Billed as the twangy offshoot of St. Paul’s Minnesota Yacht Club festival, Minnesota Country Club will feature an inaugural music lineup that looks like an alternative to other country regional festivals.
Red Clay Strays, Treaty Oak Revival, Jessie Murph, Charley Crockett and Minnesota’s own Trampled by Turtles are among the headlining acts revealed for the fledgling Country Club, a two-day, two-stage concert marathon scheduled July 10 and 11 at Harriet Island Regional Park — the weekend before Minnesota Yacht Club will return to the same location for its third year. Tickets for Country Club go on sale Jan. 30 (more details below).
A sharp contrast to other popular country music festivals in the area, such as We Fest, Winstock and Country Jam — where mainstream Nashville names like Luke Bryan, Lainey Wilson, Brooks & Dunn and Thomas Rhett are atop the lineups in 2026 — Minnesota Country Club is leaning into artists that appeal more to Gen Z and millennial fans and/or citybound Americana and roots music listeners.
You probably aren’t going to see a lot of authentic cowboy hats or red Make America Great Again ballcaps in the crowd at this particular country music fest. You also probably won’t see half as many attendees in Country Club’s inaugural year as have been seen at Minnesota Yacht Club, which has regularly drawn 35,000 fans daily to Harriet Island with headliners such as Green Day, Hozier, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Alanis Morissette.
One surprising name on the Country Club lineup that (at least thematically) might have been better suited to the Yacht Club festival: The Beach Boys are listed as “special guests” on the lineup poster.
Other names unveiled Wednesday, Jan. 28 on the Country Club 2026 roster include Stephen Wilson Jr., Jesse Welles, Charles Wesley Godwin, Paul Cauthen, Richy Mitch & the Coal Miners, the Last Revel and Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country, most of whom came up through rock clubs like the Turf Club and First Avenue and not rural country dance halls. None of the artists on the Country Club roster are big enough in Minnesota to headline an arena, as is the case with many of Yacht Club’s acts.
Minnesota Country Club is being produced by the same Texas-founded company as Yacht Club, C3 Presents, which was partially bought up by Live Nation in 2014 after success with other U.S. festivals such as Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits. C3 does not produce a lot of country music festivals, but it has enjoyed modest success with some similar Americana-leaning events such as Maryland’s Country Calling Festival and the Two Step Inn near Austin, Texas.
In St. Paul, C3 will benefit from piggybacking the Country Club festival on Yacht Club, since setup and production costs can be shared between the two festivals.
