River City Roots Festival announces 2026 lineup

The 20th annual River City Roots Festival announced its lineup for this Aug. 21-22 on Tuesday afternoon.

Each fall as students are returning to the University of Montana, the free-admission street festival takes over a closed-off block on West Main Street for a lineup of touring and local bands, in addition to a food-truck court, plus other activities like a 4-mile run, an art market, and a family festival down in Caras Park.

The headliners on Saturday, Aug. 22, are the Infamous Stringdusters, who’ve made Missoula a frequent tour stop, including the 2018 Roots Fest, according to the release from the Downtown Missoula Partnership. They’re touring off a new album, “20/20,” that celebrates their 20th anniversary, the release said.

The Honey Island Swamp Band will headline on Friday, Aug. 21. The New Orleans group is back for a second Roots Fest with a new record, “Custom Deluxe.”

"The event started as a small, one-day festival and has now grown to be something folks will travel to from across the country to see their favorite national-recording artists for free," committee chair Ellen Buchanan said in the news release. "We’ve hosted many bands who have gone on to big careers such as Trampled by Turtles, Billy Strings, and even this year’s The Infamous Stringdusters. We like to think of Roots Fest as an introduction to some of the best up-and-coming bands in the roots/Americana genre to the community."

Elsewhere on the two nights, you can hear fiddler-vocalist Amanda Shaw, also of New Orleans, Colorado folkgrass group Silas Herman and the Tone Unit, and Canadian acoustic group The Unfaithful Servants.

In the local category, Missoula-formed funk band Reverend Slanky is back at the fest for the first time since 2015. Andy Dunnigan, the lead voice and songwriter for the Lil Smokies, will play a solo set. It'll be one of his biggest stages here in town since the Missoula-formed group announced a hiatus last year. Union Club fixtures Joan Zen are playing as well.

The festival books family-friendly groups for early in the day, including the ZACC kids rock bands, students from Tangled Tones music school, and Cowboy Andy and the Salamanders.

For more information, head to rivercityrootsfestival.com.