Big Ears Festival - October 2, 2025

David Byrne + Wild Up Plays Moondog + Terry Allen — Only at Big Ears

David Byrne has launched his Who Is the Sky?

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VIP Pass Alert

Less than 10% of our special VIP Sonic Explorer passes remain. With reserved seats, priority entry, and first access to special add-on shows, you’ll have peace of mind that your Big Ears weekend is the best it can be. Exclusive invitation-only parties and other VIP-only perks make this the ultimate way to experience the festival. Don’t wait—these last few passes will disappear fast!

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David Byrne: Who Is The Sky?

You may have heard the news: David Byrne kicked off his Who Is The Sky? tour in Pittsburgh, debuting songs from his first solo album in seven years alongside Talking Heads classics and even a Paramore cover. The night was full of surprises, including his first live performance of “Psycho Killer” since 2006.

Want to ensure you can see the former Talking Head burn down the house? Festival passholders will receive early access and preferred pricing to both of these once in a lifetime performances with VIP and Premier being first in line to purchase tickets when they’re made available in a few short weeks. Passes are selling quickly, and this is the only way to guarantee that this must be your place.

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Ghost Train Orchestra Plays Moondog

“Over the years, I’ve become a kind of evangelist for Moondog,” says Ghost Train Orchestra leader Brian Carpenter in this article for The Guardian. “I want more people to know about the joy and wonder of his music. And, luckily, there’s so much of it.”

With this special Big Ears performance, Ghost Train Orchestra channels the eccentric genius of Moondog—the blind, self-taught composer and street poet who became a cult figure in New York from the late 1940s until the early 1970s and went on to inspire generations of musicians. Ghost Train Orchestra has spent years reinterpreting overlooked American mavericks, and their Moondog project has even drawn admirers like David Byrne, who cites Moondog’s work as an influence. Here, they bring fresh light to his extraordinary catalog.

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Terry Allen: Music as a Volatile Art Form

Outlaw, iconoclast, and interdisciplinary madman Terry Allen spent decades tearing down the walls between country, performance art, theater, and visual media, carving a place entirely his own. Fiercely funny and unflinchingly honest, his work pushes past genres to create worlds as vivid as they are unruly. At Big Ears 2026, Terry Allen gets a spotlight with two special programs—a live performance version of Memwars with his wife Jo Harvey Allen and The Panhandle Mystery Band, and Truckload of Art Road Show, a performance-conversation with Jo and their son Bukka, weaving together stories and readings from Brendan Greaves’ acclaimed biography, moderated by writer-filmmaker Tamara Saviano.

Take a fresh look at Allen’s extraordinary body of work in this deep profile in The Brooklyn Rail.

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