Big Ears Festival - May 20, 2026

Welcome Shelby & Sruly / Behind the Curtain / Your Support

͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ...

͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

View this email in your browser.

WEBSITE

DONATE

Welcome Our Newest Team Members

Shelby Sandlin

Director of Operations

Originally from Louisiana, Shelby Sandlin has spent the last decade working across music, sound design, podcast production, and live events. She began her career in New York at Mexican Summer Records, overseeing artist campaigns and record releases from creative inception through launch. She went on to produce commercial and film sound design projects at One Thousand Birds in Los Angeles. She has since managed podcast production, talent booking, and creative operations at The Mash-Up Americans, including projects for HBO, Netflix, and others, and led brand development projects at Modern8 in Salt Lake City. Now based in Knoxville, she brings her love of live music and a career built on finding the thoughtful system inside the ambitious chaos, and is thrilled to bring both to the Big Ears team.

Sruly Lazaros

Festival Booking Associate

Sruly Lazaros is a producer and music programmer based in New York City. As a producer with the seminal composer collective Bang on a Can for over fifteen years, he has helped to present concerts in the hallowed halls of music worldwide and produces the annual Long Play festival held each spring in Brooklyn. Sruly has also programmed and produced shows for the World Music Institute, the Winter Jazz Festival, SXSW, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Verve Records, the Whitney, MoMA, the Noguchi Museum, Mass MoCA, the Jewish Museum, and many others. Since 2022, he has led music programming at the innovative Gowanus venue, Public Records, and acts as an A&R consultant for the iconic record label, Nonesuch.

Behind the Scenes

Paste Magazine Sessions

Behind the stages and between the sets, something special was happening. Paste Magazine was on the ground at Big Ears 2026, capturing intimate sessions with some of the most remarkable artists of the weekend — and the results are stunning.

Made possible by our incredible partner Tombras, these sessions offer a rare, up-close look at the artists who made this festival so unforgettable. Over the coming weeks, we'll be sharing them across our social channels — and trust us, you won't want to miss a single one.

Follow along and stay tuned!

Paste Magazine

Reggie Watts

Gregory Ulhmann

Blue Plate & Big Plate Specials with WDVX

One of our favorite Big Ears traditions returned in 2026 — and it was as good as ever. We teamed up with our friends at WDVX for the Blue Plate and Big Plate Specials at Barley's, bringing some of the festival's most spirited performances to an intimate, welcoming setting that felt like home.

This year, we were treated to sets from the enchanting Ukrainian folk ensemble Yagody and the one-of-a-kind rockabilly wild man Bloodshot Bill — two performances that captured exactly the kind of joyful, unexpected magic that makes Big Ears so special. Free, fun, and completely unforgettable.

Thank you to WDVX for being such wonderful partners and for helping us bring the music to everyone.

YAGODY

Bloodshot Bill

Support Our Mission

Big Ears 2026 brought together artists and audiences from every corner of the world, filled our beloved downtown Knoxville with music and art and conversations, and reminded us all of the profound power of gathering together around something truly special.

We are already hard at work on 2027 — and your support is what makes it all possible. Every gift goes directly toward bringing the most adventurous, boundary-pushing artists to our stages, opening our doors to the community, and continuing to build something that Knoxville — and the world — can be proud of.

If Big Ears has ever moved you, we'd love your help in keeping it going.

DONATE HERE

Copyright (C) 2026 Big Ears Festival. All rights reserved.
Hi! You're receiving this email because you joined the Big Ears mailing list via our website, a ticket purchase, a contest, or other promotion.

Our mailing address is:
Big Ears Festival P.O. Box 217 Knoxville, Tennessee 37901 USA

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe.