Borderland 2026 Lineup

About Borderland 2026

Borderland spends three days on a state-park horse farm in East Aurora, fifteen minutes southeast of Buffalo, and books like a festival that knows exactly who is driving out to it. Knox Farm's meadows hold three stages, the whole bill fits on one page, and the 2026 headline slots go to Alabama Shakes on Friday, Jack White on Saturday and Lord Huron on Sunday, with Pixies taking the hour before Jack White. Around them sits the roots-and-indie middle the festival has always been good at: Jesse Welles, The Head and the Heart, St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Shovels & Rope, Leftover Salmon and Rebirth Brass Band.

The other half of the bill is Western New York. Uncle Ben's Remedy, Olmsted Dub System, Witty Tarbox, The Rollin' Rust, Folkfaces and Battle of the Borderland winner VOYAGR all play the two smaller stages, and the Split-Rail Stage runs tribute sets by local bands: Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, the Grateful Dead, the 80s and a Killers-to-Strokes indie hour. Friday's main-stage curveball is moe.organ Fairchild, a Bob Weir tribute built from members of moe. and Buffalo's Organ Fairchild. The Brass Machine second-lines through the set breaks all three days, so the gaps in your schedule are not really gaps.

Expect indie folk, folk, funk and indie rock across 38 acts.

Lineup last updated August 29, 2026

The headliners

• Alabama Shakes — Brittany Howard's voice is the whole argument — southern soul-rock that sounds like it was recorded in a room too small for it.
• Jack White — The White Stripes' architect, still committed to analog friction — old amps, unrehearsed setlists, and a guitar tone like a blown speaker.
• Lord Huron — Cinematic Los Angeles folk rock built on Ben Schneider's reverb-soaked storytelling and a running mythology of doomed romance.

Up-and-comers to catch early

• VOYAGR — Buffalo indie-folk act, 2026 Battle of the Borderland winner, and the first band on Friday's main stage.
• Mon Rovîa — Afro-Appalachian folk from a Liberian-born, Chattanooga-raised songwriter; the quietest set that will hold a full field.
• Arcy Drive — Long Island indie rock with hooks built for a crowd twice the size of the Homespun tent.
• Chance Peña — A billion streams deep and still writing like a man alone in a room.
• Clay Street Unit — High-speed bluegrass with a jam-forward streak; a good reason to be on site early Sunday afternoon.
• Folkfaces — Buffalo folk-and-roots regulars who open Sunday, and the earliest set worth setting an alarm for.

Other acts worth planning around

• Pixies — Forty years in, an hour before Jack White, playing the loud-quiet-loud template they wrote.
• The Head and the Heart — Sunday's late-afternoon singalong, and the set most of the field will already know the words to.
• Jesse Welles — One man, one guitar and a stack of songs about the news; Friday's main-stage bet on writing over volume.
• St. Paul and the Broken Bones — An eight-piece Alabama soul revue that treats a Sunday afternoon like a tent revival.
• moe.organ Fairchild — A Bob Weir tribute assembled from moe. and Buffalo's Organ Fairchild, and a Friday one-off that will not tour.
• Shovels & Rope — Two people, four instruments and more racket than the Homespun tent is built for.
• Rebirth Brass Band — The New Orleans standard-bearer, and the Saturday set most likely to turn the tent into a parade.
• Leftover Salmon — Thirty-plus years of slamgrass, closing out the Homespun stage on Sunday.

The lineup by day

Jump to: Friday · Saturday · Sunday

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