Big Ears Festival Maintains Eclectic Highs in 2026 Lineup
by John Diliberto 9/9/2025
Like an alien invasion, Big Ears Festival descends once again on Knoxville, TN on March 26-29, 2026, taking over the city in an explosion of sound. The eclectic festival dissolves genre lines exploring the furthest reaches of music from Americana to Ambient Americana, Free Jazz to orchestral expanses and more with over 250 concerts along with films, artist conversations, workshops, exhibitions, and interactive experiences. But you really just go for the sounds in one the purist and most civilized music festivals in the country.
Over the four days, festival headliners include David Byrne, Robert Plant, Pat Metheny, Richard Thompson and festival perennial and patron saint, John Zorn. He’ll be in multiple manifestations. Laurie Anderson, a highlight of the 2025 festival returns in three different permutations.
For Echoes listeners, pickings are a little less high profile than the 2025 Festival which featured Steve Roach, Explosions in the Sky, SUSS, Immersion, Michael Rother, Anoushka Shankar, Rich Ruth, Marissa Nadler, Julia Holter, Mary Lattimore and more. (Read Echoes’ 2025 Big Ears review)
But there are plenty of artists in the Echoesphere including pianist Nik Bartsch, solo and with Ronin, SUSS once again, the aforementioned Laurie Anderson, Adrian Sherwood, Pat Metheny and a rendition of Laurie Spiegel’s electronic classic “The Expanding Universe,” performed by the electric guitar quartet, Dither.
Also in the Echoesphere is Hania Rani. The brilliant Polish composer and keyboardist will perform two concerts. One is the North American premiere of her concerto, “Non-Fiction,” as well as her Chilling Bambino concept work.
There’s an Ambient Country Hangover from 2025 with Chuck Johnson, Pan American & Kramer, the aforementioned SUSS and their Beyond the Horizon concept, Walt McClemons and a strange merging of Jamie Lidell and pedal steel guitarist Luke Schneider.
Jazz is always central to Big Ears in many formulations. Frequent Big Ears artists like Mark Ribot, Mary Halvorson, Shabaka and Julian Lage return along with Either Orchestra, Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Marilyn Crispell and Tim Berne.
There’s also a scattering of Rock including Robert Plant in Americana mode, Deerhoof, Patrick Watson and Perfume Genius.
Throw in some world music, folk music and music without a genre and you have another Big Ears cornucopia of sound that explodes over four deliriously exhausting days. And if you think this list in the poster is a lot, there is sure to be more added.