Festivals
Austin Showed Up, Coca-Cola Sips & Sounds Music Festival Delivered – Recap & Photos
Coca-Cola Sips & Sounds Music Festival
Auditorium Shores
Austin, TX
March 13–14, 2026
Austin felt fully alive before the gates even opened. The city was already deep into SXSW, and that momentum carried straight down to Auditorium Shores where the Coca-Cola Sips & Sounds Music Festival took over the waterfront. There was a brief delay at opening, but once the SXSW Stage came alive aout half an hour later, the weekend snapped into place. The setting did a lot of the work on its own. Open grass stretching toward the lake, the skyline sitting right behind the stage, and a steady back-and-forth of fans moving between two stages that never stayed quiet for long. The festival felt like a natural extension of Austin itself. Add in the fans dressed in red and black to match the festival’s colors, brand activations, and pop-ups scattered across the grounds, and it became clear this was built to sit right alongside the energy of SXSW rather than compete with it. It was just music, people, and a city that already knows how to do both better than most.
DAY ONE
Standout Moments and a Headliner That Delivered
Ravyn Lenae
Ravyn Lenae slowed the entire afternoon down in the best way possible. Hitting the Coca-Cola Stage mid-afternoon, she leaned into a smooth set that felt effortless from the start. Dressed in a striking torn white dress, she let her presence and voice do the work, moving through tracks like “Sticky,” “Xtasy,” and “Bad Idea” with confidence.
Despite the size of the crowd, her set still felt personal. Lenae constantly interacted with fans at the barricade, played to the cameras, and joked about fan requests, gaving her set some warmth. By the time she closed with “Love Me Not,” guiding the crowd into clapping along, she had everyone in the palm of her hand.
Between Friends
Between Friends brought the energy right back, but in a way that felt loose and real. Their set leaned into a kind of playful chaos, with clusters of fans dancing across the lawn and singing louder the second they recognized a song. When they teased “Let’s see if you know this one!” before jumping into “Blushing,” the reaction was instant. It did not feel overly polished, and that worked in their favor. It felt like a live version of the internet culture that built their audience now unfolding in real time across the park.
Major Lazer Soundsystem
Major Lazer Soundsystem shifted the tone of the entire festival as the sun started dropping. With Diplo behind the decks, the Coca-Cola Stage turned into a full-scale party. Neon lights cut across the crowd, bass rolled over the water, and every drop pulled a bigger reaction than the last. When “Lean On” hit, the entire lawn moved at once, stretching all the way back toward the shoreline. You could feel it in the ground and in the way the crowd stopped thinking and just moved.
Grouplove
Grouplove followed with a completely different energy, but it landed just as strong. Their set leaned into the golden hour, bright and unfiltered. At one point, spotting fans floating near the water, they joked about a “shark attack” before jumping back into their set. The crowd fed off that looseness, dancing, laughing, and singing without hesitation as the sky shifted from orange to deep blue. It was the reset everyone needed before the night’s biggest moment.
Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera closed out the night with a performance that reset expectations. She’s one of the best pop divas for a reason! When she stepped on stage just before 8:45 pm, the production scale jumped instantly. Towering lighting rigs, pyro bursts, and full-stage visuals turned the riverfront into something closer to an arena show. Still, none of it took attention away from her voice. Every note cut clean through the park, powerful and controlled in a way that felt rare to witness live. Having seen a lot of performers, it is rare to hear someone command a space like that in real time. The crowd didn’t just watch her perform, they answered back, singing nearly every word. Looking up, the skyline framed the entire performance as fireworks lit up the night.
DAY TWO
A Build Up to One Defining Moment
Flipturn
Flipturn came at the right time in the day, right as the light started to soften and the crowd settled back into the rhythm of the festival. Their set was built gradually, starting with more controlled moments before opening up into bigger sing-along sections that pulled more people closer to the stage. You could see it happening in real time as the crowd tightened and the energy picked up. By the end of the set, the connection between the band and the audience had been established.
Foster the People
Foster the People delivered one of the biggest shared moments of the weekend. By the time they hit the Coca-Cola Stage in the early evening, the lawn was packed and ready, and the reaction started almost instantly once the first familiar hooks came through the speakers. Songs like “Houdini” and “Don’t Stop” had people dancing across the park, turning the entire
Midway through the set, Mark Foster paused to reflect on the band’s early SXSW days, recalling a morning showcase years ago that only drew a handful of people. Standing in front of thousands along the water, the contrast was hard to miss. The story grounded the moment and gave the performance a little more weight than just a run of hits. From there, the band leaned into the energy, stretching songs like “Lost in Space” and “Coming of Age” with extended instrumental sections that let the crowd stay in the groove. field into one loud chorus.
