Colorado's original slamgrass band, three decades of bluegrass picking spliced with Cajun, zydeco and jam-band sprawl.
BluegrassJam
World of Bluegrass 2026 Lineup
Bluegrass's own convention week in Chattanooga: 31 showcase bands across seven downtown rooms, then a two-night festival with Sierra Ferrell and Leftover Salmon.
World of Bluegrass is expected back October 2027 (dates aren't announced yet). Until then, here's the full 2026 lineup and the acts you would have loved.
Find the acts you'll love at World of Bluegrass
Name a few bands you love and we'll scout all 42 acts on the World of Bluegrass bill for the ones you shouldn't miss.
Get notified when World of Bluegrass announces 2027 dates
Free account: we'll email you when it's out, and your saved festivals follow you to every device.
About World of Bluegrass 2026
World of Bluegrass is the genre's convention week, and 2026 is its second year in Chattanooga after more than a decade in Raleigh. Five days, four events, and two of them are what a music fan actually buys a ticket for: the Bluegrass Ramble on October 20 and 21, then IBMA Bluegrass Live! on October 23 and 24. Sierra Ferrell and Leftover Salmon top the festival weekend.
The Ramble is the deeper bill by a wide margin. Thirty showcase bands, picked by application, work seven downtown rooms across two nights, and all but one of them plays twice. This is the working end of the genre rather than its marquee: Missy Raines & Allegheny, The Slocan Ramblers, The Price Sisters, Wood Box Heroes. Veranda, a Quebec band singing in French and English, joins them on IBMA's international band grant.
Buy carefully, because the halves are sold apart. A Ramble pass is $30 for one night or $55 for both. Bluegrass Live! runs on its own weekend pass, and the 37th IBMA Awards on October 22 is a third ticket again. Saturday brings Pickin' in the Park at Miller Park, free and open to anyone, with a lineup IBMA has not published.
Expect bluegrass, country, americana and folk across 42 acts.
At a glance
- Dates
- –Tuesday to Saturday, five days
- Where
- Downtown Chattanooga, TN
- Lineup
- 42 acts
- Website
- Official site
World of Bluegrass 2026 lineup & schedule: all 42 acts
Search it, filter by day, stage or genre.Browse all 42 acts
Search it, filter by day, stage or genre.
West Virginia's gilded-age songbird: old-time, calypso, and honky-tonk swirled into something timeless, delivered in vintage lace and total command.
AmericanaOld-time
Lindsay Lou Presents Bluegrass Women
Americana
Chattanooga-area bluegrass band founded by Eric and August Bruce, now with their daughter on mandolin and a book of original songs.
Country
Indiana fiddler with a stack of IBMA player-of-the-year trophies, known for ferocious bow speed and a tone built on Kentucky contest-style playing.
Bluegrass
Fronted by the fiddler who spent decades in the Del McCoury Band and the Travelin' McCourys, now singing lead over his own arrangements.
Bluegrass
Chicago bluegrass institution founded by banjo player Greg Cahill in the mid-1970s, with generations of players passing through the lineup since.
Country
Bluegrass singer and guitarist who joined the Clinch Mountain Boys as a teenager and has fronted the Lonesome Ramblers ever since. A dark, unhurried baritone and lead lines with blues in them.
Bluegrass
Chattanooga banjo player and songwriter with a band that leans as much on original writing as on the traditional canon.
Country
String band built around fiddler Kimber Ludiker, with a touring history that has taken their bluegrass through State Department cultural exchange trips abroad.
Bluegrass
Long-running bluegrass outfit anchored by banjoist Sammy Shelor, with a hard-driving band sound and stacked vocal trios.
Country
Iowa Americana duo of Chad Elliott and Kathryn Severing Fox, trading guitar, harmonica, fiddle and mandolin under close two-part harmonies.
Americana
Montréal duo playing bluegrass, classic country and folk, with original songs in French and English and Québec tradition worked in.
Country
Progressive bluegrass quartet built around brothers Tashi and Kaj Litch of Washington's San Juan Islands, mixing originals, traditional tunes and folk covers.
