FloydFest organizers have released the final lineup of acts to be included in the 2026 edition of the festival, FloydFest~Daydream, which is set to take place at FestivalPark on July 22-26.
The inaugural announcement regarding FloydFest~Daydream on Nov. 6 introduced a quartet of 2026 headliners: Grammy Award-winning rock-and-soul juggernaut Tedeschi Trucks Band, rock-and-roll cultural legends My Morning Jacket, songcraft-alchemist Stephen Wilson Jr. and Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Lukas Nelson.
Organizers said these headlining acts “serve as a powerful representation of both Across-the-Way’s brand of purposeful programming, as well as the company’s dedication to delivering artists who top its patrons’ annual request lists.”
The strengths of those headliners are buttressed by additional artists in 2026’s initial announcement:
Larkin Poe
The Word (Ft. Robert Randolph, John Medeski, and North Mississippi Allstars)
Andy Frasco and The U.N., Amble
AJ Lee and Blue Summit
The Creekers
Penelope Road
Caitlin Krisko and The Broadcast
Jason Scott and The High Heat
Lespecial
MT Jones
Cruz Contreras and The Black Lillies
Coyote Island
Johnny Mullenax
Isaac Hadden
Music Road Co.
All artists on the initial announcement (and all subsequent announcements) can be discovered and explored via extensive bios, links and music at www.floydfest.com/lineup.
Additional information — including a 2026 Site Map, updated FAQs, Children’s Universe information, a playlist featuring FloydFest~Daydream artists, more information about camping and parking, and more as announcements roll out — is available online atwww.floydfest.com.
Patrons are encouraged to secure tickets now for FloydFest 26~Daydream by visiting eitherwww.floydfest.com or www.aftontickets.com/floydfest26daydream. Following the increase to Tier 1 pricing on Nov. 14, the Tier 2 increase is set for March 1, 2026, with the third and final move to Tier 3 pricing scheduled for July 1, if tickets remain.
Visit the following link for tickets and more information: www.floydfest.com
Official award announcement for Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine’s 16th annual “Best of the Blue Ridge” Awards
Wondering what the top trails are in the Blue Ridge region? Or which music festival is the best? Well, the readers of Blue Ridge Outdoors have spoken.
Last October, the publication’s readers nominated their favorite outdoor businesses, events, food/drinks, and destinations in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, and then voted to pick the top winners. This year the magazine received over 200,000 total votes in 51 categories.
“We are touched that so many businesses and attractions in Brevard and Transylvania County have been recognized with annual Best of the Blue Ridge awards by the readers of Blue Ridge Outdoors magazine,” ransylvania County Tourism Executive Director Clark Lovelace told the magazine. “From Sliding Rock to Pisgah Climbing School to Davidson River Outfitters to DD Bullwinkel’s Outdoors, and more, it is a testament to the incredible outdoor paradise and friendly faces that we have in our community. We invite and welcome all to experience the magic of our destination.”
The Best of the Blue Ridge awards are the most well-known outdoor awards in the Southeast. The winners each receive a winner seal to place in their windows and on digital and printed materials.
Blue Ridge Outdoors would like to thank everyone who participated in the nomination and voting processes for this year’s contest, and give congratulations to all winners, runners-up, and nominees.
Best Music Festival Rooster Walk Music and Arts Festival, Martinsville, Va. Great line-ups and intimate, tight-knit vibes characterize this enduring jam-friendly fest held every t Memorial Day weekend at the scenic Pop’s Farm in Martinsville, Va. Organizers already announced this year’s roster of bands, so get ready for sets from Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country, Mountain Grass Unit, Eggy, and moe. – J.F.
Runners Up FloydFest – Festival Park, Va. DelFest – Cumberland, Md. (tie) Red Wing Roots Music Festival – Mt. Solon, Va. (tie)
Events & Races
Best Family Friendly Festival Front Porch Fest – Stuart, Va. Front Porch Fest started as a low-key gathering for family and friends, and it maintains that atmosphere when it takes place every year at the scenic Spirithaven Farm in the Blue Ridge foothills of Patrick County, Va. But while the event keep its downhome vibe, it attracts top regional artists in jam, roots, and bluegrass music like Larry Keel and Big Daddy Love. Look out for this year’s lineup in the coming months. – J.F.
