The area music festival landscape is always evolving, especially in the current climate where many festivals around the world are struggling and trying to reboot, reinvent, and figure out what is next for the industry. In our area, some festivals are not happening this year, including GRRRL Camp, Outlandia, and Lincoln Calling. Lincoln Calling has announced a reboot for 2026. The festival outlook for our area is good, though, with some ongoing favorites, one-offs, and a big return. Here is a look at some of what you can expect this year.
Iowa Western Community College radio station 89.7 The River will celebrate its 30th Anniversary on Saturday, July 12. They will celebrate in a big way with a festival at Rivers Edge Park in Council Bluffs featuring bands that the station have played over the years, including some that the radio station helped break out. The lineup includes the return of hometown boys 311 along with Blue October, The Urge, Sublime, Sick Puppies, and Anchondo. 311 just celebrated their 35th Anniversary this month and will headline the festival. Sublime is back with original members in the fold and Sublime frontman, Bradley Nowell’s son Jakob, taking over vocals. Bradley Nowell passed away in 1996. Blue October is a long-running Texas rock band that 89.7 The River helped break nationally. The River can make that claim with Australian rock band Sick Puppies as well. Rounding out the lineup is Anchondo, a popular ska-rock band in Omaha that has been playing on and off for many years.
Newly formed record label Good Life Records will hold its first festival on Friday, July 18 and Saturday, July 19 at Slowdown. The label is mostly focused on area acts but has also been working with regional and international acts as of late. The Good Life Festival will showcase some of the area’s biggest acts — and some with quite a bit of history behind them. Those include The Impulsive, Names Without Numbers, Evandale, and Virgin Mary Pistol Grip. Other artists performing include Arcade Riot, Feels Good, Second Place, Dream Aura, Kevin McClure, The Tale Untold, MCHNZ, Public Figure, Alyeska, and Etched in Embers.
This year will mark the return of the Maha Music Festival on Aug. 2. The festival will leave its longtime home at Stinson Park in Aksarben and move back to the Heartland of America Park on the Riverfront, where the festival began. Maha took 2024 off and will get back to it with a one-day, six-band lineup that will be headlined by college rock legends The Pixies. Other acts include indie rock bands Waxahatchee and Silversun Pickups, modern rock artists Band of Horses, quickly rising pop band Magdalena Bay, and area band Little Brazil. This will be The Pixies’ first show in the area in 15 years. It has been a decade since Waxahatchee has played Omaha, and they have gained greatly in popularity since then, and has been a widely requested act in the area. Magdalena Bay are a duo whose 2024 album Imaginal Disk ended up on dozens of year-end best-of lists and continues to find new fans into 2025. Silversun Pickups, Band Of Horses and Little Brazil all last released new albums in 2022. None of them show new albums on the horizon–so one can expect sets from all three filled with favorites from the past.
The Omaha Blues Society will host its 10th Annual event In The Market for Blues on Saturday, Aug. 9. The event will happen at ten venues in Downtown Omaha and feature over 30 bands and artists. Headlining this year will be B.B. King Entertainer of the Year nominee John Nemeth. Other touring acts include Shannon Curfman, Scott Keeton, Nick Schnebelen, Big Al and The Heavyweights, and many more. Area artists include Hector Anchondo, Josh Hoyer, Kris Lager, Little Joe McCarthy, Steve Lovett, and more. One pass will allow you to attend shows at all of the venues, which include Harney Street Tavern, Dubliner Pub, T-Henery’s Pub, Havana Garage, Little Havana (patio at Havana Garage), Annie’s Irish Pub, Beer Can Alley, Jewell on Capitol, Scott Hall at Holland Center, and The RiverFront Performance Pavilion at Gene Leahy Mall.
On Saturday, Aug. 16, Petfest returns for a day-long party in the parking lot behind Petshop Art Gallery and Shakedown Street. The DIY festival has in the past featured area and touring bands in the punk, hardcore, darkwave, indie rock, singer-songwriter, and EDM genres. This year looks to be all local, with popular indie rock bands Frankie Chaiaro, Velvet Velvet, Magu, and Wedding. Darkwave act Dream Ghoul will perform, as will one of Omaha’s longest-running DJs, Kobra Kyle. All in all, there will be around 20 performances. In the past, those performances would alternate between the garage and a larger outside stage.
On Saturday, Aug. 30, five-time Grammy Award winner CeeLo Green will make his way to the Gene Leahy Mall at the Riverfront for Unity Festival. Unity Festival is called a celebration of culture, music, and community and will also feature many area acts. Among those are Chad Stoner, Marcos Eduardo’s Latino Music Explosion, and Enjoli and Timeless. The event will be hosted by Withlove Felicia.
This will mark the seventh year that the Shadow Ridge Music Festival will happen at Shadow Ridge Country Club. This year’s event will happen on Friday, Sept. 5. The festival has focused on bands from the 1990s and 2000s, and this year is no different. Headlining the festival this year will be English rockers Bush. They will be joined by “How to Save a Life” performers The Fray and Pennsylvania ’90s rockers Fuel. ’90s alt-pop band LIT will make their second Shadow Ridge Music Festival appearance this year. Bush will have a new album called I Beat Loneliness out on July 18.
On Saturday, Sept. 6, Heartland of America Park will play host to a very different kind of festival as the Tacos and Tequila Festival will bring many hip-hop favorites to the area. Scheduled to appear are Lil Jon, Trick Daddy, Ying Yang Twins, Petey Pablo, Twista, Bubba Sparxxx, Mike Jones, and DJ Ashton Martin. One of the headliners will be hitmakers Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. The kicker here is that all five members are back together and scheduled to appear. They just released a new song called “Aww Shit.” Get ready for Bizzy Bone, Wish Bone, Layzie Bone, Flesh-n-Bone, and Krayzie Bone — for the first shows together in around two decades.
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