The Texas run closes on a Sunday. Willie Nelson & Family play The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands on July 5 — the third night of three consecutive Texas dates, after Irving on the 3rd and Austin on the 4th. If you know the 4th of July Picnic tradition Willie started at a Dripping Springs ranch in 1973 — the gathering that set out to put hippies and rednecks in the same field and actually pulled it off — you already understand what it means that the Outlaw Music Festival ends its Texas run the day after.
About the Outlaw Music Festival
Willie Nelson is 92. He’s on the road again this summer with a new record — Dream Chaser, out May 29 — including a co-write with Bob Dylan called “I Can’t Read Your Mind.” When he says every night on tour means a little more these days, you believe it. The Outlaw Music Festival is in its 11th year, the institutional form that old tradition has taken: a traveling amphitheater bill that Willie curates and headlines himself, every one of the 12 2026 dates.
The Texas bill is the strongest of the run. Wilco — the Chicago group that has spent three decades folding alt-country, art rock, and Americana into each other — is on all three Texas dates and none of the others. Grammy-winning Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Sheryl Crow holds down six of the twelve tour stops. Margo Price, who has been pressing for a rawer outlaw sound from inside Nashville since before it was fashionable, is on this date. Stephen Wilson Jr. — the Americana singer-songwriter who appears on 11 of 12 festival stops — rounds out the main bill alongside Lily Meola.
The Venue
The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion sits thirty miles north of downtown Houston. It opened in 1990. Capacity runs to 16,500 — 6,500 under cover, 10,000 on the lawn. It is among the most heavily booked amphitheaters anywhere, which tracks. For a show with gates at 2:00 PM in July, the lawn will be where the afternoon takes shape long before Willie steps to the microphone. Plan for that.
Tickets
Tickets are available through Ticketmaster. VIP packages include premium seating and festival merchandise. Showtime is 2:00 PM. Find more upcoming shows in the Houston region.