Runners Up Go Outside Festival – Roanoke, Va. Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance – Pittsboro, N.C.
Best Unique Festival LEAF Global Arts Retreat – Black Mountain, N.C. LEAF Global Arts Retreat is an eclectic spring festival in the mountains of western North Carolina that blends a diverse roster of roots music acts from around the world with a variety of healing arts and cultural workshops, all taking place on the scenic grounds of Lake Eden. Acts at last year’s event ranged from Appalachian tunesmith Tyler Ramsey to New Orleans funk band Dumpstaphunk to the traditional Ugandan artist Chinobay. Look for this year’s dates and line-up to be announced soon. – J.F.
Runners Up Appalachian Trail Days Festival – Damascus, Va. Highland County Maple Festival – Monterey, Va.
About Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine
For 30 years, Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine has been the definitive guide to all things outdoors in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast. Distributed from Pennsylvania to Georgia, the publication’s award-winning writers cover the region’s best destinations for adventure, as well as the latest outdoor recreation trends, gear, and culture.
Live from their new home in FestivalPark, 5826 Floyd Highway North, Check, Virginia, here’s the latest about FloydFest 24 featuring Sierra Ferrell, Sierra Hull, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, Circles Around the Sun, Hogslop String Band, Victor Wooten and the Wooten Brothers, The Heavy, Heavy and many, many more. Check out the full lineup here.
I don’t know about you, but I turn to art — music, literature, poetry — when I need to escape and my need for escapism is strong at the moment.
If there was ever a song that addresses what’s happening now — nearly 200,000 deaths as a result of the global pandemic and its subsequent destruction of the world economy — it’s a new tune by one of my favorite bands, Bristol, Tennessee/Virginia-based Annabelle’s Curse, staples at the Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion, frequent performers at Rooster Walk Music and Arts Festival and a runner-up at FloydFest’s On the Rise Competition, just to name a few.
The band is releasing “Bailout” today. In their words, the song has multiple meanings: “It addresses the isolation, division and distraction of the current era through a metaphor of a sinking ship and a struggling relationship. It also has political statements laced throughout the final verses.”
The crazy thing about “Bailout” is that it was written long before any of us had heard of COVID-19, coronavirus, “social distancing” or the “new normal” — two phrases I personally hope will soon disappear from our collective vocabularies.
I talked to Zack Edwards, one of the band’s co-founders, earlier this week and he said at the heart of this complex song, written by another band co-founder Tim Kilbourne, is the double entendre of “dealing with political bailouts as well as dealing with relationships and maintaining them despite going through troubles. We were talking about how weird it is that everyone is getting stimulus checks when the song is being released.”
Annabelle’s Curse, one of my favorite music festival discoveries at FloydFest and Rooster Walk Music and Arts Festival, has released a new single/video, “You and Me Forever,” that was recorded during the 2018 Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion at Classic Recording Studio in the heart of the festival. They even invited some friends to stop by and record backing vocals.Continue reading →
Sam Bush loves North Carolina. And gauging from the roar of the appreciative crowd of some 200 souls gathered at the Cat’s Cradle live music venue in downtown Carrboro on Saturday night, North Carolina loves Sam Bush and company, and in this particular instance, the Sam Bush Band.
“It don’t get no better than to play in North Carolina,” Bush said from the stage.
His fans agree. “As always, Sam and band were amazing,” commented Rick Henderson of Raleigh. “No two shows are the same, but they’re all terrific.”Continue reading →
Hosted by one of MerleFest’s fan favorites, Donna the Buffalo, Shakori has a similar vibe and similar artists to the aforementioned festivals. But if you live in or near the Triangle, it’s just a short drive to Shakori’s home in bucolic Chatham County.
And for music festival lovers, it offers not one but two chances to camp out and catch some great live music each year — one in the spring and one in the fall.
I had the pleasure of meeting up and hanging out with some of my fellow die-hard festivarians (yes, it’s a word) at the spring 2017 festival featuring some amazing sets by Rising Appalachia, Violet Bell, Dangermuffin, The Mastersons and Steve Earle and the Dukes, just to name a few.
But if you don’t want to take my word for it, Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine named it among its Bests of the Fests of 2018.
