copan, Ochelata, Ramona and Vera are county towns only, and Dewey hosts the separate county fair, never this festival. A small portion of Bartlesville lies across the Osage County line, moving neither the seat nor the festival.
The published name forms stand unmerged. OK Mozart Festival is the historic standing form. OK Mozart International Festival is the arts-press layers’ form. OK Mozart International Music Festival is the formal form in the organiser’s own current site layer. OKM Music Festival and OKM Festival are the organiser’s current forms. Mostly Mozart 40th Anniversary Festival is the 2024 edition’s billing in the organiser’s own newsletter layer only, never the standing name, and never the New York festival.
The organiser is OKM Music in its own current name. The organiser’s own site also carries the form ‘the OK Mozart Festival organization’ in its Ambler Hall layer. Those two forms are never merged into one invented legal name. A 2026 magazine layer tells a rebrand story, saying the organization was founded as the OK Mozart Festival and evolved, rebranding as OKM Music, but that narrative belongs to that magazine layer only. Mary Lynn Mihm, Chairman of the Board of OKM Music, is named in that 2026 magazine layer only. The visitor bureau is a publisher in its layers, never the organiser. Venues are venues only, never the organiser.
For a useful comparison, see the Wagoner County Oklahoma Free Fair Festival for another county festival.
Quick Facts
| Point | What the record shows |
| Verified event | The OK Mozart festival at Bartlesville, now presented as OKM Music |
| Host town and seat | Bartlesville, county seat since selection at the 1906 Constitutional Convention |
| Grounds | No fairgrounds; multiple venues in Bartlesville, Tulsa concerts in documented years |
| Organiser | OKM Music in its current forms; the OK Mozart Festival organization in its site layer |
| Founded | 1985, on the organiser’s own published statements |
| Most recent span | June 5 to 7, 2026, 42nd Annual OKM Music Festival |
| Admission | No festival-wide term; per-concert entry, free elements fenced to their layers only |
| Camping | No camping term published for this festival in any layer fetched |
Founded in 1985
The founding year printed here rests on the organiser’s own published statements and on nothing else. The organiser’s own site states it directly in its layers: OKM Music was founded in 1985. The arts-press layers corroborate that flutist Ransom Wilson founded OK Mozart in 1985, after a 1983 visit.
Two conflicting origin wordings are recorded in their own layers and never harmonised with the 1985 statement, never substituted for it, and never averaged into it. A regional magazine layer describes modest beginnings in 1983 as a three-concert series. A 2009 magazine layer says two artists performed at OK Mozart’s inaugural festival in 1984. The edition billings are billing only, and no founding year is worked backwards from any of them: the fortieth annual billing belongs to 2024, the forty-first to 2025, and the forty-second to 2026.
What to Expect
The most recent festival, June 2026
The 2026 layers bill the 42nd Annual OKM Music Festival for June 5 to 7, 2026. The visitor bureau calendar separately lists kids’ events beginning May 29, 2026. The 2026 programme opens Under the Stars at Woolaroc with the bluegrass group Balsam Range on June 5. It continues with Yacht Rock Orchestrated at Post Oak Lodge in Tulsa on June 6. It closes with Chris Mann in When I Fall in Love at the Oklahoma Wesleyan University Chapel in Bartlesville on June 7. The Especially for Kids Festival culminates in an America’s 250th Birthday Finale cookout.
The 2025 festival and its two spans
The 2025 layers do not agree on one span, and this article does not force them to. The visitor bureau layer bills the 41st Annual OKM Music Festival as launching May 30 and continuing through June 8. A magazine weekly-calendar layer gives June 6 to 8 for Bartlesville’s forty-first festival. The magazine’s mainstage weekend stands unmerged with the bureau’s longer span. The 2025 programme in the visitor bureau layer is a Norway and Grieg tribute. Grady Nichols and the Manhattan Chamber Players play Under the Stars at Woolaroc on June 6. The Tulsa Honors Baroque Orchestra and pianist Natasha Paremski play at Cascia Hall on June 7. The Escher String Quartet closes the festival at the Refinery Grand Finale on June 8.
