With headliners such as Evan Honer and local favorites such as Colton Bowlin and S.G. Goodman, Laurel Cove brought something truly special to Kentucky once again
Credit: Barry Westerman
NEED TO KNOW
- The three-day Laurel Cove Music Festival showcased a mix of rising stars and established artists across genres like country, bluegrass, and rock, nestled deep in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky
- Performers and attendees continually praise the festival’s intimate atmosphere and its celebration of Appalachian music and community
- A forthcoming documentary, Where the Mountains Sing, will spotlight the festival’s unique role in preserving American music traditions
There's magic in the hills surrounding Pineville, Ky., and Laurel Cove Music Festival is the chosen vessel through which it all flows.
Once again, the three-day festival, held at Pine Mountain State Resort Park, succeeded at bridging every facet of the American music experience into a single weekend of nonstop artistry set against some of the most gorgeous natural scenery east of the Mississippi River.
Held between June 11-13, 2026, the hallowed grounds called together makers of country, bluegrass, rock, folk and beyond to a literal meeting of the musical minds — and a proverbial who's who of individuals both ascending to stardom and those who have served as pillars of their respective genres for years, both in Kentucky and beyond.
Credit: Barry Westerman
For this year's iteration, the team of minds behind the event assembled a lineup that tantalized in terms of national and regional star power. Leading off its first day, Emily Jamerson saw a break in the rain that defined her 2025 set at Laurel Cove and delivered a truly moving full-band performance on its JammNation Main Stage. Not long after, Denver-based Americana outfit Marfa took to the main stage to rock out to their fan-favorite track "Daisy," among other hits.
Shenandoah Valley artist John R. Miller locked listeners in a trance with his set from the main stage, performing "A World Away," along with a slew of other equally captivating numbers. Then, Texas took to the main stage via five-piece outfit The Wilder Blue, who brought fans to their feet with modern classics like "Bless My Bones."
The fun continued when Alabama's Kashus Culpepper, who performed an earlier slot in the rain on the main stage in 2025, closed out the core lineup on night one with velvet-smooth performances of "Jennie," "After Me?" and more. "I love Laurel Cove. It feels like family here. I feel like there's real-life music spirits in this place," Culpepper tells PEOPLE of what brought him back for a second year at the festival.
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Credit: Case Croley (3)
As for the late-night set on day one, Kentucky rock trio Bedford, who were forced to perform what ultimately became an iconic, lightning bug-backed set out of their tour van during rain delays in 2025, finally brought their electric live performance energy to the Laurel Cove main stage. Guitarist and singer Colin Michael tells PEOPLE, "I've never been around a community of more loyal listeners that ride for the artists here. The type of fans that come to Laurel Cove are the fans that build careers." Drummer and singer Tristan Frazier calls the festival, "The spirit of Appalachia," with bassist and singer Samuel May agreeing that, "There is some really beautiful art being made, and this is a really nice place to share it."
Creekside Stage support on day one was held down by Kentucky natives Laurel Lewis and alt-country Americana band Hollerhead, as well as North Carolina-based artist Justin Clyde Williams.
Day two continued the mountainside jam, with performances from the likes of Rebecca Porter, Joe Stamm Band, The Lowdown Drifters, Shadowgrass, The Creekers, The Damn Shames, Dalton Kiser & The Downwind, Brock Burton & Gracie Yates, Colton Bowlin and Magnolia Boulevard.
Credit: Case Croley
Though Porter's main stage performance already moved fans, it was a subsequent Musical Moonshine-backed acoustic taping of the Guam-born, Virginia-raised artist's track "Payday Loans" on the neon-lit trail between the two stages that stopped passersby dead in their tracks.
Bowlin, who PEOPLE recently featured for his album Grandpa's Mill, delivered one of the most memorable performances of the weekend to a packed-out Creekside Stage. Throngs of captivated listeners stared attentively as the 22-year-old prodigy effortlessly switched between spot-on renditions of Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings' voices during a "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys," and tugged at heartstrings with his original, "Clinton County," leaving droves clamoring for a main stage return in 2027.
Credit: Case Croley
Burton and Yates, Laurel Cove fans-turned-performers who hail from Kentucky and deliver road-worn Americana and country-rock with heartfelt storytelling, warm harmonies and a free-spirited, rootsy feel, were particularly moved by their experience performing at the Creekside Stage.
