Eric Clapton built the Crossroads Guitar Festival on a simple premise: that the guitar, played at its highest level, is worth two full evenings of serious attention, and that the proceeds ought to go somewhere that matters. Since the first edition at Madison Square Garden in 1999, the festival has been that argument made in practice — a gathering of the instrument’s greatest living voices, organized around the charitable mission of Crossroads Centre Antigua, the drug and alcohol treatment and education center Clapton founded in Antigua in 1998. He closes both nights himself at every edition. He will close them again in Austin on September 26 and 27, 2026, when the Crossroads Guitar Festival arrives at Moody Center ATX for the first time the festival has ever played this city.
Austin waited a long time for this. The festival has touched down at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas in 2004, American Airlines Center in Dallas in 2019, twice at Toyota Park outside Chicago, twice at Madison Square Garden, and at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles in 2023 — where it sold out on both nights. It has never played Austin. That changes this September, and the city’s guitar history makes the arrival feel overdue. Gary Clark Jr. and Jimmie Vaughan are both on the 2026 bill as returning Crossroads veterans, and their presence here carries a different weight than it would in Los Angeles or Chicago. This is their territory. The Texas blues tradition runs through them, and the festival, and this city, in ways that make the convergence feel less like booking and more like inevitability.
About Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival
The full 2026 lineup runs wide in every direction. Returning alongside Clark and Vaughan: Joe Bonamassa, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, Buddy Guy, Sonny Landreth, John Mayer, the Del McCoury Band, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Ben Haggard, Sierra Hull, Marcus King, Taj Mahal, John McLaughlin, Keb’ Mo’, Robert Randolph, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and Bradley Walker and Brothers of the Heart. Making their Crossroads debuts this year: Trey Anastasio of Phish, Australian fingerstyle guitarist Tommy Emmanuel, jazz guitarist Julian Lage, and Pete Townshend of The Who. Blues, rock, folk, jazz, bluegrass — the festival has never been a single-genre affair, and the 2026 edition extends the range further than most. Per-night scheduling has not yet been released; not all performers will appear on both nights.
Guitar Center, the festival’s exclusive retail partner, will present a Legends Collection exhibition running alongside the performances. On display: Clapton’s 1956 Fender Stratocaster known as ‘Blackie,’ his 1964 Gibson ES-335 — the guitar he played with Cream — and Stevie Ray Vaughan’s 1965 Fender Stratocaster ‘Lenny.’ That ‘Lenny’ will be in Austin while Jimmie Vaughan performs is the kind of unrepeatable convergence the Crossroads festival occasionally produces, and this one belongs to this city in a way no other stop on the festival’s touring history could have provided.
The 2026 edition marks the 28th anniversary of Crossroads Centre Antigua. “I can’t walk away,” Clapton said in a 2019 interview, “so I’ve come back to do the thing I know how to do best, which is play.” The festival is the proof of that, edition after edition.
At Moody Center ATX
Moody Center ATX is located at 2001 Robert Dedman Drive, Austin, TX 78712, with a capacity of 15,000. Michael Owens, SVP of Entertainment at Moody Center, called the 2026 Crossroads festival “poised to be one of the most iconic events ever to take place in our arena.” Doors and showtime are at 5:30 PM CT on both nights. Suite rentals are available through the venue. For more information, visit moodycenteratx.com. For more upcoming shows, browse the full Austin concerts calendar.
Tickets
Tickets for Night 1 — Saturday, September 26, 2026 — are on sale now. Get tickets via Ticketmaster, or visit crossroadsguitarfestival.com for the official festival site. Night 2, Sunday, September 27, is ticketed separately.