Willie Nelson & Family, Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp, Southern Avenue and More Headliner of This Summer’s Outlaw Music Festival
Willie Nelson & Family, Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp and Southern Avenue are among the headliners on this year’s Outlaw Music Festival tour, visiting cities across America until September. Blackbird Presents and Live Nation Concerts joined forces to bring an outstanding lineup of legendary artists spanning genres and generations for audiences both old and new.
Outlaw Music Festival‘s fourth tour stop at Mansfield’s Xfinity Center marked an exceptional performance by an array of musicians that reflected its namesake’s freewheeling lifestyle and interests. Their “Outlaw Village” included vendors selling lighters, coffee cups, posters, and stash boxes emblazoned with its logo.
People attending Outlaw’s concert embraced an atmosphere of community spirit; many stood shoulder-to-shoulder and sang along in unison throughout its performance, an exhilarating experience which confirmed why Outlaw has become an annual summer tradition.
As with previous festivals, this year’s Outlaw Music Festival has been a dual celebration: music that defies expectations as well as its headliner’s 90th birthday. After debuting as one-off event in Scranton in 2016, its overwhelming success encouraged Nelson, promoter Mark Rothbaum, and talent buyer Keith Wortman to turn it into a touring franchise.
The 2023 Outlaw tour brings together both legends and rising stars of American music history. Alongside Outlaw veterans such as Margo Price and Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real; Ralph Stanley and Doyle Lawson from bluegrass; jam band darlings String Cheese Incident; Nashville country star Sturgill Simpson as well as Trampled by Turtles’ Amanda Shires and Molly Tuttle’s Golden Highway are featured.
While Nelson does not currently include Texas in his tour schedule, fans can still catch him performing with different artists at his Luck Reunion show in March and at Pavilion at Star Lake in August.
Myron Elkins began the concert in Mansfield with an acoustic set, wowing the crowd with his sharply rendered songs. Reminiscent of Sammi Elkins’ country music from the 70s, Myron Elkins mesmerized all.
As the evening continued, more diverse acts joined Chris Stapleton and Allision Russel onstage; others such as Billy Strings, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Whiskey Myers and Gov’t Mule also appeared. One highlight was when Grateful Dead alumni Bob Weir joined Nelson & Family for an uproarious rendition of “Will The Circle Be Unbroken.”
This summer’s Outlaw Music Festival tour continues across America with stops at Hersheypark Stadium (100 Hersheypark Dr, Hershey), TD Pavilion at The Mann Center (5201 Parkside Avenue in Philadelphia) on August 5 and PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel (116 Garden State Parkway, Holmdel) on September 2 – check out their full schedule below and purchase tickets here!