Major independent country mega festival FairWell Fest in Redmond, Oregon will not be returning in 2026. There’s also good indication that it will not be returning at all after first being held in 2023.
But along with putting pressure on Oregon’s established festivals, FairWell Fest was commonly a logistical nightmare. The first year for Zach Bryan’s set, the event was so dramatically oversold, patrons who paid large sums for tickets were pushed to the wings where the sound was very poor. There was also a lack of shade on the fairgrounds site. Traffic after the fest was also a nightmare, with some waiting until after 3:00 am to exit. Some improvements were made in subsequent years. But similar to one of C3 Presents’ other megafest—the Two Step Inn in Georgetown, TX—long lines for entry and for essentials like bathrooms and food resulted in generally disfavorable experiences for exorbitant ticket prices for lineups you couldn’t take in fully due to the three-stage setup. Also in 2025, booking Treaty Oak Revival turned out to be problematic as patrons threw cans at the stage and themselves, and became disruptive according to festival goers. And being in such a remote area, the festival must have been a logistical difficulty for C3 Presents to put on. Big headline names are also harder to come by when it comes to filling out festivals in 2026. Does the end of FairWell Fest mark a dwindling in the vigor for the independent country music universe that it catered to? That’s inclusive at this point. Ultimately, experiences matter, not just lineups and big names. Coming out of the pandemic, people wanted to feel the pulse of large crowds once again. Now as a recessionary economy sets in for America’s young adults, and both older and younger folks are favoring more manageable and laid-back festival experiences, it turns out those smaller but still talent-rich Oregon festivals FairWell Fest threatened or doomed were the ones that had the better approach. – – – – – – –
Highly recommend Jackalope Jamboree. Attended in 2024 and had a blast. Hoping to make it back. Great lineup this year and a festival you can really enjoy the music. Plus beautiful area of the country.
Hope to see everyone at Jackalope Jamboree in 2026! These smaller festivals need to be supported! Got my tickets.
It is festival concert poster season. And Stagecoach Palomino Stage was announced (I guess this the secondary stage at Stagecoach that gets its own poster).
Two things of note: Gavin Adcock and Benjamin Tod sharing the same stage, the same day, separated by 3 artists could be explosive.
And Billy Bob Thornton getting the Boxmasters back together and touring will further add to the speculation he’s leaving Landman and the end of the series. The fate of the show has been in peril since Taylor Sheridan announced he’s leaving Paramount for NBC/Peacock (he starts making movies for NBC/Peacock this year, but TV shows won’t start until 2029 – he gets a few years to wrap up his current shows). And last Sunday, BBT’s character was fired from his job to further fan the flames.
Stoked to hear about this! Hoping to see Wild Hare return in 2027, with Fairwell out of the way.
That 2022 Wild Hare lineup was spectacular.
Though the lineup and sets were outstanding in 2025, FairWell Festival wasn’t a whole lot of fun to attend. It felt way over sold and the lines for everything were unreasonably long. The lack of any useful traffic control made leaving an absolute nightmare.
We’ll continue to support Jackalope Jamboree and other smaller festivals in the PNW.
Maybe Wild Hare will come back! The lineup at FairWell always intrigued me but everything else about the festival was a huge turn off. Including all the info you put out in your write up a few years ago that I didn’t really know about. Good Riddance.
Yeah, I attended last year and it was great to see the lineup but like a lot of folks I ended up waiting three hours to get out of the parking lot. I also stood in line for 60 minutes just to get a canned drink handed to me for $10. And they ran out of food by 5pm. So not shocked at all that it didn’t come back even though they sold a lot of tickets.
Source: savingcountrymusic.com