Sacramento’s country music festival, GoldenSky, is being postponed for a year with plans to return to a bigger festival in 2026.
Danny Wimmer Presents produces the country festival, which has been held at Discovery Park since 2022 in partnership with Visit Sacramento.
Last year, the festival drew around 75,000 attendees and expanded from two days to three days. GoldenSky 2024 had artists Luke Bryan, Thomas Rhett, and Keith Urban as headliners.
According to a statement on the festival's website, the postponement “wasn’t an easy decision, but we’re committed to delivering the best possible festival experience for our Golden Sky community.”
Visit Sacramento's President and CEO, Mike Testa, said GoldenSky's economic impact is close to $15 million. He said the postponement was due to the inability to compile a festival lineup of the necessary caliber this year.
He said when a specific genre is featured in a festival, you rely on the artists in that genre to play at the show.
“Part of the challenge is there are a lot of country music festivals across the country, and there are only so many artists to go around,” Testa said.
He added that next year, there will be an opportunity to bring in artists from different genres, giving them a wider range of artists to choose from.
“As we look ahead to 2026 I think you'll see us widen the genre a little bit to open that up to more than just country,” he said.
Testa said the decision to postpone wasn’t taken lightly, but if GoldenSky didn’t do well this year and the promoter loses a lot of money, they could say they’re done with the festival.
“I would much rather them take a step back, recalibrate it, bring it back in 2026 and ensure some longevity that way.”
Testa added that Aftershock at Discovery Park will continue as planned in October.
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