The Verve Pipe, the Michigan alt-rock band behind the 1997 hit “The Freshmen,” will open for co-headliners Tonic and Vertical Horizon at this year's Atomic Fall Fest in Oak Ridge. The concert takes place September 12 at A.K. Bissell Park, with gates opening at 5 p.m. and performances kicking off at 6 p.m.
The lineup announcement comes from the City of Oak Ridge Government, which confirmed the full evening bill and stage schedule for the second annual festival. Evening concert tickets run $25 per person, while kids 13 and under get in free, with passes sold through the festival's official online portal at atomicfallfest.com. That pricing and the free-admission policy for younger attendees were laid out in the city's announcement as organizers push family turnout for the ticketed portion of the night.
A Rebrand Built on Local History
Atomic Fall Fest is still a fairly new name in Oak Ridge's civic calendar. The city launched it in September 2025 as a replacement for the long-running Secret City Festival, according to WBIR. That earlier festival traced its roots back to 1982's Azalea Festival before it went inactive after 2021, and city officials created the new branding to bring fresh energy to municipal community programming.
Daytime festivities on September 12 start at 10 a.m. with free children's activities and interactive entertainment, alongside 12-by-12-foot booth spaces for local artisan, commercial, and food vendors, per the city's event planning. Vendor application fees were set at $100 per space across categories. The structure mirrors a pattern seen elsewhere in Oak Ridge's calendar, where free daytime programming leads into a ticketed evening centerpiece — a formula the city also used for its 250th birthday concert at Bissell Park earlier this year.
The Band Behind a 90s Radio Staple
The Verve Pipe's mainstream breakthrough came with “The Freshmen,” a single from the platinum-certified album Villains that peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, according to American Songwriter. Lead singer and songwriter Brian Vander Ark wrote the track before the band's major-label debut, and it remains the group's signature radio hit nearly three decades later.
Co-headliner Vertical Horizon has slotted the Oak Ridge date into a broader 2026 nationwide tour that also includes stops at state fairs and the Bourbon & Beyond festival, according to the band's own tour listings. The stop places Oak Ridge alongside larger regional festival markets on that circuit for at least one late-summer weekend.
A Park Steeped in Manhattan Project History
A.K. Bissell Park itself carries its own historical weight. The park is home to the 8,000-pound bronze International Friendship Bell, cast in Kyoto, Japan, and dedicated to honor Manhattan Project workers while promoting global peace, according to the National Park Service. It serves as a central public gathering space along the Oak Ridge Turnpike, putting the festival's rock lineup within view of one of the city's most significant civic monuments.
That juxtaposition fits the city's origin story. Oak Ridge was established in 1942 as a top-secret federal site for uranium enrichment under the Manhattan Project, and its population swelled to a wartime peak of 75,000 people, per Encyclopædia Britannica. The city's population has since settled to a 2020 Census count of 31,402, with municipal estimates now placing it closer to 34,000 residents, according to Citizen Portal.
Atomic Fall Fest joins an already busy local events calendar. Oak Ridge's Jackson Square Lavender Festival drew an estimated 24,000 visitors in 2024, according to Explore Oak Ridge, reflecting how heavily the city's tourism efforts lean on outdoor and historical programming throughout the year.
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