Country
Eastern Kentucky bandleader with one of the biggest voices in bluegrass, leaning on gospel phrasing and hard-country ballads.
Tennessee old-time trio swapping banjo, fiddle, mandolin and guitar on traditional songs, with high lonesome harmony and a loose, raucous edge.
Traditional folk
Shanghai string band led by mandolinist Pang Zhipeng, setting bluegrass picking against Mongolian folk melody and Chinese traditional tunes.
East Tennessee band built around Mulder's mandolin and a hard-driving traditional sound, honed on the tourist-town circuit near the Smokies.
Bluegrass
Australian singer who relocated to Nashville, applying country phrasing to hard-driving bluegrass bands.
Country
Rhode Island bluegrass five-piece of New England veterans, singing tight harmonies over originals, old country songs and tunes borrowed from other genres.
Bluegrass
Twin sisters from Ohio playing mandolin and fiddle in the older bluegrass style, with the kind of sibling harmony that only comes one way.
Country
Wisconsin bluegrass band led by Washington-raised mandolinist and singer Nick Dumas, formerly of Special Consensus, with his wife Hana on fiddle.
Bluegrass band built around Cook's lead vocals, working the traditional end of the form with a full acoustic five-piece behind her.
Denver bluegrass five-piece that keeps the high lonesome sound while working in Middle Eastern melodies, Cajun rhythms and group improvisation.
Country
Fort Collins acoustic band led by Wood Belly cofounder Chris Weist, taking that band's original songs back to straight bluegrass.
Bluegrass
Toronto trio playing old-time repertoire with clawhammer banjo and fiddle locked tight, arrangements stripped back to what three players can hold.
Americana
Tennessee family bluegrass band built on parents and daughters singing tight harmony, with gospel and fiddle tunes in the mix.
Bluegrass
Mo Pitney and John Meyer's bluegrass duo, born out of a sold-out Nashville residency at the Station Inn and built on two-part harmony and old-school picking.
Country
Nashville bluegrass trio led by songwriter Erinn Peet Lukes, with fiddle, banjo and three-part harmony carrying her original songs.
Country
Toronto bluegrass band with a banjo-forward attack and a repertoire that leans on old-time and traditional material taken at speed.
Folk
Alameda, California string band led by brothers Miles and Teo Quale on fiddle and mandolin, playing bluegrass alongside Dawg music, jazz and originals.
Country
South Korean string band playing bluegrass, carrying banjo-and-mandolin picking and high harmony a long way from the music's Appalachian home.
Bluegrass
Guitarist and singer who spent years in the Special Consensus lineup before stepping out front with his own writing.
Bluegrass
Comedy bluegrass act performing as a backwoods family band, translating current pop and rock hits into banjo and mandolin arrangements delivered deadpan.
Country
A duo pairing the Wood & Wire frontman with the Greencards mandolinist, two Texas-connected pickers trading songs in a stripped-back acoustic setting.
Bassist turned bandleader, writing songs that sit between bluegrass and older mountain music and singing them herself.
Bluegrass
Western North Carolina bluegrass band fronted by mandolinist and singer Nick Chandler, rooted in three-part harmony and gospel beginnings.
Bluegrass
Nashville acoustic band of veteran touring and session players, bluegrass at the core with country, blues and jazz in Josh Martin's songs.
Country
Rotating cast of Nashville players working through the hundreds of fiddle tunes Hartford wrote in his notebooks and never recorded.
Los Angeles punk-rock bluegrass band that plays traditional bluegrass at breakneck speed and reworks punk songs for banjo and fiddle.
Folk
Durango, Colorado string trio pulling blues and Texas swing into their bluegrass, with all three players sharing the songwriting and the lead vocals.
Americana
Son of Ralph Stanley, fronting the band name his father carried for half a century. A hard lead voice built for the old mountain repertoire.
Bluegrass
The headliners
Leftover Salmon · Colorado's original slamgrass band, three decades of bluegrass picking spliced with Cajun, zydeco and jam-band sprawl. Two sets on the Friday, decades into inventing jamgrass.
