The rhythm-guitar machine of Vulfpeck fame — relentlessly upbeat, impossibly tight funk with a horn-powered live band and a clinic's worth of right-hand technique.
Hopscotch 2026 Lineup
Three days, eight stages, and a lineup built for discovery in downtown Raleigh.
Hopscotch is expected back September 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 Hopscotch
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About Hopscotch 2026
Hopscotch has been Raleigh's music-obsessive holiday since 2010: three September nights where downtown becomes a walkable festival, with one big outdoor stage at City Plaza and six clubs, from the Lincoln Theatre down to Slim's, running sets deep past midnight. Moore Square, the second main stage in past years, goes free and daytime this time with a slate of Triangle acts. The afternoons belong to the day parties: more than thirty free shows from Wednesday through Sunday in breweries, record stores, and the same bars, no wristband needed. The local scene turns out in force for them, and by Saturday the whole downtown is running on festival time.
The lineup is classic Hopscotch, 102 acts where the top of the bill is only half the story. Headliners bring the funk, pop, and alt-rock firepower, but the festival's soul is in the club shows: avant-garde legends, cumbia pioneers, screamo upstarts, and half the North Carolina underground sharing the same three blocks. If your favorite festival memory is stumbling into a life-changing set by a band you'd never heard of at 1 a.m., this is your weekend.
Expect indie rock, hip-hop, post-punk and funk across 102 acts.
Hopscotch 2026 lineup & schedule: all 102 acts
Search it, filter by day, stage or genre. Save anything straight to your schedule.Browse all 102 acts →
Search it, filter by day, stage or genre. Save anything straight to your schedule.
Self-described "western space grunge" — heavy alt-rock riffs colliding with red-dirt country swagger, breaking out off the viral hit Sad in Carolina.
Swaggering queer pop-rock auteur — torch-song vocals, glam guitar, and arena-sized hooks about messy love, '1950' still the calling card.
Beloved and long-dormant Philly emo pioneers back from reunion — noodly twinkling guitars, yelped vocals, and pure basement-show joy that a whole generation of Midwest-emo revivalists learned from.
Loud, cathartic fuzz-pop — diaristic verses that detonate into grunge-sized choruses built for shouting along, live-wire energy that made her a word-of-mouth favorite.
Richmond's garage-jazz five-piece fusing '70s fusion, boom-bap, and P-funk into a loose, heavy groove — a rhythm section that could back anyone and chooses to lead.
Pro Era producer-turned-rapper — smoky, soulful East Coast beats under unhurried, writerly bars, in the lineage that runs from Dilla to Earl.
Nicaraguan-American songwriter whose four-track tape songs drift like intercepted signals — intimate, hiss-wrapped folk experiments with an instant cult following.
Genre-fluid alt-rap showman blending funk, punk energy, and silky R&B into one of the most danceable live sets in hip-hop.
Young Chicago trio channeling '80s–'90s indie — deadpan harmonies over jangling guitar pop, Sonic Youth homework turned into something their own.
Brooklyn collective throwing a cosmic dance party — garage grit, fuzzed-out disco shimmer, and deep-groove psychedelia from a many-limbed live band.
Savannah sludge-psych institution — dual drummers, buzzsaw riffs, and swirling psychedelia, returned from a long hiatus with the heaviness intact.
Grammy-winning Miami bassist for Pitbull and Lauryn Hill fronting his own band — country twang filtered through Caribbean roots and island-funk muscle.
Hazy, hypnotic psych-folk turned scrappy indie rock — languid fingerpicking that boils over into loose-limbed guitar jams, Nashville cool with no Nashville gloss.
Legendary Peruvian cumbia amazónica band since 1973 — hypnotic surf-guitar jungle grooves that invented a genre and still fill any floor offered.
The Sahara's most electrifying guitarist in a rare stripped-down solo set — hypnotic Tuareg desert blues up close, no amplifier wall required.
Dual-frontwoman indie rock that lovingly resurrects '90s alternative — big fuzzy hooks, deadpan cool, and twin guitar harmonies built for radio that no longer exists.
Prolific DC rapper-producer whose warm, jazz-laced boom-bap and live band Good Compny make thinking-person's rap groove — craft over hype, always.
Steve Okonski of Durand Jones & The Indications leads a dusty, late-night soul-jazz piano trio on Colemine Records — Guaraldi warmth after hours.
Brooklyn artist once known as Memo Boy — surreal, quietly emotional experimental pop that turned vocal on his album Peanut.
French-American duo making tropical space-age pop — retro-futurist synths, bossa rhythms, and candy-colored melodies, a lounge on a space station.