The 2024 festival and its two spans
The 2024 layers also carry two spans that are never harmonised into one. The organiser’s own site records the 40th Annual OKM Festival, May 31 to June 9, 2024, as completed. The organiser’s own 2024 newsletter bills the Mostly Mozart 40th Anniversary Festival as an all-classical three-day festival for June 7 through June 9. The run and the core are two organiser layers. The 2024 classical core opens with Jecelle Dobson and the Manhattan Chamber Players, with fireworks at Woolaroc on June 7. It continues with Mozart by Candlelight at Cascia Hall on June 8, with the Tulsa Honors Baroque Orchestra, Jenny Lin and Adam Tendler. It closes with the Escher Quartet Grand Finale at the Refinery on June 9.
Earlier editions, each in its own layer
A magazine layer gives June 10 to 17 for the OKM Music Festival at Bartlesville in 2021. A magazine layer gives June 12 through June 20 in 2009, billed there as the twenty-fifth annual OK Mozart International Festival. Arts-press layers give June 9 to 17 in 2006 and June 10 to 18 in 2005. The historic venue layer for 2005 and 2006 places the festival at the Bartlesville Community Center, a 1,700-seat auditorium.
Planning Your Visit
Dates, and which layer a date belongs to
The standing season is late May through June, and every span belongs to its own year and layer, as set out in What to Expect above.
Tickets, and the free elements that are not a free festival
There is no festival-wide admission, gate or pass term covering all events in any layer fetched, and this article prints no claim that the festival as a whole is free. Entry is by per-concert ticket. In the 2024 organiser newsletter layer, all Showcase Series performances are free to the public at Ambler Hall from June 7 to 9, 2024. Especially for Kids events in that layer are free except the special tea party. Children aged 12 and under are free for the June 7 and 8 concerts. The organiser’s general Showcase description is never a priced or dated 2025 term. An arts-press layer records one free event in 2006: a free outdoor birthday party with fireworks on June 9.
The ticketed main concerts are priced only where a layer publishes a figure, and every figure below is spelled out and fenced to its layer and year. A magazine layer publishes Showcase tickets at thirty-five dollars for the June 6 to 8, 2025 festival, with no other clean 2025 figure published. The 2024 organiser newsletter layer publishes no figure: ticket prices vary, with student and senior discounts for the June 7 and 8 concerts. A magazine layer publishes tickets at thirty-five to sixty-five dollars for 2021. A magazine layer publishes 2014 season tickets at one hundred fifteen to one hundred eighty dollars for adults and fifty to one hundred dollars for students, with a twenty-five-percent discount for tickets to three events, and that 2014 money is never a current price. For 2026, the layers say only that tickets are on sale or available, and every specific 2026 ticket price is unverified. Food, parking, merchandise and venue admission prices are unverified, and the organiser’s separate year-round event prices never enter this record.
Finding the rooms
There is no single venue. The organiser’s site lists Woolaroc Museum and Wildlife Center, Unity Square, the Bartlesville Community Center, and Ambler Hall. The year-fenced layers: In 2024: Woolaroc, the Cascia Hall Performing Arts Center in Tulsa, the Refinery in Bartlesville, and Ambler Hall. In 2025: Woolaroc, Tulsa’s Cascia Hall, and the Refinery. In 2026: Woolaroc, Post Oak Lodge in Tulsa, and the Oklahoma Wesleyan University Chapel. The organiser’s office and Ambler Hall address, 415 South Dewey Avenue, Bartlesville, OK 74003, belongs to the organiser’s own layers, but neither form is a single festival venue address. The visitor bureau’s footer carries its own address, never the festival’s.
Sleeping over
The layers gathered publish no place to stay as part of the event itself. No camping, recreational vehicle, hookup or overnight term for festival attendees appears in the organiser’s site, its 2024 or 2026 newsletters, or the visitor bureau or magazine layers fetched. Woolaroc’s camp and retreat offerings, area campgrounds and Copan Lake camping are venue and area accommodation in their own layers, never a festival offer, and no camping rate is printed here.