Sierra Ferrell · West Virginia's gilded-age songbird: old-time, calypso, and honky-tonk swirled into something timeless, delivered in vintage lace and total command. The one name here that sells out rooms far outside bluegrass.
Up-and-comers to catch early
Veranda · Quebec bluegrass in two languages, in the States on IBMA's international grant.
Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band · Fiddle and mandolin brothers from Alameda leading a four-piece that runs from bluegrass into Dawg music and jazz.
The Price Sisters · Ohio siblings holding the hard traditional line.Country Gongbang · South Korea's first bluegrass band, and the first Korean act to play the Opry.
Wood Belly String Band · Colorado newgrass that won the Telluride band competition.
Other acts worth planning around
Larry Sparks · First-generation lonesome, still delivered exactly as written.
Michael Cleveland & Friends · The most decorated fiddler in the format, playing loose.
Missy Raines & Allegheny · Ten times IBMA's bass player of the year, out front with her own band.
The Cleverlys · Bluegrass covers of pop songs, played straight enough to work twice.
The lineup by day
Tuesday lineup (October 20)
Country Gongbang, Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band, Dave Adkins & Mountain Soul, Kristy Cox, Lonesome Ace Stringband, Missy Raines & Allegheny + 21 more
Tuesday set times (31 sets)
- Weary Ramblers · Convention Center, Mountain Stage
- Veranda · Convention Center, River Stage & Songbirds
- The Litch Brothers · Barrelhouse Ballroom
- Dave Adkins & Mountain Soul · Convention Center, Mountain Stage
- Pickers Anonymous · Hi-Fi Clyde's & Convention Center, River Stage
- NEWGRASSLANDS · Songbirds
- Seth Mulder & Midnight Run · Convention Center, River Stage & Hi-Fi Clyde's
- Kristy Cox · Stratus Rooftop at Caption
- Rock Hearts · Feed Table & Tavern
- The Price Sisters · Barrelhouse Ballroom
- Nick Dumas & Branchline · Convention Center, Mountain Stage
- The Amanda Cook Band · Convention Center, River Stage
- Tonewood String Band · Hi-Fi Clyde's
- Wood Belly String Band · Songbirds
- Lonesome Ace Stringband · Stratus Rooftop at Caption
- Williamson Branch · Convention Center, Mountain Stage
- Pitney Meyer · Feed Table & Tavern & Convention Center, River Stage
- Thunder and Rain · Barrelhouse Ballroom
- The Slocan Ramblers · Convention Center, Mountain Stage
- Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band · Convention Center, River Stage
- Country Gongbang · Stratus Rooftop at Caption
- Rick Faris Band · Feed Table & Tavern
- The Cleverlys · Barrelhouse Ballroom
- Tony Kamel & Kym Warner · Convention Center, Mountain Stage
- Missy Raines & Allegheny · Convention Center, River Stage
- Nick Chandler & Delivered · Convention Center, Mountain Stage
- Wood Box Heroes · Convention Center, River Stage
Wednesday lineup (October 21)
Country Gongbang, Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band, Dave Adkins & Mountain Soul, John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project, Kristy Cox, Lonesome Ace Stringband + 21 more
Wednesday set times (30 sets)
- John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project · Convention Center, Mountain Stage & Songbirds
- Water Tower · Convention Center, River Stage & Stratus Rooftop at Caption
- Wood Box Heroes · Stratus Rooftop at Caption
- Kristy Cox · Convention Center, Mountain Stage
- Nick Dumas & Branchline · Hi-Fi Clyde's
- Dave Adkins & Mountain Soul · Songbirds
- Stillhouse Junkies · Convention Center, River Stage & Barrelhouse Ballroom
- Ralph Stanley II & The Clinch Mountain Boys · Barrelhouse Ballroom
- Nick Chandler & Delivered · Feed Table & Tavern
- Wood Belly String Band · Convention Center, Mountain Stage
- Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band · Stratus Rooftop at Caption