By the time they closed with “Sit Next to Me” and “Pumped Up Kicks,” the entire park had turned into one massive sing-along. The band looked genuinely grateful to be there, and the crowd matched that energy, holding onto every last note as the daylight finally gave way to night.
Calvin Harris
By the time evening hit, the conversation across the grounds had already shifted. Everyone was talking about one thing: Calvin Harris. You could hear it walking through the crowd and see it in the way people started moving closer to the main stage earlier than usual. People did want to miss this set.
When Calvin Harris finally came on it felt like the entire festival compressed into one space. The grounds were packed to the brim from the barricade all the way back; it was shoulder to shoulder with barely any room to move. He turned the entire park into a full-scale dance floor and easily delivered the defining set of the weekend. From the moment he stepped on, the energy climbed fast and never really let up. He pulled from a deep catalogue of dance records, reworking familiar tracks like “Sweet Nothing” and “How Deep Is Your Love” so they hit differently in a live setting. Each drop felt bigger than the last, building on itself as the crowd locked into the rhythm.
What made the set land was how unified everything felt. The space from the barricade to the back of the lawn moved together, but it never felt chaotic. There was room to dance, room to breathe, and a crowd that was fully there for the music. It felt less like separate groups and more like one steady wave moving under the skyline.
As the set pushed toward the end, the production followed. Lights swept across the park, fireworks lit up the skyline, and the final run of songs stretched the moment as long as possible. Closing with a nod to Avicii’s “Levels,” Harris sent the crowd out on a high. In a city that leans heavily toward guitars and indie acts, it was good to be reminded of how powerful a full-scale dance set can be when everything lines up.
Coca-Cola Sips & Sounds Music Festival got the right moments right, and when it did, it landed in a way that stuck. Between rising artists finding new audiences, headliners delivering on a massive scale, and a setting that never stopped working in its favor, it carved out its own place in a city that already has no shortage of music.
Stay updated for what’s coming next on the festival’s website.
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Photo Credit: Sidney Robinson, unless otherwise noted.
Festivals
Boots And Hearts Music Festival 2026 – Recap & Photos
Three Days at Boots and Hearts 2026
Boots and Hearts turned 15 this year, and it celebrated the milestone by doing something it had never done before: handing the Friday night headline slot to a pop-rock band. Over three days at Burl’s Creek Event Grounds in Oro-Medonte, the bill ran from a Canada’s own Brett Kissel, to Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas closing it out and the festival’s willingness to stretch its own definition of “country” made for one of the more interesting lineups Boots and Hearts has put together.
The Emerging Artist Showcase: Leah Holtom Takes the Crown
Every Boots and Hearts weekend starts the same way: with the artists on the verge of making their breakthrough. The Emerging Artist Showcase has been a launching pad for Canadian country talent since 2012, with alumni like Josh Ross, Owen Riegling, and The Reklaws all having come through its ranks, and this year’s crop of eight finalists, Landon Bedor, Connor Eller, Leah Holtom, Taylor Jensen, Laila, The Mainlanders, Jackson Klippenstein, and YASSiN & Sean Terrio, was picked from a nationwide field.
Leah Holtom, a singer-songwriter from Brampton, Ontario, took the title, earning the showcase’s grand prize: a $10,000 cash award, a single release through Universal Music Canada, artist development sessions with RLive Management, a Gibson J-45 guitar and VIP trip to the Gibson Garage in Nashville, and a guaranteed slot on the 2027 Boots and Hearts bill.
Friday: Redefining a Country Music Headliner
Once the showcase wrapped, Friday’s card kept climbing. School House, last year’s Emerging Artist Showcase winners, played an early tent set that doubled as a nice piece of festival continuity, a reminder of what a showcase win can turn into twelve months later. The group leaned into each other mid-riff, all matching earthy-toned outfits and genuine grins, the kind of loose, unchoreographed chemistry that only shows up once a band has actually logged real stage time together.
Dasha, backlit against a clear afternoon sky in a metallic mesh top, mic in one hand, arms thrown wide, hair catching the wind on nearly every chorus, was the first to take the main stage. It was a performance built for spectacle, and the crowd around the rail thickened visibly between her first song and her last.
