Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival Brings Guitar Legends, Austin Favorites to Moody Center Sept. 26–27
For Austin music fans, the final weekend of September will bring an unusually deep collection of guitar greats to the heart of the city.
Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival 2026 is set for Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 26–27, at Moody Center in Austin, marking the seventh edition of a festival known for putting celebrated musicians together in combinations audiences rarely get to see anywhere else. Eric Clapton will perform both nights, while more than two dozen artists spanning blues, rock, country, bluegrass, jazz and roots music are scheduled to take part.
The Austin stop also carries a hometown connection through Gary Clark Jr., the four-time Grammy Award-winning guitarist who grew up playing Austin clubs and has gone on to become one of the city's most recognizable contemporary musicians. Clark is among several returning Crossroads veterans joining Clapton for the Texas event.
Crossroads Guitar Festival lineup brings generations of musicians to Austin
The Crossroads Guitar Festival Austin lineup reads less like a traditional concert bill and more like a cross-section of modern guitar history.
Scheduled performers include Trey Anastasio, Joe Bonamassa, Eric Clapton, Gary Clark Jr., Tommy Emmanuel, Billy Gibbons, Buddy Guy, Ben Haggard, Sierra Hull, Marcus King, Sonny Landreth, Julian Lage, Taj Mahal, Pedro Martins, John Mayer, Del McCoury Band, John McLaughlin, Keb’ Mo’, Dirk Powell, Robert Randolph, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Daniel Santiago, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Jimmie Vaughan, Pete Townshend, Bradley Walker and Brothers of the Heart.
Not every artist will perform on both nights, and the festival's format leaves room for the multi-artist collaborations that have become one of its signatures. Moody Center describes the event as two evenings of main-stage performances and collaborations across musical genres.
For Texas audiences, several names have especially strong ties to the state's musical story. Austin native Gary Clark Jr. came up playing local venues including Antone's, where he performed as a teenager and later became a part owner. Fellow Austin guitar fixture Jimmie Vaughan has spent decades helping carry the city's blues tradition forward, while Billy Gibbons, best known as the guitarist and vocalist of Texas rock band ZZ Top, adds another distinctly Lone Star presence to the lineup.
At the other end of the blues timeline is Buddy Guy, whose career stretches back to his work as a Chess Records house guitarist alongside figures including Muddy Waters. Guy later became one of the genre's most influential performers and a multiple Grammy winner.
Meanwhile, John Mayer, Joe Bonamassa and Tedeschi Trucks Band return as Crossroads veterans, while Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio, Australian acoustic guitarist Tommy Emmanuel, jazz guitarist Julian Lage and The Who's Pete Townshend are among the musicians making their Crossroads festival debuts in 2026.
Why the Crossroads Guitar Festival is returning to Texas
This year's gathering is the seventh Crossroads Guitar Festival and the first edition since the event was held in Los Angeles in 2023. Crossroads is not an annual touring festival; editions have historically been staged years apart, adding to the appeal of seeing so many artists assembled for a single weekend. The festival dates back to 2004 and previously returned to Texas for its 2019 edition in Dallas.
The move to Austin places the event in a city with an especially long relationship with guitar-driven music, from blues and country to rock, Americana and experimental sounds. Gary Clark Jr.'s presence makes that connection especially personal: he began playing guitar at age 12 and spent his teenage years performing around Austin before gaining a national audience. He previously appeared at Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2010, an important stop during his rise from Austin clubs to international stages.
The 2026 festival also gives Austin audiences a chance to hear musicians whose styles rarely occupy the same bill. Bluegrass from the Del McCoury Band can share a weekend with the blues of Buddy Guy and Keb' Mo', the jam-rock improvisation of Anastasio, the jazz vocabulary of Lage and Rosenwinkel, and the rock lineage represented by Clapton and Townshend.
That mix is central to the Crossroads concept: bringing different generations and approaches to the guitar together rather than limiting the festival to one genre.
Festival supports Crossroads Centre Antigua
The weekend has a purpose beyond the stage.
The 2026 festival celebrates 28 years of Crossroads Centre Antigua, the addiction treatment and education facility founded by Clapton in 1998. According to the festival, profits from Crossroads Guitar Festival benefit the center, including its work providing treatment to people dealing with substance dependence.
Clapton's involvement with the organization grew from his own recovery and his connection to Antigua. Crossroads Centre says scholarship programs supported by donations help make treatment available to people who otherwise might not be able to afford it, and the guitar festival has become one of the organization's major fundraising efforts.
That charitable connection has followed the festival throughout its history, giving the gathering a second identity alongside its reputation as a destination event for guitar fans.
What Austin concertgoers need to know
Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival 2026 takes place Saturday, Sept. 26, and Sunday, Sept. 27, at Moody Center in Austin, Texas.
Saturday's show is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. CT, while Sunday's show is scheduled for 4 p.m. CT. Times are subject to change.
Tickets are on sale now, subject to availability. There are no age restrictions, and organizers caution that not every announced performer will appear on both nights. Eric Clapton, however, is scheduled to perform both evenings.
Anyone attending can also review Moody Center's parking information, clear bag policy and arena FAQs before heading downtown, particularly given the size of the lineup and expected interest surrounding the two-night event.
For Austin residents accustomed to seeing major touring artists pass through the city, Crossroads offers something different: a gathering built around musicians who have influenced one another across generations, with an Austin-raised guitarist among the artists helping welcome it back to Texas.
Stay tuned to My Neighborhood News for more Austin concerts, major events, community happenings and things to do across Central Texas.
Tiffany Krenek has been on the My Neighborhood News team since August 2021. She is passionate about curating and sharing content that enriches the lives of our readers in a personal, meaningful way. A loving mother and wife, Tiffany and her family live in the West Houston/Cypress region.
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