FloydFest’s opening salvo for 2026 features at least two likely Rock and Roll Hall of Fame acts of the future: Tedeschi Trucks Band and My Morning Jacket.
Both will be making their first appearance at the Floyd County festival, though MMJ is doing something of a makeup date. The Jim James-led group of atmospheric rock purveyors was scheduled to play the ill-fated 2023 event, canceled when FloydFest’s new site wasn’t ready to open.
The 2026 version, nicknamed “Daydream” and scheduled for July 22-26, will be the third at the new location in the Check community and will feature its “lowest ticket prices in years,” according to a Thursday morning news release.
Thursday’s announcement also boasted a longtime FloydFest favorite, Lukas Nelson, and a new-to-the-fest performer, Stephen Wilson Jr., atop the lineup.
Tickets went on sale Thursday at aftontickets.com/floydfest26daydream, with “early bird” prices and fees lower than all of last year’s prices available until Nov. 13. There will be no cap on early bird purchases, according to the announcement.
It will be Tedeschi Trucks Band’s first Southwest Virginia gig since 2022, when a truncated version of the 12-piece band played shows at Harvester Performance Center in Rocky Mount and Academy Center for the Arts in Lynchburg. The full band, led by singer Susan Tedeschi and guitarist Derek Trucks, played multiple iterations of the Lockn’ Festival in Nelson County before that event fizzled out in the pandemic era.
The act has two Grammys, one for blues album and another for contemporary blues, but is in fact a soul-rock powerhouse that incorporates funk, country and improvisational jazz into an eight-album-deep catalog.
My Morning Jacket is another former Lockn’ headliner that has yet to perform in Southwest Virginia. The group was part of the new site’s opening lineup announcement in 2022 that also featured The Black Crowes, Sheryl Crow and Goose. As it became apparent the following spring that the state’s Department of Environmental Quality would not issue a stormwater management permit, organizers canceled. The Black Crowes were among last year’s headliners. Goose has not played FloydFest since 2021 and Crow still has not played the event.
MMJ is more than a quarter-century into its mission, with 20 years gone since its breakthrough album, “Z,” which the band’s bio notes was listed among Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” In March, the band released the Brendan O’Brien-produced “is.”
The rest of the initial lineup is no less intriguing, with at least one band set to offer the highest level of “sacred steel” guitar music: The Word is composed of steel guitarist Robert Randolph, keyboardist John Medeski and the North Mississippi Allstars. Randolph has led his own band in scorching FloydFest sets, and the NMA played a scintillating, fest-closing show at the old Pink Floyd Beer Garden Stage in 2013.
“The Word,” a gospel instrumental joy-giver, dropped in 2001 and is always worth a listen if you want mood elevation.
Rounding out the bill, for now at least, are Larkin Poe, Andy Frasco & The U.N., Amble, AJ Lee & Blue Summit, The Creekers, Penelope Road, Caitlin Krisko & The Broadcast, Jason Scott & The High Heat, Lespecial, MT Jones, Cruz Contreras & The Black Lillies, Coyote Island, Johnny Mullenax, Isaac Hadden and Music Road Co.