Emily Ann Roberts hit the Front Porch Stage in a ruffled pink dress, at one point swinging a hand-painted acoustic overhead mid-song, an unscripted, joyful moment that summed up her set well.
Brett Kissel kept the homegrown-Canadian thread running and brought the most physical energy of the day’s tent sets, leaping mid-air with his acoustic strapped on, hat staying perfectly in place, fiddle player and full band filling out the stage behind him through a haze of backlit smoke.
By the time Russell Dickerson took the main stage as the sun started to drop, the production had scaled up to match the evening slot: smoke jets framing him on both sides of the stage, a massive LED screen behind reading “RUSSLEMANIA,” and a crowd already thick with raised phones and cowboy hats.
Then came the Jonas Brothers, marking their first-ever country festival booking and the clearest sign yet of how far Boots and Hearts was willing to push the definition of “country” for the festival’s 15th anniversary. The walk-out alone was a highlight: Kevin, Joe, and Nick emerging as three backlit silhouettes inside a single spotlight before a note played, all denim and sunglasses, letting the crowd’s reaction build on its own. From there the set leaned hard into nostalgia and full arena-scale staging, Nick working the runway in a denim jacket and red bandana, one arm thrown out to the crowd mid-line; Kevin mid-kick further down the stage in a camel blazer, white Gibson Les Paul in hand. “Burnin’ Up,” “S.O.S.,” “Sucker,” “Lovebug,” and “Cool” all made the cut, punctuated by a hometown-storytelling interlude from each brother that slowed the pace just enough to reset the field before the next run of hits.
What made the set work wasn’t just the hits, though, it was the crowd. Cowboy hats and boy-band-era t-shirts sharing the same frame is not a combination Boots and Hearts sees often, and the contrast between the afternoon’s Kissel sing-alongs and the Jonas Brothers‘ shriek-along choruses said more about the festival’s evolving audience than any lineup announcement did.
Saturday: Rising Names and a Country Institution
Saturday was about pedigree, the festival shifting back toward its traditional base with a lineup that built from developing acts into a genuine legacy headliner. The day opened with The Jack Wharff Band, and Thelma & James, the duo of Jake Etheridge and MacKenzie Porter, whose harmonies gave the smaller afternoon crowd something worth arriving early for.
The afternoon’s real momentum came from the pairing of Waylon Wyatt and Sam Barber, both still building their national profiles but drawing crowds that had clearly done their homework, a noticeably younger cluster near the pit for both sets, phones out for the newer material rather than the deep cuts. Barber’s set in particular had a rawer, more stripped-down energy that stood in contrast to almost everything else on the day’s bill.
Jessie Murph took the back half of the evening and brought the energy up a full register. Her distinct voice, genre bending style of country, pop and rap had the crowd wanting more.
The Chicks closed out the day, a booking that needed no explaining to anyone. A genuinely generation-spanning crowd sang along to a catalogue that predates most of the rest of the weekend’s bill, a different atmosphere than the night before: fewer collective shrieks, more quiet, full-throated reverence, and a crowd that seemed to know instinctively when to go loud and when to just listen.
Sunday: Rascal Flatts Closes the Weekend
By the third day, the physical toll of the weekend was visible but it did not stop the party. Sunday’s undercard kept building steadily through the afternoon: Mitch Zorn and Savannah Jade opened things up early on the Front Porch Stage, part of the same wave of rising Canadian names spotlighted all weekend.
James Barker Band then made their long-awaited return to the Main Stage. Kaitlin Butts and Ashley Cooke carried the mid-afternoon, each pulling a noticeably engaged crowd despite the heat. Max McNown and Tucker Wetmore closed out the support slots as everyone prepared for the closer.
Rascal Flatts brought the weekend full circle, closing the festival the way it opened, with a name synonymous with a specific era of country music. The set leaned on the hits, and this was a crowd that already knew every word before the first chorus landed. The late setting sun gave way to a stage lit for a true arena-scale finale, a fitting bookend to a festival that had spent three days proving it could scale up in either direction, pop or legacy country, without losing its own identity.
A crowd that had given the festival three full days and had just enough left for one last singalong before the walk back to the campground.
The Bigger Picture
What stood out most across the weekend wasn’t any single set, it was how deliberately Boots and Hearts used its 15th anniversary to widen its own lane. Celebrating a rookie showcase winner like Leah Holtom with an established crossover act like the Jonas Brothers, on the same three-day bill as The Chicks and Rascal Flatts, made for a festival that is a statement about where country music’s audience actually lives now.
