Nathaniel Rateliff with Mt. Joy at Borderland Festival, photo by Skyler Greene

From Sept. 12-14, Borderland Festival returned to East Aurora, N.Y., for its 2025 event. Staged as always at the scenic and historic Knox Farm State Park, Borderland’s seventh annual celebration welcomed  West New York’s premier musicians, craftspeople, restaurateurs and fans to join in an action-packed celebration of the region. This year’s bill was among the festival’s most impressive to date, featuring a total of 28 acts, led by the massive headliners Vampire Weekend, Khruangbin and Mt. Joy.

Borderland’s 2025 lineup showcased the same eclectic mix of jam, rock, folk, bluegrass, R&B and everything in between that attendees have come to expect of the local staple event, while steering further into indie with both its biggest artists and undercard. On Friday, this shift was made manifest in an electrifying final set from Mt. Joy, who dished out a mix of old favorites like “Orange Blood, “Dirty Love,” “Mt. Joy” and “Astrovan” alongside standout tracks from their 2025 album Hope We Have Fun, including “Scared I’m Gonna Fuck You Up,” “Pink Lady” and “Highway Queen.” The highlight of the Philadelphia-based quintet’s set came with a surprise sit-in from Nathaniel Rateliff, who added guest vocals to “Wild and Rotten” before a set-closer of “Silver Lining.”

Rateliff’s set with The Night Sweats preceded Mt. Joy on the main stage and saw the roots-rock powerhouse tear through cuts like “S.O.B.,” “Heartless,” “Love Don’t” and “South of Here,” which last week earned the band their first-ever Americana Award for Album of the Year. Earlier sets came from Soul Rebels, Mountain Grass Unit, Yoke Lore, Organ Fairchild and Aqueous, who presented a Steely Dan tribute, among others.

Saturday’s final set came from Vampire Weekend, continuing a live hot streak for the long-running indie-rock vanguard. VW’s set lept around in their two-decade discography, lining up classics like “Holiday,” “Step,” “Sunflower,” “Oxford Comma” and “Walcott,” Only God Was Above Us entries like “Ice Cream Piano,” “Classical” and “Gen-X Cops,” and a reliable cover of SBTRKT’s “New Dorp. New York.” The trio’s performance was their last before a highly anticipated homecoming, with a series of their first New Jersey shows since 2008 continuing through tomorrow, Sept. 18.

Saturday’s stacked bill also included appearances from Band of Horses, The Teskey Brothers, The Heavy Heavy, Robert Randolph, Joy Oladokun and more.

On Sunday night, Khruangbin closed out the festival with their simmering, funk and dub-forward brand of psychedelia. The Texan trio’s vast field of sonic influences unfolded through the course of a performance lined with essentials like “May Ninth,” “Todavía Viva,” “August 10,” “Time (You and I)” and “María también.” By popular demand, the group returned for two encores, first featuring “Evan Finds the Third Room” and “People Everywhere (Still Alive)” and finally with “The Infamous Bill” and a ten-year cover of Martin Denny’s exotica classic “Firecracker.”

Elsewhere on Borderland’s final program of the year, attendees caught sets from Bob Marley’s legendary backing band The Wailers, Tramped By Turtles, The 502s, The Tragically Hip, Neighbor and three special tributes to the Grateful Dead, most notably the return of the festival’s traditional Borderland Dead All-Stars supergroup set. As always, given its setting just outside of Buffalo, one of the bigger draws on Sunday was a massive football tailgate that took over the third stage for most of the afternoon. Go Bills.

Get an inside look at Borderland 2025 in the gallery below, courtesy of photographers Jay Blakesberg, Skyler Greene and Dave Decrescente. Learn more about the festival at borderlandfestival.com.