CaveFest Shares 2026 Artist Lineup: Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Peter Rowan and Sam Grisman Project, Keller & The Keels, Rising Appalachia and More
CaveFest, photo by Jay Strausser
CaveFest has set its fifth annual presentation for October 10 and 11. After four unforgettable stagings, the event will once again bring some of the biggest names in bluegrass and folk–including headliners Gillian Welch and David Rawlings and Peter Rowan and Sam Grisman Project–to the overlook and subterranean stage of Grundy County, Tenn.’s scenic The Caverns for a peerless immersive Americana experience.
“CaveFest is my favorite weekend of the year. It’s such a communal weekend, with the camping and fall weather,” says The Caverns owner/founder Todd Mayo. “All the folks come together in celebration of great music—jam-friendly, family-friendly, hippy-friendly, happy-friendly—and there always seems to be such serendipity in the air.”
CaveFest’s full artist lineup boasts 18 acts, to be distributed across the venue’s two stages. The festival’s titanic headliners will assume the spotlight at the spacious Caverns Amphitheater against a backdrop of the scenic Cumberland Plateau. The Caverns’ underground concert hall will provide a side stage for sets from returning favorites like Jim Lauderdale & The Game Changers, Fruition, Lindsay Lou and Scott Miller & The Commonwealth and newcomers like Rising Appalachia, Keller & The Keels, Don Flemons & The Traveling Wildfires and Slay & Stinson. In the reverent spirit of the folk tradition, several acts will present special tribute sets, with Rowan & SGP playing the music of Old & In The Way, repeat artist in residence and “Queen of Cavefest” covering Sublime’s self-titled and Airshow’s twin late-night sets honoring Phish’s Billy Breathes and the late Bob Weir.
Tickets for CaveFest 2025 will become available through a pre-sale on Wednesday, March 25, at 12 p.m. CT; register for access here. General on-sale will follow on Friday, March 27, at 12 p.m. CT. For more information, visit cavefest.com.
