Article Contributed by Rainwater Poster Co.
Published on 2026-09-02
Blue Highway Fest, the IBMA’s 2023 Industry Event of the Year, has released its full daily schedule for the 2026 festival, taking place October 8 through 11 in Big Stone Gap, Virginia.
With the lineup now mapped out day by day, festivalgoers can start planning their weekend around performances from The Boxcars, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Balsam Range, Dailey & Vincent, The Cox Family, Blue Highway, Ralph Stanley II, Carolina Detour, the Blue Bridge Boys, and more.
FRIDAY: THE REUNION EVERYONE’S BEEN WAITING FOR
The Boxcars are getting back together, and Blue Highway Fest is the only place to catch it. Formed in late 2009, The Boxcars brought together five of the most decorated players in modern bluegrass: mandolinist Adam Steffey, banjoist and fiddler Ron Stewart, guitarist Keith Garrett, fiddler John Bowman, and bassist Harold Nixon.
The band wasted no time making its mark, winning Instrumental Group of the Year and Emerging Artist of the Year at the 2011 IBMA Awards. Four albums on Mountain Home Music Company followed, along with a GRAMMY nomination and a reputation as one of the truest torchbearers of the Flatt & Scruggs sound since the Bluegrass Album Band.
The Boxcars went their separate ways in 2017, and this performance will mark the first time the five have shared a stage together in years.
SATURDAY: A BLUEGRASS LEGEND RETURNS
Bluegrass legend and local favorite Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver will take the stage for a highly anticipated set, marking their only scheduled performance in the region this year.
Lawson was born in Fordtown, in Sullivan County in northeast Tennessee, not far from Kingsport, and grew up singing gospel music with his family before falling in love with bluegrass. He got his start on banjo with Jimmy Martin & the Sunny Mountain Boys, moved on to mandolin with J.D. Crowe, and spent eight years with the Country Gentlemen before forming Quicksilver in 1979.
In the decades since, he has become one of the most influential bandleaders in bluegrass history, earning induction into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and seven IBMA Vocal Group of the Year awards with Quicksilver.
After stepping back from full-time touring, Lawson and a new lineup of Quicksilver returned to the studio, releasing “The Signs” this past August, the first single from a forthcoming album and his first new music in more than five years.
For fans in Southwest Virginia, it’s a rare chance to see a bluegrass legend close to home as he returns to the stage.
THURSDAY: A STANLEY BROTHERS CELEBRATION, A WRITERS’ ROUND, AND A TRIBUTE
The festival opens Thursday, October 8, with its signature songwriters’ night on the downtown 3rd Street stage. This year’s round welcomes The Cannons — Buddy, Marla, and Melonie — for an evening hosted by Blue Highway’s Tim Stafford, Wayne Taylor, and Shawn Lane.
The night will be a celebration of songs and the stories behind them, and it will also serve as a tribute to Ronnie Bowman. The singer, songwriter, and multiple-time IBMA Male Vocalist of the Year was set to perform at this year’s festival before his passing on March 22, 2026.
Blue Highway Fest will also mark the Stanley Brothers’ induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame with a special performance by Ralph Stanley II.
It’s a fitting place for the celebration to happen due to the longtime collaboration between Ralph Stanley and Maggard Sound in Big Stone Gap, where many of the songs fans know and love were recorded.
FRIDAY: THE BLUE HIGHWAY FAN-VOTED SET
For the first time in the festival’s history, Blue Highway fans have had a direct hand in shaping what the band plays on stage.
Over the course of the season, fans have voted week after week on Facebook, picking favorites by decade, by theme, and everything in between to build a setlist for a special Blue Highway performance on Friday night.
The winning songs will be revealed live when Blue Highway takes the stage, giving the crowd the rare chance to hear a set they helped choose.
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY: A SPOTLIGHT ON THE FUTURE
Alongside its legends, Blue Highway Fest continues to make room for the artists shaping the genre’s future.
Last year’s Blue Highway Fest Rising Stars winner, Carolina Detour, returns to the schedule, joined by the Blue Bridge Boys, winners of Earl Scruggs Fest’s Battle of the Banjos.
Both sets are a reminder that the festival’s roots run in two directions at once, honoring where bluegrass has been while giving its next generation a stage.
THURSDAY’S MAIN STAGE: BALSAM RANGE
Also taking the stage Thursday is Balsam Range, one of modern bluegrass’s most decorated bands.
Formed in 2007 out of an informal kitchen jam in Haywood County, North Carolina, the group took its name from the mountain range that surrounds their home, where the Great Smoky Mountains meet the Blue Ridge.
Nearly 20 years later, Tim Surrett, Caleb Smith, and Marc Pruett remain at the band’s core, joined by mandolinist Alan Bibey and fiddler Stephen Hudson.
Along the way, Balsam Range has picked up two IBMA Entertainer of the Year awards, along with honors for Album, Song, and Vocal Group of the Year.
SATURDAY NIGHT: DAILEY & VINCENT
Saturday brings Dailey & Vincent to Big Stone Gap, one of bluegrass’s most awarded and recognizable duos.
Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent met at the 2001 IBMA Awards, Dailey coming off a run with Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver and Vincent from Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, and formed their own group in 2007.
Their debut year was a historic one, sweeping six IBMA awards including Entertainer of the Year, Vocal Group of the Year, and Male Vocalist of the Year. In the years since, the duo has added multiple GRAMMY nominations and Dove Awards to their resume.
SUNDAY: A GOSPEL CELEBRATION
Sunday brings one of bluegrass and gospel music’s most beloved family acts to Big Stone Gap.
The Cox Family, from Cotton Valley, Louisiana, carries on a trademark sound spanning more than 70 years of tradition in gospel, bluegrass, and country.
The legacy of founding member Willard Cox now lives on through his son Sidney and Sidney’s daughters, Anna, Sara, and Lydia. Anna joined on bass in 2016, followed by Sara on guitar and Lydia on mandolin in 2020, carrying the family’s familiar harmonies into a new generation.
In recent years, the band has debuted new music on the Dailey & Vincent Show and played a sold-out show at Nashville’s Station Inn, while their single “First Time I Heard About Heaven” spent 42 weeks on the charts, reaching the top five on the Bluegrass Today Gospel Charts.
Weekend passes, single-day tickets, camping, and RV parking for Blue Highway Fest 2026 are on sale now.
Blue Highway Fest is an annual bluegrass music festival held in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, hosted by the town of Big Stone Gap and the band Blue Highway. The festival was named the 2023 IBMA Industry Event of the Year and is presented in partnership with the town of Big Stone Gap, Virginia is for Music Lovers, Friends of Southwest Virginia, The Slemp Foundation, and The Crooked Road.
