This story is part of the Fall Travel issue, which is on sale here.
The results of our second annual music survey earlier this year were clear: Festivals and events are one of the reasons we trot around the country, and the fall rush of festivals is almost upon us. We’re previewing the most interesting 29 events that you should consider from September through the end of December.
Kentucky Bourbon Festival
Where: Bardstown, Ky.
When: September 13-15
The Kentucky Bourbon Festival can be intimidating for newcomers or even bourbon enthusiasts who live right here in the heart of bourbon country. But after days of samples from 50 brands, including heritage labels like Maker’s Mark and Jim Beam as well as newer craft distilleries, you’ll quickly find your footing. With all that drinking in the “Bourbon Capital of the World,” the festival’s educational programs might be a losing game, but hopefully you can retain a few bourbon facts. If not, there’s always the World Championship Bourbon Barrel Relay competition, where teams from Kentucky’s distilleries compete for bragging rights.
[See the full festival details here.]
Sea.Hear.Now
Where: Asbury Park, N.J.
When: September 14-15
Headliners include: Bruce Springsteen, Noah Kahan
This is your chance to live your Jersey Shore dreams to the tunes of Bruce Springsteen. Asbury Park, the artsy-cool New Jersey waterfront spot where Springsteen famously got his start, will host Sea.Hear.Now for its sixth year with headliners Noah Kahan and The Boss. Expect the crowd to be a mix of diehard Boss fans as well as the beachside-stroller crew, there to picnic to a soundtrack of rock, pop, indie and folk. The lineup appeals to the ’90s and early 2000s kids more than anyone else, with Grace Potter, The Black Crowes and Norah Jones all performing — though Action Bronson will likely draw some younger folks.
[See the full festival details here]
Bourbon and Beyond
Where: Louisville, Ky.
When: September 19-22
Headliners include: Sting, Zach Bryan, Dave Matthews Band, Tyler Childers
The four-day Bourbon and Beyond festival leans into the “beyond” part following a record-breaking 300,000 attendance last year. The 2024 lineup is its biggest yet, with more than 100 artists including Sting, Zach Bryan, Dave Matthews Band, Tyler Childers, Neil Young, Beck, Matchbox Twenty, The National, My Morning Jacket and The War on Drugs. Of the festival’s four stages, there’s one dedicated to the art of bourbon whiskey and another to live culinary experiences from top celebrity chefs, including Amanda Freitag and Chris Santos.
[See the full festival details here]
Riot Fest
Where: Chicago
When: September 20-22
Headliners include: Fall Out Boy, Beck, Public Enemy
This festival prides itself on welcoming the angsty type that is always pumping a playlist of punk rock from their youth in their AirPods. You’ll find lots of early 2000s mall-goth style, “Make America Emo Again” hats and, of course, rock. The 2024 lineup includes Fall Out Boy, Beck, Pavement (one a few shows they’ll play this year), The Offspring and Sum 41, as well as St. Vincent, Public Enemy and NOFX, who will play all three days as part of their farewell tour. Of note this year, the festival moved 11 miles south from Chicago’s West Side to Bridgeview.
[See the full festival details here]
Louder Than Life
Where: Louisville, Ky.
When: September 26-29
Headliners include: Korn, Mötley Crüe, Slayer
You’re going to Louder Than Life for one of the deepest rosters of metal and metal-adjacent artists of any festival in the United States. Don’t attend, however, unless you really like ear-blistering rock for days on end. Online, a dedicated community of people who crave this specific source of tinnitus has arisen. They call themselves Loudmouths, and in LEO Weekly, writer/Loudmouther Jeff Polk described the group as “the most vulgar, nicest people you’ll ever meet.” This year the Louder Than Life lineup includes Slipknot, Motley Crue, Korn, The Offspring, Anthrax, Dropkick Murphys, Sevendust and a reunion of Slayer.
[See the full festival details here]
Oceans Calling
Where: Ocean City, Md.