- Rock Hearts · Convention Center, River Stage
- Weary Ramblers · Hi-Fi Clyde's
- Tony Kamel & Kym Warner · Songbirds
- The Amanda Cook Band · Barrelhouse Ballroom
- Thunder and Rain · Convention Center, Mountain Stage
- Missy Raines & Allegheny · Feed Table & Tavern
- Rick Faris Band · Convention Center, River Stage
- The Slocan Ramblers · Hi-Fi Clyde's
- Tonewood String Band · Convention Center, Mountain Stage
- NEWGRASSLANDS · Convention Center, River Stage
- Williamson Branch · Feed Table & Tavern
- The Litch Brothers · Convention Center, Mountain Stage
- The Price Sisters · Convention Center, River Stage
- The Cleverlys · Convention Center, Mountain Stage
- Country Gongbang · Convention Center, River Stage
- Lonesome Ace Stringband · Convention Center, River Stage
Friday lineup (October 23)
Leftover Salmon, Barefoot Nellie & Co., Jason Carter Band, Lindsay Lou Presents Bluegrass Women, Michael Cleveland & Friends
Friday set times (6 sets)
- Lindsay Lou Presents Bluegrass Women · Chattanooga Convention Center
- Leftover Salmon · Chattanooga Convention Center & The Signal
- Barefoot Nellie & Co. · Stratus Rooftop at Caption
- Michael Cleveland & Friends · The Signal
- Jason Carter Band · Barrelhouse Ballroom
Saturday lineup (October 24)
Sierra Ferrell, Della Mae, Larry Sparks, Lonesome River Band, Randy Steele & High Cold Wind, Special Consensus
Saturday set times (6 sets)
- Special Consensus · Chattanooga Convention Center
- Larry Sparks · Chattanooga Convention Center
- Randy Steele & High Cold Wind · 50/50 Wine + Martini Bar
- Della Mae · The Signal
- Sierra Ferrell · The Signal
- Lonesome River Band · Barrelhouse Ballroom
World of Bluegrass 2026 lineup FAQ
When is IBMA World of Bluegrass 2026?
October 20–24, 2026, across venues in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Is the Ramble on the same ticket as the festival?
No, and this is the thing to get right. The Bluegrass Ramble on October 20–21 sells its own pass at $30 a night or $55 for both. IBMA Bluegrass Live! on October 23–24 runs on a separate weekend pass, and the IBMA Awards on October 22 is a third ticket.
What is the Bluegrass Ramble?
Two nights of showcase sets in seven downtown rooms, from the Chattanooga Convention Center to Songbirds, Hi-Fi Clyde's and the Stratus rooftop. Thirty bands earn a slot by application and nearly all of them play both nights, so a pass is closer to a club crawl than a festival.
Who headlines IBMA Bluegrass Live! 2026?
Sierra Ferrell closes Saturday at The Signal and Leftover Salmon plays twice on Friday. Larry Sparks, Special Consensus, Della Mae, Michael Cleveland & Friends and Lindsay Lou's Bluegrass Women revue fill out the two days, with Jason Carter Band and Lonesome River Band on late night at Barrelhouse.
How many acts play across the week?
42 across both ticketed halves: 31 on the Ramble and 11 on Bluegrass Live!. Pickin' in the Park adds a free Saturday bill of college bands, Kids on Bluegrass groups and local Chattanooga acts that IBMA has not yet named.
Is any of it free?
Pickin' in the Park is. It runs Saturday, October 24 at Miller Park and Miller Plaza with no ticket or entry requirement, and it includes the Next Generation Stage for youth and college bands.
How do I find the acts I'd have liked?
Type a few artists you love into the finder at the top of this page. It matches them against this lineup and explains each pick.
When is World of Bluegrass 2027?
World of Bluegrass is expected back in October 2027; the festival has not announced the 2027 dates yet. The 2026 lineup stays on this page until it does.
Festivals like World of Bluegrass
More festivals
Festivals in October 2026Music festivals in TennesseeMore Bluegrass festivalsMore Country festivalsMore Folk and Americana festivalsFull festival calendar