Next Up Festival 2026 Brings Seven Hours of Live Music to Wilcox Park
Next Up Festival 2026 returns to Wilcox Park in downtown Westerly on Saturday, September 5, with seven hours of live music celebrating young and emerging performers alongside established local artists.
The free, all-ages festival runs from 2 to 9 p.m. and combines live bands with food, art, activities for children and adults, and an afternoon and evening built around Westerly’s growing community of young musicians.
Visitors are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets and settle in around the park’s historic gazebo for the performances.
Giving the Next Generation a Stage
There’s a bigger purpose behind the festival than filling Wilcox Park with music for an afternoon.
Next Up Music Inc. is a Westerly-based nonprofit created to support the next generation of musicians and music professionals. Its work emphasizes mentorship, collaboration and opportunities that can help developing artists take the next steps in their careers.
The organization offers artists opportunities that can include mentorship, live performances, scholarships or financial assistance, studio time, photography and video production.
The festival is where much of that mission becomes visible.
Rather than limiting the stage to established acts, Next Up is designed to put emerging musicians in front of a real audience and give the community a chance to discover artists who may still be at the beginning of their careers.
That’s where the name comes from: who’s next up?
Five Years of Next Up in Westerly
The festival has grown substantially since its early years.
Next Up organizers described the 2023 edition as drawing hundreds of people, while subsequent festivals expanded beyond music to include activities, art and other attractions. By 2025, the event was being promoted as a showcase for young musicians, student bands and local artists.
The 2026 festival marks its fifth year in Westerly.
This year’s event again stretches across seven hours, from 2 to 9 p.m., making it considerably more than a concert in the park.
Expect multiple musical performances along with food, art and activities for both children and adults throughout the day.
The complete 2026 performance schedule has not yet been released publicly. We’ll update this guide as additional performers and set times are announced.
A Festival in the Heart of Westerly
The location is a pretty good match for what Next Up is trying to do.
Wilcox Park is the 14-acre Victorian strolling park and arboretum beside Westerly Library in the center of downtown Westerly.
Its gazebo has long served as a gathering place for outdoor concerts and community events, and the park hosts everything from theatre performances to the Chorus of Westerly’s Summer Pops.
For Next Up, that means young performers aren’t tucked away in a club or private venue. They’re playing in one of the community’s most recognizable public spaces.
The downtown location also makes it easy to turn the festival into a longer Westerly outing, with restaurants, shops and other businesses within walking distance of the park.
Bring a Chair and Stay Awhile
This isn’t an event where you need to arrive at 2 p.m. and remain planted in one spot until 9.
Treat it more like a festival.
Bring a blanket or lawn chair, find a place on the grass and come and go as different artists take the stage. Food will be available, along with activities and other attractions around the park.
And because admission is free, families can stop by for part of the afternoon or make a full day of it without buying festival tickets.
Community Support Keeps the Festival Free
Keeping a seven-hour music festival free requires considerable community backing.
The Ocean Community Chamber of Commerce is again partnering with the festival, while Next Up has also relied on businesses, organizations and individual donors to support its programming.
Previous festival supporters have included Westerly Library & Wilcox Park and Westerly’s UNITED Theatre and UNITED Music School.
That support allows Next Up to maintain one of the event’s central ideas: giving developing performers a legitimate festival stage while allowing the community to hear them without putting admission behind a paywall.
Event Details
Event: Next Up Festival 2026
Date: Saturday, September 5, 2026
Time: 2–9 p.m.
Location: Wilcox Park
Address: 44 Broad Street, Westerly, RI 02891
Admission: Free
Ages: All ages
What to Bring: Lawn chairs or blankets
Featuring: Live music, food, art and activities for children and adults.
More information is available at the Event Website link below.