Wiry garage-punk provocateur — caustic wit, scuzzy riffs, and restless reinvention from record to record, never the same band twice.
Sasami Ashworth, the classically trained horn player and former Cherry Glazerr synth player, who followed hushed indie rock with an album of nu-metal heaviness and then a turn to widescreen pop.
Diaristic indie rock that pairs '90s alt guitar crunch with unguarded, quietly devastating songwriting — Sophie Allison's ache in high fidelity.
Philly's ferocious hardcore standard-bearers — blistering screamo velocity spliced with hip-hop and biting political fury, critical darlings for good reason.
Fugazi's rhythm section plus guitar wizard Anthony Pirog, joined by saxophone titan James Brandon Lewis — post-hardcore muscle meets free-jazz flight.
East LA souldies revivalists — slow-burning, string-laden Chicano soul straight out of the lowrider-oldies tradition, dedicated to the slow dance.
Laid-back Alabama five-piece riding breezy, groove-forward indie rock — sun-baked guitars and easy falsetto hooks, Muscle Shoals-region ease in a new generation.
ÄLÄGATOR
Amelia Riggs
Anne-Claire
Argentinian-rooted North Carolina singer weaving jazz, soul, gospel, disco, and Latin folk into empowered, anything-can-happen live shows — a genuine one-of-one on any bill.
Ex-Kominas collaborators Sunny Ali and Karna Ray splicing punk's playful cynicism with country's earnest simplicity — deadpan cowpunk with real bite under the twang.
Beer-soaked NYC synth-punk — gain-cranked, neck-twisting party tunes with sugary earworm hooks buried deep in the scuzz, built for sweaty basement abandon.
Riot-grrrl-lineage garage punk out of Durham — fast, funny, furious feminist anthems, loud and economical, that won over Kathleen Hanna herself.
Guitarist Chris Forsyth's rhythm-forward trio — drum machines, samplers, and hypnotic guitars locking into boundary-less art-rock trance, Krautrock patience with a jammer's payoff.
Bass Battery
Greensboro indie rock led by Lazuli Ortiz and Ryan Mole, fleshed out live by a rotating cast of collaborators — a homegrown fixture of North Carolina's DIY scene.
Detroit beat-scene heavyweight — Dilla-lineage production with hard-hitting drums, often backed live by his band Nat Turner for a hip-hop set that swings like a fusion gig.
Instrument-swapping Durham noise-rock trio — driving rhythms, angular guitars, and hooks strung tight across the tension, in the proud lineage of amp-worshipping rhythm-section bands.
Kitchen-sink punk split between Cincinnati and NYC — erratic, high-powered live shows that ransack every era of punk and hand the pieces back out of order.
Outer Banks post-punk dream-pop — politically charged atmospherics shot through with garage and progressive fury, coastal isolation turned up loud.
A shape-shifting jazz ensemble whose rotating cast of star sidemen makes every set a one-off.
"Elvis tunes on acid" — New Orleans drum-machine rock 'n' roll grown into a breakneck, electrified full band, Suicide's pulse with a Bourbon Street leer.
Serge Massama Dogo brings Togo's underheard traditions to international stages — alagaa trance rhythms fused with contemporary African pop, guitar lines that shimmer and circle.
Chicago Latinx quintet fusing cumbia, salsa, and psych-rock into sweaty, politically charged pan-American grooves — organ-driven and built for dancing.
Members of Magic Tuber Stringband, Fust, and Weirs playing slacker-rock folk — the British folk-rock tradition run through the NC DIY scene.
Bass-forward progressive jazz and soul — virtuosic low end under soulful, socially minded songwriting, in the Thundercat school of lead-instrument bass.
Entrez Vous
Legendary avant-garde banjo and guitar iconoclast — five decades of gleefully deranged country-jazz-noise improvisation, electric rake included.
Brooklyn trio of intricate guitars, melismatic vocals, and shapeshifting grooves — "buttery" and "complex" per NPR, jazz-school chops loosened into something warm and strange.
Songwriter, producer, and filmmaker whose bedroom-born songs veer cinematic and strange — DIY punk roots refracted through digital experimentation, texture-first and quietly fearless.
Georgia Moon & The Wrong Band
Durham synthesist stitching field recordings, tape loops, and analog synths into meditative psychedelic sound collages — headphone music performed patiently in the open air.
Tender, atmospheric indie rock built on a credo of close listening — hushed rhythmic interplay that quiets whole rooms, slowcore patience in the Duster lineage.
Horse Deniers
Jack the Songman
Raleigh's mosh-pit rap general — metal-adjacent, high-adrenaline hip-hop engineered for chaos in small rooms, and a local legend for it.
Kill the Buddha
Raleigh's veteran hip-hop crew — warm, sample-driven North Carolina boom-bap with deep local roots and Little Brother lineage in the DNA.
Asheville trans femme producer of Southern-Gothic dark pop — industrial percussion, distorted textures, and cinematic intimacy, all self-produced and fearlessly personal.
Hyper-precise, wiry minimal punk — clean nervous guitars and barked social commentary at maximum tension, like a blueprint drawn in a panic.
Widescreen shoegaze — glistening walls of guitar, hushed boy-girl vocals, and melodies that cut through the haze, upstate New York dream-noise on the rise.
Raleigh DIY lifers channeling their hometown's Superchunk legacy — big-hearted, noisy, punk-tinged indie rock played with scene-elder generosity.
Charlotte's luxury-bar underground rapper — unbothered, punchline-dense raps over dusty loops, in the MAVI-and-MIKE school of unhurried excellence.
Johnson City indie pop-rock fronted by Maggie Woodall — classics-respecting songwriting built for the live room, Tennessee warmth included.
Formerly Miranda and The Beat — Farfisa-fueled garage-punk chaos with howled Telecaster leads and a freight-train rhythm section, sweat guaranteed.
Chapel Hill's psychedelic doom trio — crushing, meditative post-metal that swells from drone to avalanche and back again.
Mellow Swells
Durham supergroup of Loamlands, The Muslims, and Setting/Megafaun alumni — rowdy, poignant Americana rock in the queerest of ways, scene family on one stage.
Verity Susman (Electrelane) and Matthew Simms (Wire) — hypnotic motorik art-rock with woodwinds, synths, and film-score strangeness, pedigree put to genuinely new use.
Prolific Austin experimentalist blurring ambient, emo, autotune, and pedal steel into tender, disorienting sound worlds — quietly one of the underground's busiest minds.
Charlotte DIY ferals — country-tinged balladry that curdles without warning into feedback-worshiping noise, theremin and singing saw included, chaos as craft.
Elephant 6-adjacent Athens folk-punk — horn-flecked, big-hearted anthems of queer joy and radical tenderness, community sung into being.
Noisy pop-rock led by Nara Avakian — clever sampling, trip-hop undercurrents, and Y2K production that feels futuristic and nostalgic at once.
A massed ensemble of North Carolina musicians performs Terry Riley's 1964 minimalist landmark In C — a one-off communal trance.
No One Mind
Athens project splicing '70s jazz fusion, disco, and library-music kitsch with psychedelic electronics — Elephant 6-affiliated and gleefully out of time.
Organ-trio supergroup (GA-20, True Loves, Scone Cash Players alumni) cooking greasy, vintage instrumental soul on Colemine — Meters worship done properly.
Charlotte's sprawling art-punk outfit — jittery synth-flecked post-punk with barked, absurdist vocals, in the proud lineage of The Fall.
Boone psych-rockers raised on weird riffs and complex harmony — basement-born, self-recorded, and gleefully energetic live, mountain-town psych with real chops.
Charlotte indie rock born from a washed-up-rockstar alter ego, now a full band trading in quiet-loud catharsis — local mythology made loud.
LA pianist, poet, and film composer blending jazz training with neo-classical and neo-soul improvisation — meditative, deeply personal, and quietly virtuosic.
Ricochet Chicken
Freshly minted Berklee quartet improvising at the seam of jazz harmony, live electronics, and modern dance rhythms — conservatory chops, dancefloor aims.
Durham trio (Nathan Bowles, Jaime Fennelly, Joe Westerlund) spinning shimmering acoustic-electronic drone — patient, radiant improvisation that rewards surrender.
Fierce Virginia DIY power trio — psych-rock, '60s power pop, and fuzzed-out metal welded into something uncompromising and loud.
Winston-Salem progressive R&B — gospel, funk, and hip-hop bent slightly askew; featured on Barack Obama's 2019 year-end playlist, and still climbing.
Maryam Qudus's tape-warped psych project — sci-fi synths and spring-loaded pop songs that wobble like old film, studio-scientist craft throughout.
Cincinnati indie rock with violin in the frame — warm, Midwestern songs in the lineage of that dog. and The Spinanes.
Swamp-born freak-rock entity — astonishing technical skill funneled into brain-scrambling psychedelic benders, Primus energy with bayou humidity.
North Carolina skramz-gaze — cathartic screamo intensity washed in shoegaze texture, beauty and blast in one breath.
T. Gold
Russell Howard's art-rock quartet — vocoders, synth layers, and new-wave pop that feels beamed in from an alternate universe, played with total conviction.
The Churchyard Ghost
Roman Norfleet and Brown Calvin's cosmic jazz duo on Mississippi Records — sax, Rhodes, and percussion shaped by mystic thought.
Richmond one-man EBM machine — '90s techno, post-punk, and synth-punk hammered into hard-hitting, road-tested live sets, sweat included.
New Orleans songwriter of bruised, literary alt-country — gulf-coast grit and quiet devastation in the Berman lineage.
Raleigh's own knotty indie rock — trembling, wiry guitars and confessional intensity that snaps from whisper to burst, homegrown and critically adored.
Punchy Atlanta garage-pop — singalong nihilism, clingy guitar hooks, and a swaggering lean into Aussie trash rock, made for sweaty rooms.
Raleigh rapper, producer, and designer Dom — laid-back lifestyle hip-hop where everything is curated for an immaculate, elevated vibe, scene-building included.
Non-hierarchical NC collective where old-time stringband tradition dissolves into DIY noise and drone — anywhere from two to twelve players.
The headliners
Dexter and the Moonrocks — Self-described "western space grunge" — heavy alt-rock riffs colliding with red-dirt country swagger, breaking out off the viral hit Sad in Carolina.
Cory Wong — The rhythm-guitar machine of Vulfpeck fame — relentlessly upbeat, impossibly tight funk with a horn-powered live band and a clinic's worth of right-hand technique.
King Princess — Swaggering queer pop-rock auteur — torch-song vocals, glam guitar, and arena-sized hooks about messy love, '1950' still the calling card.
Up-and-comers to catch early
Horsegirl — Young Chicago trio channeling '80s and '90s indie: deadpan harmonies over jangling, motorik guitar pop.
Truth Club — Raleigh's own knotty indie rock; trembling, wiry guitars that snap from whisper to burst. Expect a packed hometown room.
Jooselord — Raleigh's mosh-pit rap general: metal-adjacent, high-adrenaline hip-hop engineered for chaos in small clubs.
Lady Kabela — Asheville producer of Southern-Gothic dark pop: industrial percussion and distorted textures with real menace.
sunshower — North Carolina "skramz-gaze": cathartic screamo intensity washed in shoegaze texture.
Nara's Room — Noisy Brooklyn pop-rock with clever sampling, trip-hop undercurrents, and Y2K production instincts.
Other acts worth planning around
Mdou Moctar (solo) — The Sahara's most electrifying guitarist in a rare stripped-down set of hypnotic Tuareg desert blues.
Los Mirlos — Legendary Peruvian cumbia amazónica band since 1973: hypnotic surf-guitar jungle grooves.
SASAMI — Late addition to Saturday's main stage: an LA shapeshifter who has swung from hushed indie rock to full metal and back.
The Messthetics with James Brandon Lewis — Fugazi's rhythm section plus guitar wizard Anthony Pirog and saxophone titan James Brandon Lewis.
Algernon Cadwallader — Beloved, long-dormant Philly emo pioneers back from the void: twinkling guitars and pure basement joy.
Soul Glo — Philly's ferocious hardcore standard-bearers: blistering screamo velocity spliced with hip-hop.
Kylesa — Savannah's sludge-psych institution returned: dual drummers, buzzsaw riffs, swirling psychedelia.
- NC in C presents Terry Riley's "In C" — A massed ensemble of North Carolina musicians performing the 1964 minimalist landmark. Only at Hopscotch.
