FloydFest 2023, to Be Headlined by Black Crowes and My Morning Jacket, Is in Limbo

2023 Innings Festival - Credit: Tim Mosenfelder/WireImage/Getty
2023 Innings Festival - Credit: Tim Mosenfelder/WireImage/Getty

In a surprise announcement Wednesday morning, organizers for the influential festival known as FloydFest — scheduled for July 26 through 30 in rural Virginia — said the future of the festival is in limbo.

Dubbed “FloydFest 23: Forever,” this year’s lineup includes headliners the Black Crowes, My Morning Jacket, Sheryl Crow, and Goose, alongside Elle King, Leftover Salmon, Yelawolf & Shooter Jennings, and Nikki Lane, among others.

More from Rolling Stone

Across-The-Way Productions Inc., the organization behind FloydFest, stated, “Due to final permitting and logistical factors beyond our control, the new FloydFest site, FestivalPark, is not currently viable for a 2023 festival, and we are currently exploring all options. We will be back with more information on April 6.”

“Make zero mistake — FloydFest and its future are strong, and this we do know,” says Sam Calhoun, chief operating officer for FloydFest and ATWP. “We will see each of you, our FloydFest Family, in July 2024, as we christen your new home, FestivalPark.”

Launched in 2002, atop a mountain just off the Blue Ridge Parkway in southwestern Virginia, FloydFest grew from a grassroots backyard hootenanny to one of the premier independent music festivals in the country, attracting upwards of 20,000 attendees annually.

“Very few ‘independent’ music festivals exist these days,” Calhoun says. “Our patrons, our memories, this ‘music, magic and mountains,’ this community, our collective anticipation for future FloydFests, are what keep each of us going, and we don’t take that lightly.”

After two decades at its original 80-acre location, outside the small farm community of Floyd, Virginia, FloydFest was set to relocate just 10 miles down Route 221 to a new, sprawling 200-acre site for the 2023 installment.

“With the new location, we really feel like we can capture what we want to do, to ensure the whole community we’ve created together here has more space and amenities for an even better experience moving forward,” Calhoun told Rolling Stone last year.

In recent years, juggernaut acts like Tyler Childers, Brandi Carlile, Emmylou Harris, Greta Van Fleet, Margo Price, Foster the People, Grace Potter, the Avett Brothers, Kacey Musgraves, Jason Isbell, Lauryn Hill, and Billy Strings have all appeared “on the mountain.”

A signature component of FloydFest has been its revered “On the Rise” competition, in which local and regional acts invited by ATWP are voted on by concertgoers throughout the festival weekend. In 2021, rising country group 49 Winchester won the competition.

“We’ve grown a lot since we played here for the first time last year. Our fan base has exploded, and we’re very humbled by that,” 49 Winchester lead singer Isaac Gibson told Rolling Stone backstage at FloydFest 2022. “There’s no place like FloydFest — it feels like home.”

Best of Rolling Stone

Click here to read the full article.