UPDATE: 11/18/2025 – The Big Ears Festival has announced that The Avett Brothers & Mike Patton present AVTT/PTTN, Miles Electric Band, Thurston Moore, Tune-Yards, Jeff Parker’s Expansion Trio and other acts will be performing at next year’s event.

The Big Ears Festival will be returning on March 26 – 29, 2026, where it will be transforming the historic downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, into a dynamic, multi-dimensional and international cultural experience with over 250 concerts, films, artist conversations, workshops, exhibitions and interactive experiences. For tickets and more information, click here.

Across the lineup, Flying Lotus pushes electronic music into new dimensions, Pat Metheny’s Side-Eye III+ showcases the guitarist’s restless reinvention and Cécile McLorin Salvant continues to expand the art of vocal music. Artists  ChuchoValdés Royal Quartet, John Scofield Trio, Marc Ribot, Mary Halvorson, Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few and Patricia Brennan Septet will anchor a multi-generational spectrum of improvisational brilliance.

Folk and song traditions are powerfully represented by Richard Thompson, Terry Allen, who is the maverick Texas songwriter whose raw, irreverent tales are legendary, MJ Lenderman & The Wind, S.G. Goodman, Anna Tivel and Annahstasia. International perspectives resound with Orchestra Baobab of Senegal, Japanese koto master Wu Fei with Shanir Blumenkranz, Ukrainian vocal group Yagódy, and Moroccan collective Saha Gnawa. Energy radiates from across the spectrum, from the storm-swept trio Dirty Three and the propulsive experimental post-punk of Model/Actriz to the exuberance of Alan Sparhawk & Trampled By Turtles and Tunde Adebimpe.

Photo Credit: Brett Padelford