When: September 27-29
Headliners include: Blink-182, The Killers, Dave Matthew Band
Oceans Calling is loaded with late ’90s and early 2000s mainstays — besides the headliners, they include The Offspring, Counting Crows, 311, Boyz II Men, Barenaked Ladies — but this festival is also about the beach. You can catch the tail end of summer, avoiding the height-of-season Ocean City boardwalk crowds but still, weather permitting, relishing some sun in front of three stages by the water. Local food vendors will have typical Maryland boardwalk cuisine, like crab, shrimp, fries and ice cream. Celebrity chefs Robert Irvine, Amanda Freitag and Marc Murphy will give cooking demos, all hosted by actor Jason Biggs.
[See the full festival details here]
All Things Go
Where: Two simultaneous events in Columbia, Md., and New York City
When: September 28-29
Headliners include: Laufey, Bleachers, Janelle Monáe (Columbia) and Chappell Roan, Reneé Rapp, MUNA (NYC)
All Things Go is trying something big in 2024. For its 10th year, the festival that’s been called “Gaychella” and “All Things Gay” by its fans is unveiling a New York City counterpart that will run the same weekend as the long-running Baltimore-area festival. The female-and-non-binary-forward NYC version will share much of its lineup with its sister festival in Maryland, including Reneé Rapp, Chappell Roan, Janelle Monáe and Ethel Cain. The Columbia version will also have Laufey, Bleachers, Hozier and Conan Gray, among others, while MUNA, Samia and Coco & Clair Clair will exclusively play NYC. Not bad for a festival that started as a music blog in 2006.
[See the full festival details here]
Monterey Jazz Festival
Where: Monterey, Calif.
When: September 27-29
Headliners include: Stanley Clarke, Mavis Staples, Samara Joy
Started in 1958, Monterey Jazz Festival is the world’s oldest continuously running jazz festival. People are known to patronize Monterey Jazz Festival year after year, making it feel more like a family reunion than other music events. Here, you not only see artists on stage but walking around the grounds. When you aren’t catching a set at one of the outdoor stages, be sure to check out the food vendors, selling everything from soul food to Jamaican cuisine, and Yamaha’s instrument petting zoo, where kids can play with an assortment of real instruments.
[See the full festival details here]
Trailing of the Sheep
Where: Sun Valley, Idaho
When: October 2-6
This week-long, annual event in Sun Valley, Ketchum and Hailey celebrates the Wood River Valley’s sheep and wool industry, the backbone of the region’s economy since the late 1800s. Expect a variety of cooking classes and talks, as well as a wool festival — a festival within the festival. There will be music and dance performances from the valley’s main ranching cultural traditions: Scottish, Basque and Peruvian. The Big Sheep Parade, held on Sunday, is when 1,500 sheep bumble down Ketchum’s Main Street, heralded by musicians and blessed by local religious leaders. It’s like a parting of a wooly sea.
[See the full festival details here]
Nashville Oktoberfest
Where: Nashville
When: October 3-6
It may not be Germany, but as the second-largest Oktoberfest in the nation, this Oktoberfest is an impressive biergarten bash. There will be bratwursts and beer, which you can casually enjoy, but what’s the fun in that? That’s where the competitions come in: the Bier Run, the Beer Stein Holding Competition, the Bratwurst Eating Contest. Admission to this German-style beer olympics is free, so it won’t cost you to fill your body with lager and a meat link — or to stop by, listen to good ol’ polka music, sip from a stein and watch everyone else make decisions they’ll regret on Monday.
[See the full festival details here]
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass
Where: San Francisco
When: October 4-6
While Outside Lands attracts some of the biggest names in music, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass takes San Francisco back to the free-spirited, flower child days of the 1960s. Started by Warren Hellman in 2001 as Strictly Bluegrass Festival, the event tacked on “Hardly” in 2004 to reflect the range of genres that now come to Golden Gate Park. Thanks to its billionaire benefactor, you’ll get to see Greensky Bluegrass, Robyn Hitchcock, the Wood Brothers, Fruition, Bobby Rush and others for the price of exactly nothing. You can’t spend all that extra cash on booze, though. No alcohol is sold on the festival grounds.