The lineup by day
Thursday lineup (September 10)
Dexter and the Moonrocks, Momma, Liz Cooper, Leo Brooks Band, Chuck Strangers, Kylesa + 27 more
Thursday set times (33 sets)
- Jack the Songman · Moore Square
- Entrez Vous · Moore Square
- Georgia Moon & The Wrong Band · Moore Square
- Leo Brooks Band · City Plaza Stage
- The Churchyard Ghost · Moore Square
- Liz Cooper · City Plaza Stage
- Momma · City Plaza Stage
- Eugene Chadbourne · Nash Hall
- sunshower · Pour House
- Long Relief · Slims
- Patois Counselors · Kings
- Mdou Moctar (solo) · Lincoln Theater
- goobhunter · Neptunes
- MAKE · Pour House
- Weirs · Nash Hall
- Dexter and the Moonrocks · City Plaza Stage
- Babas · Slims
- Cor de Lux · Kings
- Dos Santos · Lincoln Theater
- Jooselord · Pour House
- Lady Kabela · Nash Hall
- wav.yliving · Neptunes
- Memorials · Kings
- Ultra Lights · Slims
- Pearl & The Oysters · Lincoln Theater
- Soul Glo · Pour House
- Lord Jah-Monte Ogbon · Neptunes
- Qur'an Shaheed · Nash Hall
- The Messthetics with James Brandon Lewis · Kings
- Meltdown Rodeo · Slims
- Chuck Strangers · Neptunes
- Kylesa · Pour House
- Ron Gallo · Lincoln Theater
Friday lineup (September 11)
Cory Wong, DUCKWRTH, Thee Sinseers, Butcher Brown, Algernon Cadwallader, Dagmar Zuniga + 27 more
Friday set times (33 sets)
- Amelia Riggs · Moore Square
- Anne-Claire · Moore Square
- ÄLÄGATOR · Moore Square
- Butcher Brown · City Plaza Stage
- T. Gold · Moore Square
- Thee Sinseers · City Plaza Stage
- DUCKWRTH · City Plaza Stage
- Buck Swope · Slims
- NC in C presents Terry Riley's "In C" · Nash Hall
- Pretty Baby · Kings
- AZUL · Pour House
- Kooley High · Lincoln Theater
- Kill the Buddha · Neptunes
- Cory Wong · City Plaza Stage
- More Eaze · Nash Hall
- Motocrossed · Kings
- Shagwüf · Slims
- Dowsers · Neptunes
- E'lon JD · Pour House
- Parlor Greens · Lincoln Theater
- BANGZZ · Slims
- BASIC · Nash Hall
- Nana Grizol · Kings
- Black Milk · Lincoln Theater
- Dogo du Togo · Pour House
- Thomas Dollbaum · Neptunes
- Algernon Cadwallader · Kings
- Dagmar Zuniga · Nash Hall
- Choncy · Slims
- Oddisee · Lincoln Theater
- Cosmic Collective · Pour House
- Truth Club · Neptunes
- Landowner · Slims
Saturday lineup (September 12)
King Princess, Soccer Mommy, WILLIS, Annie DiRusso, SASAMI, Horsegirl + 30 more
Saturday set times (36 sets)
- Ricochet Chicken · Moore Square
- Horse Deniers · Moore Square
- No One Mind · Moore Square
- Annie DiRusso · City Plaza Stage
- Bass Battery · Moore Square
- SASAMI · City Plaza Stage
- Mellow Swells · Moore Square
- WILLIS · City Plaza Stage
- Soccer Mommy · City Plaza Stage
- Organically Programmed · Kings
- Peach Candy Nut Boys · Neptunes
- Sautéed Grabba · Nash Hall
- Setting · Lincoln Theater
- The Treasury · Slims
- King Princess · City Plaza Stage
- bedrumor · Pour House
- Lucille Klement · Kings
- Frances Chang · Nash Hall
- Nara's Room · Neptunes
- Sonny Miles · Lincoln Theater
- STEEF · Slims
- Spoils · Pour House
- The Auxiliary · Kings
- Okonski · Lincoln Theater
- D. Sablu · Slims
- Laveda · Neptunes
- The MerKaBa Brotherhood · Nash Hall
- FORAGER · Kings
- Hiding Places · Pour House
- Los Mirlos · Lincoln Theater
- Otto Benson · Nash Hall
- BALACLAVA · Slims
- Spacemoth · Neptunes
- Horsegirl · Pour House
- ISTA · Kings
- M.A.T.B. (fka Miranda and The Beat) · Slims
Hopscotch 2026 lineup FAQ
When is Hopscotch 2026?
September 10–12, 2026 (Thursday through Saturday).
Where does Hopscotch take place?
Across downtown Raleigh, NC: an outdoor main stage at City Plaza, six clubs and theaters, and the free Moore Square commons, all within walking distance. The day parties spread out a little further, to breweries and record stores nearby.
Who is headlining Hopscotch 2026?
Dexter and the Moonrocks, Cory Wong, and King Princess top the 102-act bill.
How many acts are playing Hopscotch 2026?
102 acts across three days, from main-stage headliners to late-night club shows and the free Moore Square Commons stage.
When do Hopscotch set times come out?
They're out. Hopscotch published the full schedule on August 14, 2026, and every set time on this page comes from it. Save your acts and they become a personal day-by-day schedule.
How do I figure out which of the 102 acts I'd actually like?
Tell the finder at the top of this page a few bands you love. It'll match you with the acts on this lineup you shouldn't miss, with reasons why.
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