And for $90, you can take advantage of the 2018 fall festival, Oct. 4-7, and its 50-plus acts including headliners Lettuce and, of course, Donna the Buffalo, as well as Ryan Mountbleau, Urban Soil and Shiloh Hill, among others.
But don’t wait. Tickets go up after Friday, Aug. 17, and before the rest of the acts are announced on Monday, Aug. 20.
In the meantime, catch some of the acts who presumably will be at Shakori this fall on “The Road to Shakori” tour.
Tired of listening to the same old music? Front Porch Fest, held at the picturesque Spirit Haven Farm in Stuart, Virginia, over Labor Day weekend, may be just the ticket. You’ll not only be exposed to some new tunes, you’ll also have the opportunity to support some great causes.
“Front Porch Fest is a great place to hear someone you have never heard of and leave with new music in your heart,” festival Executive Director Chris Prutting told me in 2015. “I’ve grown up with music and friends playing in bands. I love the bands no one has heard of. If you come to Front Porch Fest, you will leave with a whole new catalog of music. We’ve always prided ourselves on getting bands right before they make it.”
Among the acts lined up for Front Porch Fest set for Aug. 30 – Sept. 2 include Perpetual Groove, Zach Deputy, the Larry Keel Experience, Big Daddy Love, Annabelle’s Curse, the Couldn’t Be Happiers, Urban Soil, Slick Jr. & the Reactors, among others. A distinctive feature of this festival, which attracts a few thousand attendees, are its three stages with no overlapping sets so music lovers don’t have to miss a beat.
I was first introduced to the unique retro country-tinged, psych rock music stylings of the band of brothers, Super Doppler, at Southwest Virginia’s Rooster Walk Music and Arts Festival and FloydFest several years ago.
Over the years, the band’s sound has evolved and its new single, “Edge Off,” which will be released on Wednesday, June 27, is representative. A sound that has evolved, albeit retroactively, to be reminiscent of what you might have hear blasting out of your 1975 Chevy Vega speakers as you cruised around with the windows rolled down.
“Edge Off” is the fifth single Super Doppler has released this year as part of the band’s monthly digital single series, “Super Secret Singles Club,” that runs through July 2018. The band is also gearing up for an extensive headline tour of the U.S. this summer to promote the new singles.
The single was written and produced by Super Doppler and tracked and mixed by Adrian Olsen at Montrose Recording in Richmond, Virginia, and mastered by Cameron Henry at Welcome to 1979 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Six months after the release of Super Doppler’s debut, Matthew E. White-produced album “Moonlight Anthems” (June 2017), the band announced its “Super Secret Singles Club,” a monthly digital singles club that would span from February through July 2018. Bridging melodic psychedelic pop with country-funk grooves, twangy dueling guitars, and a proclivity for layered vocal harmonies, Super Doppler has come to embrace a spirited, genre-agnostic ethos, according to the band’s bio. The “Super Secret Singles Club” releases are no exception, continuing to defy the stifling label of a traditional “genre” while exploring the depths of what is considered rock ‘n roll.
All born and raised in Norfolk, Virginia, the members Super Doppler began their journey as a loose collective of high school friends with a common interest in late nights and loud music. Desperate to escape the impending reality of the 9 to 5 workday, the group decided to hit the open road and play for anyone willing to listen. No matter how dark the basement or lonely the bar, it was here in the farthest fringes of the music industry that these ragtag renegades would make their stand.
Four years and 500+ shows later after forming, the band released “Moonlight Anthems,” their debut record under the Super Doppler moniker. Produced by fellow Virginia wunderkind White of Spacebomb Records, “Moonlight Anthems” showcases the shared retro influences of the five-piece band; more specifically, a group of high school friends turned bandmates that includes two sets of brothers, Michael and Bryan Adkins (guitar and drums, respectively), and fraternal twins, Neal and Cole Friedman (keyboards and bass, respectively), alongside long-time comrade Harry Slater (guitar).
With six new singles set for release over the first half of 2018 and a full length record that is less than a year old, Super Doppler wants you to know they are here to stay. With stops at SXSW in Austin, Texas, in March and Sloss Music & Arts Festival in Birmingham, Alabama, the band has plans to stay busy on the road throughout the rest of 2018.
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