The Philadelphia Folk Festival 2026 has just added a second wave of performers to its 63rd edition, and the name at the top of this announcement tells you something deliberate about where the festival’s head is at. Sam Bush is headlining this round.
If that name means something to you, you already know why this matters. Bush co-founded New Grass Revival in the early 1970s, helped drag bluegrass out of its traditionalist corner, and spent the next five decades becoming one of the most decorated musicians in American acoustic music. Four IBMA Mandolin Player of the Year awards. The Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award for Instrumentalist. A double inductee in the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame. At 74, still an active touring presence with the kind of stage energy that makes the whole room feel it.
Sam Bush and the Second Wave of the Philadelphia Folk Festival 2026
Bush joins a bill that was already shaping up well. The first round brought Leftover Salmon, Tom Rush, Mary Gauthier, Eddie 9V, Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience, Big Richard, RUNA, Damn Tall Buildings, and Kieran Kane & Rayna Gellert. Philly’s own John Flynn returns as main stage MC and performer, carrying on a tradition he stepped into last year. The Philadelphia Folk Festival 2026 runs seven stages across the weekend, which means the side stages reward the curious as much as the main stage rewards everyone else.
Alongside Bush, the new additions cover real ground. Adam Ezra Group brings their community-first, high-energy folk-rock to a stage that was made for exactly that kind of set. Robbie Fulks — Chicago Americana veteran, Grammy-nominated songwriter, one of the sharpest writers working in the roots space — is the kind of booking that rewards people who pay attention to the undercard. Jerron Paxton and Dennis Lichtman bring a pre-war blues and early jazz dimension that few festivals think to include. Their pairing reflects the curatorial seriousness that the Philadelphia Folk Festival has always earned credit for.
The Full Philadelphia Folk Festival 2026 Roster So Far
Gabe Lee, Jaimee Harris, and Robby Hecht fill out the singer-songwriter end of the bill with genuine depth — Nashville and Texas perspectives that travel well outdoors, each with a distinct voice and a catalog worth sitting with.
House of Hamill brings Irish-American banjo and fiddle interplay built for the festival’s acoustic-first ethos. The Tisburys make their Folk Fest debut here; guitarist Tyler Asay put it plainly in the announcement: “Folk storytelling has always been a part of our songwriting.” John Francis O’Mara rounds out the wave. More acts — nationally touring and Philadelphia-local — are still to come across all seven stages.
For context on the broader Philly live music calendar building toward summer, the Concerts Under the Stars 2026 series is another anchor worth knowing about as the season takes shape.
Philadelphia Folk Festival 2026 Tickets and What to Expect
The Philadelphia Folk Festival 2026 runs August 14–16 at Old Pool Farm in Upper Salford Township — about 45 minutes outside Center City in Montgomery County. Thursday, August 13 adds a campers-only bonus night, with a lineup still to be announced. Music runs 11am to midnight on Friday and Saturday, and 11am to 9:30pm on Sunday across all stages. The full experience includes on-site camping, food trucks, craft vendors, educational workshops, and Dulcimer Grove — a dedicated space for the festival’s youngest attendees.
Presented by the Philadelphia Folksong Society, the festival has spent 63 years building a multi-generational audience — the kind that has been returning to the farm since before some of the performers on this year’s bill were born. That continuity is part of what makes the Philadelphia Folk Festival 2026 worth putting on the calendar now. Tickets are on sale at folkfest.org.
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