A 2026 Sample Itinerary
The itinerary below is modelled on the documented 2026 festival only, not a promise, because the 2026 layers publish no specific ticket figure. A visitor following the 2026 pattern would begin with the visitor bureau calendar’s Especially for Kids events, listed as beginning May 29, 2026, The main weekend would open on Friday, June 5, Under the Stars at Woolaroc with Balsam Range; move to Tulsa on Saturday, June 6, for Yacht Rock Orchestrated at Post Oak Lodge; and return to Bartlesville on Sunday, June 7, for Chris Mann at the Oklahoma Wesleyan University Chapel.
Not the County Fair
Several other events share pieces of this festival’s name, its county, or its town, and none of them is this festival. The Washington County Free Fair at Dewey is a September agricultural fair, and its 109th annual billing for September 5 to 9, 2023 belongs to that fair’s own book layer. No fact runs in either direction. Washington County fairs in other states contribute nothing here. Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival in New York is a different festival in a different state, and the Bartlesville festival’s own 2024 billing, Mostly Mozart 40th Anniversary Festival, is an edition billing in the organiser’s own newsletter layer only, importing no Lincoln Center fact. Salzburg’s Mozartwoche contributes nothing. The organiser’s Oktoberfest and Christkindl Market are separate events, as are Sunfest and other Community Center tenants.
A Visitor’s Checklist
- Keep the name forms apart: historic layers keep the OK Mozart forms, current layers keep OKM Music, and the 2024 Mostly Mozart billing stays in its own edition layer.
- Use only the named free elements: the 2024 Showcase Series, the 2024 kids’ events except the tea party, and free entry for children 12 and under at the June 7 and 8 concerts in 2024.
- Plan around several rooms, not one hall, and keep the organiser’s office address separate from venue addresses.
- Leave the Dewey county fair, the New York festival, and other states’ Washington County fairs out of every plan.
Beyond the Festival Grounds
There are no festival grounds to step beyond. The festival’s rooms sit inside Bartlesville: a museum and wildlife centre, a downtown square, a community centre auditorium, a chapel, and a refinery building.
Why It Holds Its Place
A festival that began as a chamber music series in 1985 and now bills itself as a premier music festival of its state has survived by changing its name without changing its town. Its discipline is visible in what it refuses to merge: the 2024 run and core, the 2025 bureau span and magazine weekend, the 1983 and 1984 wordings, and the free elements against the ticketed concerts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is the Washington County Oklahoma OK Mozart Festival held?
The festival’s home and host town is Bartlesville, Oklahoma, the Washington County seat, and its performances take place across multiple venues there, with Tulsa as a second concert city only in the 2024 through 2026 layers.
Is the whole festival free to attend?
No festival-wide free term is published in any layer fetched, and the festival as a whole must not be described as free. Free entry is documented only for named elements in their layers: the 2024 Showcase Series at Ambler Hall, the 2024 Especially for Kids events except the special tea party, free entry for children aged 12 and under at the June 7 and 8 concerts in 2024. The main concerts are ticketed per concert.
When was the festival founded?
The organiser’s own published statements give 1985, saying the festival began as a chamber music series, and the arts-press layers corroborate that flutist Ransom Wilson founded OK Mozart in 1985 after a 1983 visit. Conflicting 1983 and 1984 wordings stand in their own layers and are never substituted for the 1985 statement, and the annual billings are never worked backwards.
Can I camp at the festival?
No camping, recreational vehicle, hookup or overnight term for festival attendees is published in any layer fetched, so no festival camping may be described for this title. Woolaroc’s camp and retreat offerings and area campgrounds are venue and area accommodation in their own layers, never a festival offer, and no camping rate is printed.
What to Expect From the Next Washington County Oklahoma OK Mozart Festival
How often is Washington County Oklahoma OK Mozart Festival held?
The festival is documented as an annual event in the organiser’s own layers, with a fortieth annual billing in 2024, a forty-first in 2025, and a forty-second in 2026. Each year’s span is fenced to its own layer.
When is the next Washington County Oklahoma OK Mozart Festival?
The most recent documented span in the layers fetched is June 5 to 7, 2026, billed as the 42nd Annual OKM Music Festival. No later span is published in the layers fetched.
Will the dates change?
The dates have changed from year to year throughout the documented record, with different spans in 2024, 2025 and 2026, so a future edition should be expected to carry its own span in its own layer rather than repeating any span printed here.
The festival endures because Bartlesville keeps giving it rooms to fill, under names that change while the town stays the same.