Yates tells PEOPLE her time on stage "was an unforgettable dream come true full of everything I love about live music — community, connection and a little magic." Burton agrees, telling PEOPLE, "Taking the stage at Laurel Cove and experiencing the magic it brings each year made me proud to be a Kentuckian… especially when you get to share it with someone you love, that's hard to beat."
Australian grunge country artist Tori Forsyth, who traveled roughly 10,000 miles to attend Laurel Cove for a second year as a fan after performing there in 2025, tells PEOPLE on the second day that "it's the fact that we had no idea this place existed. We showed up, and it felt immediately like we were walking into familiar territory, like a family."
"The best part of it is that we have a certain specific kind of sound… and it was just welcomed into this community," Forsyth adds. "People get it here, what we're doing, and it's not something we see at home."
Credit: Case Croley
Laurel Cove Music Festival ended strong on day three, with a stacked lineup at both the main and side stage. Bell County native Jordan Lee King started off the day strong from the JammNation stage with smile-inducing tracks like "Best Show Of The Year" and a Kentucky-twanged cover of Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want To Have Fun."
If there's a single notion that The Cove proves year after year, it's that the holler is as much a state of mind as it is a place one calls home. Take Cloverdale Records artist Leon Majcen, born in the Czech Republic to Bosnian refugees and having moved to Clearwater, Fla., as a toddler. Performing, as he describes, "cowboy chords and hammer-on's" that have as much a home in the Sunshine State as they do in Montana, Majcen overcame slight technical difficulties to light up the main stage on day three by effortlessly blended guitar picking and harmonica melodies that cut deep through surrounding hemlock, mountain laurel and rhododendron.
Day three continued with the likes of Dallas-born, Nashville-based Harper O'Neill, Kyndle Minter, Oliver Sayani and Ritch Henderson. At around dinnertime, rising Oklahoma City Americana outfit Jason Scott & The High Heat took to the main stage, braving literal high heat in the holler to perform the likes of, "High Country" and "If We Make It Til The Mornin'." The group will release their new album, Play Boy, on Sept. 18, 2026, via Leo33.
Credit: Bill Fultz
Undoubtedly, the most blazing, contagious utilization of a six-stringed instrument of the weekend came via Kentucky legend Laid Back Country Picker. The longtime social studies teacher and riotous guitarist, who claims Tyler Childers as a student of both his curriculum and musical stylings, was joined by his wife and drummer, Honey, to deliver melodies of some of rock and blues' greatest riffs alongside originals like "Lb's Truth/Civillian Vic" at the Creekside Stage.
Recent PEOPLE-featured artist S.G. Goodman brought atmospheric sonics and earth-shaking bass to the main stage for her performance, which included the likes of her new original, "Satellite," as well as crowd-favorite a live cover of The Butthole Surfers' "Pepper." Right after, Cole Chaney delivered main stage energy on the Creekside Stage to a crowd that overflowed into the street with hits including "Feels Like Rain."
To round out the weekend, Evan Honer, whose set last year was relegated to performing acoustically atop a cooler underneath a picnic pavilion to avoid a torrential downpour, finally claimed his rightful spot on the Laurel Cove main stage. With LED-lit crowns of flowers atop his and his bands' heads, Honer backflipped, jammed hits like "Maybe For Once" and "idk s— about cars," and closed out another memorable weekend in Kentucky with a bang.
Credit: Case Croley
"I'm from Arizona, and I feel the most welcomed here," Honer tells PEOPLE of what brought him back for another year in The Cove.
Though Laurel Cove is intentionally and naturally restricted in size by its venue, the message of the festival is extending far beyond its Kentucky confines today. This is, in part, thanks to Where the Mountains Sing, a forthcoming documentary, via Mesmeric Media, created by director and executive producer Michael Holstein, that spotlights why the small festival is one of the last bastions of a dying breed of live performance and will appear on a major streaming service in late 2026.
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"I first learned about the Laurel Cove Music Festival from Cole Chaney, and I was immediately intrigued, but once I read the article in PEOPLE, I knew this was a story worth diving deeper into," Holstein tells PEOPLE of our past coverage of the festival. "I've been fortunate enough to work on some amazing projects – concerts at the White House, specials from the Opry, The Wire – but nothing has moved me like Laurel Cove. I hope Where the Mountains Sing can do this festival justice."
All in all, if one thing is clear, it's that Laurel Cove remains a talent incubator, a beacon of light and a source of inspiration for greater Appalachia to continue delivering the music that has defined one of America's most historically-rich geographical areas —and beyond — for hundreds of years.
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