Major independent country mega festival FairWell Fest in Redmond, Oregon will not be returning in 2026. There’s also good indication that it will not be returning at all after first being held in 2023.
As Saving Country Music has reported in the past, the C3 Presents/LiveNation-promoted event and their aggressive radius clauses have caused chaos among the region’s more established and independently-owned festivals.
For the nonprofit and mostly volunteer-driven SFF Presents, the encroachment and dominance of musical juggernaut Live Nation is not just a hypothetical. The organization is on the front lines of supporting music on a local level.
The rise of independent country has been so massive, there are now megafestivals built around independent acts. This has attracted Live Nation, putting more established festivals in peril.