Close
MyNorthwest
News
Opinion
Sports
Tools
Connect

LIFESTYLE

Watershed Music Festival cancels 2026 event at The Gorge

Jan 27, 2026, 6:55 PM | Updated: 6:56 pm

watershed cancel the gorge...

General view of atmosphere during the Watershed Country Music Festival at the Gorge Amphitheatre on July 31, 2022 in George, Washington. (Photo: Mat Hayward, Getty Images)

(Photo: Mat Hayward, Getty Images)

Jason Sutich's Profile Picture

BY JASON SUTICH


Content Editor

After 13 years of offering high-profile and up-and-coming country music artists at The Gorge Amphitheater, Watershed Music Festival has announced it will not host a festival in 2026.

The decision to cancel this year’s festival was posted to Facebook on Friday, with Watershed Music Festival announcing the event would take a “hiatus” in 2026.

RELATED STORIES

Watershed’s illustrious lineups

The three-day music festival in central Washington over the summer has hosted massive country music acts such as Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert, Luke Bryan, and Dierks Bentley, among several others.

Watershed did not provide any reasoning for its decision to cancel the festival, though it confirmed any future plans would be announced accordingly.

Watershed’s inaugural country music festival was held in 2012, featuring a large main stage for headline acts, campgrounds for overnight festival-goers, and a diverse food truck lineup.

Follow Jason Sutich on X. Send news tips here.

Please follow our Community Guidelines
sign up for the 425 Magazine newsletter

Lifestyle

FILE - A woman walks by a sign "Buy now pay later" at a store in Bangalore, India, on Sept. 10, 200...

Associated Press

Americans are using buy now, pay later more than ever. Here’s what to know if you’re one of them

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans spent more than $160 billion last year using buy now, pay later plans, according to research published by Federal Reserve economists. Experts say they’re increasingly seeing people use the plans for everyday expenses like groceries, bills, transportation and, sometimes rent. “It has been very hard out there for a lot […]

16 hours ago

FILE - Chicago billionaire Ken Griffin speaks at a news conference in Chicago, April 12, 2018. (Ash...

Associated Press

Hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin gives record $3B to Carnegie Mellon to build Miami campus

Carnegie Mellon University announced Wednesday that hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin is donating $3 billion, with the bulk of the money for a new campus in Miami focused on societal challenges. The Pittsburgh-based private research university said the gift is the largest ever single gift to a U.S. university. Other donations topping the billion-dollar mark […]

2 days ago

america pnw food cities...

Jason Sutich

2 PNW cities crack top 5 of America’s best food cities

A new study ranked the cities with the best "foodie" culture, and two Pacific Northwest cities placed in the top five out of more than 180 U.S. cities.

2 days ago

Cassie Reed, center, sits for a photograph with her son Kian Reed, left, and daughter Evie Reed out...

Associated Press

Head Start preschools serve parents, too. Under Trump, advocates fear that will change

WASHINGTON (AP) — Cassie Reed and her two young children had just moved from a domestic violence shelter into a third-floor apartment in Spokane, Washington, when she spotted a soon-to-open Head Start preschool on the building’s ground floor. Much of Reed’s first three decades of life had been shaped by abuse and neglect: first, she […]

3 days ago

FILE — A sign on the outside of the Fairview Presbyterian Church on the edge of the Butler Univer...

Associated Press

Giggle for God: America’s witty church signs aim to inspire, attract drivers and passersby

WOODBURY, Minn. (AP) — “Forecast: God reigns and the Son shines.” In mid-September, the large electronic sign of a Lutheran church flashed this message by a throughfare between growing subdivisions and cornfields in a Twin Cities suburb. The messages on Resurrection Lutheran Church’s sign range from witty to practical to profound. It’s an effort to […]

3 days ago

From left, Amelia Woods sits in front as Samantha Hatch holds Elsie Bickett, while Maliyah Rider st...

Associated Press

People with Down syndrome and other disabilities find their rhythm in Indiana dance program

FISHERS, Ind. (AP) — Finn Vester, who has autism and Down syndrome, tried a martial arts class but it proved unsuitable because he learns differently, his mother said. Then he joined Dance Abilities, a program at Academy of Dance Arts in the Indianapolis suburb of Fishers for people with physical or intellectual disabilities. Now dance […]

4 days ago

Watershed Music Festival cancels 2026 event at The Gorge