[See the full festival details here]
Austin City Limits
Where: Austin, Texas
When: October 4-6 and 11-13
Headliners include: Dua Lipa, Chris Stapleton, Tyler, the Creator
More than 100 artists will perform across nine stages at Austin City Limits in October. The festival, which famously spun out of a public-access television show of the same name (also the longest-running music series in television history), will be held over two weekends with the same stacked lineup. Aside from hosting the country’s top hitmakers at Zilker Park, the food really takes the cake at ACL (pun intended). Inspired by New Orleans’ Jazz Fest, Austin Eats, the festival’s food court, will contain up to 50 Austin-based vendors like Cuantos Tacos, JP’s Pancake Co., Steamies Dumplings and many more, with the full lineup varying greatly from year to year.
[See the full festival details here]
Chicago Beer Fest
Where: Chicago
When: October 5
A good beer is not a hard thing to find in Chicago, but to try all of the best options, you’d normally have to spend days schlepping around the Windy City. Chicago Beer Fest brings all those hops under one roof at the Field Museum, where over 65 breweries will be showing off their fall selections. This year’s breweries include 3 Floyds Brewing, Half Acre Beer Co., Brewdog, Stone Brewing Co. and Spiteful Brewing among many others. As Benjamin Franklin famously did not say, “God made beer because he wants us to be happy,” so what more could you need?
[See the full festival details here]
Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta
Where: Albuquerque, N.M.
When: October 5-13
Now in its 52nd year, people come to this nine-day festival for its mass ascensions…of huge, colorful hot-air balloons. They’re held on an 86-acre launch field that borders the Anderson-Abruzzo International Balloon Museum, where you can learn everything you ever wanted to know about the history and science of ballooning. The balloons take off during Saturday and Sunday morning sessions, but also on one of the weekday mornings, too. There’s limited seating at the park, so bring folding chairs or picnic blankets. And don’t miss the festival’s inexplicable chainsaw carving competition.
[See the full festival details here]
Great American Beer Festival
Where: Denver
When: October 10-12
Welcome to the Oscars of beer. With hundreds of brews from across the country and a couple thousand breweries that submit entries into the competition, this three-day festival culminates in an awards ceremony that’s a big deal in the industry. This year, the brewery showcase will be grouped into one of four themed areas: Prost!, which has a Bavarian Oktoberfest vibe; Score! for the beers that go best with barstools; Halloween, where Halloween will come early; and Beer and Beyond, for all things that aren’t quite beer (including seltzers and hard teas) as well as international craft beers.
[See the full festival details here]
Best Friends Forever Fest
Where: Las Vegas
When: October 11-13
Headliners include: Bright Eyes, Sunny Day Real Estate, The Dismemberment Plan
For its first year, Las Vegas emo festival Best Friends Forever has come out swinging with Friday’s headliner, Cap’n Jazz. Early pioneers of emo’s ascent into the mainstream, the band will return this October for their first performance in seven years, following The Dismemberment Plan, who are playing shows for the first time in a decade. Apart from hosting emo bands who seemingly threw in the towel long ago (could they speak with Modern Baseball?), the fully outdoor, all-ages festival will draw heavily on nostalgia for the post-hardcore music scene of the ’90s and 2000s, with indie rockers like Sunny Day Real Estate and Bright Eyes.
[See the full festival details here]
New York Wine & Food Festival
Where: New York City
When: October 17-20
New York City has some of the best food in the world, and this festival is its biggest culinary celebration. You’ll get to try shiny new dishes prepared by famous chefs — you might have seen a few of them on the Food Network, which has its headquarters in NYC. With 80 individually priced parties, cooking classes, dinners and celebrity-hosted cookouts, this is a networking extravaganza for chefs looking for cookbook deals, but it also churns out a lot of really good food. If you have to pick just one event, go to the Grand Tasting: a city-block-sized convention of food and wine sampling. (All that plus Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.)
