The lineup has dropped for Tortuga Music Festival 2026, with headliners led by the return of Kenny Chesney, joined by multigenre ubiquity Post Malone (near the top of many fans’ wish list) and heartthrob Riley Green.
The annual sand-in-my-boots hoedown will take place at Fort Lauderdale Beach Park on April 10-12. Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday at TortugaMusicFestival.com. No word yet on prices. Hotel and VIP experience packages are now available at Tortuga.vibee.com.
The unofficial godfather of Tortuga Music Festival since he brought his stadium-filling credibility to the Year 1 lineup in 2013, Chesney will be making his sixth headlining appearance at the festival.
“I love everything about Tortuga, starting with that very first year,” Chesney said in a statement from the festival announcing the 2026 lineup. “To be on the Atlantic Ocean with all that beach, the sea to one side and A1A to the other, is everything this music is made of — and the people who’ve been coming out every time we’ve played there are my kind of people.”
Jim Rassol / Sun Sentinel
Kenny Chesney, shown at the 2017 Tortuga Music Festival, will be back for more in 2026. (Jim Rassol/South Florida Sun Sentinel file)
The big get for Tortuga 2026 is Malone, the chart-topping, Texas-raised rapper, singer and producer who made a successful foray into country music with the 2024 album, “F-1 Trillion.” Featuring collaborations with Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs, Dolly Parton, Blake Shelton and others, the album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 all-genre chart and the Billboard Country Albums chart.
Hit singles from “F-1 Trillion” such as “I Had Some Help,” “Guy for That” and “Pour Me a Drink” should be major sing-alongs at Tortuga, not to mention massive mainstream hits including “Rockstar,” “Sunflower” and “Circles.”
Lesser-known Riley Green has no shortage of perfect-for-Tortuga songs, among them “There Was This Girl,” “Different ‘Round Here,” “Half of Me,” “If It Wasn’t for Trucks,” “You Look Like You Love Me” and the heart-tugging “I Wish Grandpas Never Died.”
But Green also has something no other Tortuga 2026 act can claim: He’s among the finalists in People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive Readers’ Choice poll. That’s not nothing at Tortuga, just ask the ladies.
Brent Harrington/CBS
Something for the ladies: Riley Green has many perfect-for-Tortuga songs. (Brent Harrington/CBS file)
Beyond the headliners, Tortuga 2026 will have an undercard filled with familiar fan favorites and country stars on the rise, including Florida Georgia Line’s Tyler Hubbard, Lukas Nelson, Dwight Yoakam, Russell Dickerson, Dustin Lynch, Brittney Spencer, Amanda Shires, Clay Walker, Flatland Cavalry, Shane Smith and the Saints, Chayce Beckham and many more.
Parkland-raised country singer Ashley Cooke is on the bill, as is Fort Lauderdale rock-soul singer Adam David, winner of NBC’s “The Voice” in May.
In again wisely tapping into other genres, producing partner Live Nation scored another coup with the inclusion of actor and rap icon Ice Cube.
Rob Grabowski/Rob Grabowski/Invision/AP
Rapper and actor Ice Cube is sure to be one of the most popular performers at Tortuga Music Festival 2026. (Rob Grabowski/Invision/AP file)
Other acts that will bring diverse sounds to the mix include The Fray, Colbie Caillat, Afroman, Uncle Kracker, G. Love and Special Sauce, Surfer Girl and The Wheeland Brothers.
The rest of the Tortuga 2026 lineup announced so far includes Graham Barham, The Band Loula, Preston Cooper, Hunter Flynn, Cole Goodwin, Solon Holt, Greylan James, Mary Kutter, Lakeview, McCoy Moore, Elizabeth Nichols, Emily Ann Roberts, Owen Riegling, DJ Rock, Josh Ross, Rhys Rutherford, Dee Jay Silver, Something Out West, Sons of Legion, Buffalo Traffic Jam, Chandler Walters, Jack Wharff Band and Brandon Wisham.
If Tortuga were looking to provide a reminder of its value to Fort Lauderdale as city commissioners have been pondering a significant increase in impact fees charged to the festival, a lineup featuring Chesney and Malone would be one way to go.
With its debut as a two-day festival in 2013 (with headliners Chesney and Eric Church), Tortuga proved that South Florida was a country-music hotbed and that a major festival could be held on Fort Lauderdale’s waterfront barrier island.
Now a three-day event that attracts about 25,000 people per day, Tortuga was named Festival of the Year by the Academy of Country Music in 2016, 2019 and 2023.
A portion of the proceeds from the festival supports Rock the Ocean, created by part-time Fort Lauderdale resident Chris Stacey, a diver, ocean-environment advocate and music industry veteran.
A centerpiece of the festival site is the Conservation Village, which hosts dozens of organizations that work on ocean and sea life sustainability. More than $5 million has been raised for these initiatives over the years.
Staff writer Ben Crandell can be reached at bcrandell@sunsentinel.com. Follow on IG: @BenCrandell.
Originally Published: October 16, 2025 at 8:05 AM EDT