Healing Appalachia has announced its return in 2026. Staging at Ashland, Ky.’s Boyd County Fairgrounds from Sept. 10-12, the seventh-annual Healing Appalachia will expand the benefit festival to three days after embracing its massive yearly acclaim with a shift to a larger venue last year. The full artist lineup for the festival, which unites giants of country, folk, roots rock, Americana and more in service of recovery and harm reduction for communities facing opioid addiction, has yet to be unveiled.

Though no performers have been confirmed yet for this year’s presentation, it feels safe to assume that the Bluegrass State’s own Tyler Childers will take part again. Childers has topped the bill for Healing Appalachia since its inaugural staging in 2018, and he’s annually reaffirmed his commitment to fighting addiction from personal experience in his headline sets. 

Since its foundation, Healing Appalachia has been the crowning accomplishment in the Hope in the Hills organization’s mission “to produce events that help connect and grow communities of recovery and healing in Appalachia,” per the organization’s site. After the 2023 presentation, which saw the festival’s first-ever three-day program, Hope in the Hills distributed over $450,000 to communities around the region “to combat opioid addiction through a wide array of projects and programs from youth prevention, healthy lifestyles and wellness to recovery houses and recovery to work.” 97 cents of every dollar made from the festival is invested back to the Appalachian community, and to date the festival has had an economic impact of more than $5 million for the region.

Tickets for this year’s Healing Appalachia will go on sale soon. Find more information about Healing Appalachia and this year’s festival at healingappalachia.org.