[See the full festival details here]
Head of the Charles Regatta
Where: Boston
When: October 18-20
Every October in Boston, a small army of rowers descend on the Charles River, led by thousands of tiny, red-faced coxswains, determined to lead their clubs to victory. This is the world’s largest three-day rowing event, with the winner of each race declared “Head of the River.” All six Boston bridges that cross the Charles are excellent lookout points, if you can elbow past the 300,000 other scull-heads. Everything begins at Boston University’s DeWolfe Boathouse and ends as far as you’re willing to walk upstream. Worry not, there’s plenty to eat and drink along the course.
[See the full festival details here]
Bridge Day
Where: Fayetteville, W. Va.
When: October 19
Once a year, West Virginia’s New River Gorge Bridge closes to cars and opens to daredevils who make the 876-foot leap off the fifth-longest single-arch bridge in the world. There were 350 jumpers from 39 states and four countries who took part last year, with hundreds of other BASE jumpers and adrenaline junkies making tandem jumps and rappelling from the bridge’s catwalk. Around 140,000 spectators come to watch, food and craft vendors line the road and there’s a chili cookoff to celebrate Bridge Day in downtown Fayetteville.
[See the full festival details here]
When We Were Young
Where: Las Vegas
When: October 19-20
Headliners include: My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy
The emo teens who once went to Vans Warped Tour have grown up into millennials with day jobs, but When We Were Young Fest proves that pop punk wasn’t just a phase, it’s a lifestyle. Though, what’s cool about this festival is this: More than 50 bands will each perform an album front to back. Highlights include sets of My Chemical Romance’s “The Black Parade,” Jimmy Eat World’s “Bleed American” and The Used’s “In Love and Death.” Other artists on the bill include The All-American Rejects, Dashboard Confessional, Hawthorne Heights, Pierce the Veil, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and more.
[See the full festival details here]
Wurstfest
Where: New Braunfels, Texas
When: November 1-10
Started 60 years ago by a meat inspector in New Braunfels, Texas, Wurstfest is a 10-day, sausage-obsessed, German cultural event attended by hundreds of thousands to celebrate Oktoberfest. You’ll find a marktplatz of local and imported sausage and beer, beer-battered chicken, wurstchen, pork chops on a stick and cheese curds. More than 40 bands perform on five stages, some acts making the trip from Germany to play polka music in English and German. Even if you don’t know how to polka or if it’s your first time holding a foot-long sausage, you will be taught the essential German phrases and thrown onto the dance floor.
[See the full festival details here]
PA Bacon Fest
Where: Easton, Pa.
When: November 2-3
That beautiful, fatty slab of meat that your dad calls “artisan” and your arteries will call “blocking” has a lot of avid fans. Now in its 13th year after having expanded from what was originally a farmers market, PA Bacon Fest draws over 150 vendors to Easton, Pa., all somehow dealing in bacon. From hog calling and costume contests to bacon treats of every variety — including chocolate-covered bacon and bacon cupcakes — and bacon-eating competitions, to family-friendly comedic performances and a 5K run, Bacon Fest celebrates everything bacon. The festival also expects live music performances from more than 35 artists.
Electric Daisy Carnival
Where: Orlando, Fla.
When: November 8-10
Headliners include: Diplo, John Summit, Alison Wonderland
Electric Daisy Carnival Orlando is one of the two massive EDC festivals held in the United States (the other is in Vegas). The franchise is an oversized EDM playground known for in-your-face electronic music, sweaty dance floors and party drugs. Stages are over-the-top epic. KineticFIELD, the main stage, is a giant wooden structure of an owl that looks like it’s summoning you into another realm. The NeonGARDEN is a giant indoor dome-like structure that projects hazy red and purple lighting. The lineup includes more than 100 artists like Diplo, John Summit, Tiësto, Zeds Dead, Illenium, Dillon Francis, Alison Wonderland and more.
[See the full festival details here]
Mountain West Beer Fest
Where: Rapid City, S.D.