Head to our Facebook page for the full galleries of Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3!
All Photo Credit: Kieran Delport
Festivals
KATSEYE, XG, Dabin.Kr and More Perform at Head In The Clouds Music Festival 2026
Fans Brave High Temps to Catch KATSEYE, XG and More at Head In The Clouds Music Festival
88 Rising’s Head in the Clouds returned to Pasadena’s Brookside at the Rose Bowl on August 8, 2026. The festival, a celebration of Asian music, brought global superstars XG, KATSEYE, rapper Dabin.Kr, Indonesian pop group no na, K-pop group LNGSHOT and more to the Los Angeles stage.
The festival, beginning in 2018, and spanning across Los Angeles, New York and Indonesia has made some changes over the years, this year’s bringing a stark contrast to years prior. Normally a two day Los Angeles festival, its usual large stages including catwalks with three dimensional stage design (usually featuring their mascot CLO), and large photo op installations were now condensed to one day, a rather barren main stage and a lonely bus as a photo op. As most people packed tightly toward the main stage, it left much of the festival grounds uncovered. The Music Den stage lay tucked away in a corner, where if you didn’t know it was there you could easily miss it.
As doors opened at 1PM, fans raced across the festival grounds to secure a spot at the barricade. Japanese boy group ONE OR EIGHT opened the festival, also promptly at 1PM, leaving many who were there to see the group either miss their ten-minute set entirely or arrive late to the stage. The group, consisting of Souma, Mizuki, Tsubasa, Reia, Ryota, Takeru, Yuga, and Neo rode full speed into hit hip-hop track “TOKYO DRIFT,” and their latest release “YANKEE SQUAT.”
Get on the angok! With another vehicular hit, Indonesian girl group no na hyped the crowd with dance-pop “honk!” off their upcoming full length album, island girl. LNGSHOT made their way through the crowd, exciting fans who had been waiting all day to see them – many sporting hand made signs and curated outfits dedicated to their favorite members. Though just rookies, the four member group, produced by Jay Park, has taken global audiences by storm with tracks like “Moonwalkin” and “Saucin’.”
With high anticipation, Dabin.Kr, previously known as DPR Live, took the stage. “Tonight, you’re meeting Dabin.Kr” he told the crowd. Just as the sun was beginning to set, Dabin opened up to the audience about the struggles he has faced the last several years and his journey of starting over, stating “a lot of us here right now, are still trying to figure ourselves out.”
“Who’s still sleeping on XG?” asks the global group before launching into their hit track “WOKE UP.” Seven member Japanese group XG turned HITC into their very own mini concert. Appearing atop a large scaffolding set and accompanied by a full band, the group performed songs like dance track “GALA,” and slower hip-hop number “PS118” before closing with a rock-infused version of “SHOOTING STAR.”
Who knew HITC was for kids? Many children filled the audience, their parents bringing them to risk heat stroke to catch a glimpse of their favorite girl group KATSEYE. With scorching temperatures and packed crowds, (the festival needed to provide free water to attendees, many stationed in large ice buckets just to keep it cool) along with people passing out left and right, this seemed like a less than ideal space for children. Many parents took off like Olympic sprinters, children in tow, to sardine themselves into the already tightly stuffed crowd as soon as XG left the stage. Many fans were visibly frustrated as parents tossed their children up on their shoulders, blocking the view of fans who had waited all day in the blazing sun to secure their spot earlier in the day.
KATSEYE, performing as four, opened with upbeat “Pinky Up!” before launching into 2024 debut release “Debut.” It’s hard to believe the group has only been around for two years, as they’ve amassed a worldwide fandom and have become a household name in a short time. Marking their second time as festival headliners were members Lara, Yoonchae, Megan and Daniela. Just several days prior, Sophia announced she would be on hiatus from the group to focus on mental health. The announcement follows Manon’s announced hiatus from the group back in February. Will she ever come back? We may honestly never know.
KATSEYE closed out the festival with viral sensation “GNARLY,” full dance break included.
A day full of music, art and culture concluded on an explosive high. With a diverse lineup, audiences were left adding new songs to their queues and left singing some of their favorites. Packed exits and lengthy chaotic parking lines left fans with plenty of time to relive the memories they made throughout the day.
Check out our favourite photos of the day below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
KATSEYE
XG
DABIN.KR
LNGSHOT
TIFFANY DAY
KIIKII
NO NA
WARREN HUE
BE:FIRST
FESTIVAL
All Photo Credit: Rebecca Rowe / @rowetookthese