When: November 9
South Dakota’s largest beer festival fills a single afternoon with more than 200 brews and plenty of chances to say “hold my beer.” With Mt. Rushmore’s four stoic busts looming overhead, you’ll try beer from dozens of acclaimed breweries, including up-and-comers like Nebraska Brewing and Drekker to seasoned veterans like Dogfish Head, Left Hand and Sierra Nevada. This isn’t New York or Los Angeles, where aesthetes throw around words like “mouthfeel” and “finish.” Let’s be real, by your third or fourth sample, you’re hardly picking up on hops-related subtleties. Mountain West gets this, and holds activities like corn hole, human foosball and beer yoga.
[See the full festival details here]
Beignet Fest
Where: New Orleans
When: November 16
In 1986, the beignet was named Louisiana’s official state doughnut, and the deep-fried pastry is star of the show for one November day in City Park. Fruit, chocolate, seafood, cheese — if it fits in a little pocket of pastry, chances are someone at Beignet Fest has already stuffed it inside a beignet and sold it. The official vendor list includes some of the city’s best restaurants, and you can catch performances by local musicians, too. Proceeds from the festival go toward the Beignet Fest Foundation, which supports children with autism.
Bozeman Ice Festival
Where: Bozeman, Mont.
When: December 11-15
Spread between Bozeman, Mont., and nearby Hyalite Canyon, this festival is an all-in-one ice climbing event. It centers around skills clinics, which accommodate new and experienced ice climbers, with designated clinics for women, BIPOC and LGBT climbers. You can get a lesson in mixed ice and mountain climbing, or attend sessions on topics like wilderness survival, yoga and mental health in the mountains. Participants are encouraged to climb together, and then gather each evening in town for a round of beer. Nightly events range from panel discussions to live storytelling, and there’s also an Adventure Film Festival.
Ullr Fest
Where: Breckenridge, Colo.
When: December 12-14
In Breckenridge, Colo., not a single snowflake is taken for granted. Ever. Almost 60 years ago, locals founded the Ullr Fest to honor Ullr, the Norse god of snow. People dress in their best Viking attire and parade down Main Street. At one point, everyone lines up in front of shot glasses filled with bourbon mounted on a ski, counts down and tips the spirit back in unison. (The festival claims to hold the unofficial world record for the longest shotski.) After, you can toss your Christmas tree into the Ullr Bonfire, a fir and spruce offering to the god of snow.
[See the full festival details here]
Art Basel
Where: Miami Beach
When: December 6-8
Each December, Art Basel brings thousands of people to Miami, city of sunshine and beaches, and has them stay inside all day looking at art. Actually, Art Basel Miami Beach is known for placing art slightly lower on the list of attractions, embracing Miami’s high-flying glamour and turning South Beach into a lower-latitude Met Gala. In years past, James Blake has performed at the Bass Museum, and Prada’s party has tried to re-create a Berlin rave. But after the VIP preview days, when celebrities chaotically cut loose, Art Basel Miami Beach settles into what brought everyone there in the first place — a world-class, international contemporary art fair with surprisingly affordable tickets.
[See the full festival details here]
Besame Mucho Festival
Where: Los Angeles
When: December 21
Headliners include: Shakira, Enrique Iglesias, Pitbull
Some of the biggest names in Latin music will appear at Dodger Stadium this December for Besame Mucho, a festival that prides itself on its multigenerational Latinx audience. The festival may only last a day, but it certainly packs a punch. Headliners include Colombian pop star and hip-truther Shakira, Spanish singer-songwriter Enrique Iglesias, Mr. Worldwide (Pitbull), Norteño band Los Tigres del Norte and Mexican banda group Banda MS de Sergio Lizárraga, plus over 80 other acts. Artists will perform across four stages — Pop, Besa, Banda and Classicas — and attendees will find plenty of Los Angeles-based Mexican food vendors serving tacos, quesadillas, agua frescas and more.
[See the full festival details here]
— Emily Brower, Ayla Burnett, Sebastien Luc Butler, Emily Carmichael, Sarah Cortina, Emily Frantz, Lauren Harvey, Katherine James, Jeremiah David Jenkins, Sara Luzuriaga, Riya Misra, Hanna Vioque and Chris M. Walsh contributed to this report.
