Suwannee Hulaween returns to Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak this week, running Thursday through Sunday, October 22-25, for its 13th year. The festival's Phase One lineup is topped by Pretty Lights, My Morning Jacket, Excision and Geese, alongside three nights of headlining sets from The String Cheese Incident.
The 2026 bill blends returning favorites with fresh faces, according to Orlando Weekly. Lettuce, Karina Rykman, Maddy O'Neal and Manic Focus are back for another round, while Dope Lemon, Kasablanca and Effy make their first appearances at the festival. The outlet also reported that four-day GA passes start at $469, a price it described as cheaper than the previous year — though other sources list different figures, with jambase.com and liveforlivemusic.com pointing to a reduced rate as low as $462.62 including fees, and edmidentity.com noting a Blind Faith presale price of $449.99 including fees and shipping.
Camping Gates Open Thursday Morning
Festivalgoers holding 4-day GA, GA+ or VIP passes can access the campgrounds starting at 8 a.m. ET Thursday, running through noon ET the following Monday, according to the festival's official pass terms at hulaween.com. Those who purchased an early camping pass were able to get in two days ahead of the main gate, with access beginning at 2 p.m. today. The same source cautions that all passes must be bought directly through Hulaween via Front Gate Tickets to guarantee authenticity.
Beyond the main stages, the park transforms into a sprawl of curated takeovers and art installations. This year's programming includes Green Velvet's LaLaLand, Of the Trees' Memory Palace and the Def: Off Limits Stage, the same outlet reports. Spirit Lake, the festival's long-running art centerpiece, is back as what organizers describe as a glowing, interactive 360-degree experience.
VIP Upgrades and Crowd-Flow Changes
Organizers say a round of 2026 improvements was shaped by feedback from the festival's community, per edmidentity.com. The changes include an expanded VIP shuttle service, the restoration of the River Road VIP entrance, smoother VIP entry lines, enhanced swag bags and a dedicated VIP camper gate. At the same time, the festival is scaling back its VIP stage-viewing sections, which the same report says will free up more of the dance floor for general-admission attendees.
Organizers also plan to reimagine the Spirit Lake 360 immersive experience and stagger set times between the Off Limits and Spirit Lake stages to cut down on sound bleed between performances, according to the same report. Ticket options for the weekend range from General Admission and GA+ to Wizard packages that pair GA with glamping or RV access, plus several tiers of VIP, per jambase.com.
A Festival With Deep Roots in Live Oak
Hulaween has long been a boost to the small North Florida town that hosts it. Back in 2017, roughly 20,000 attendees flocked to the woods outside Live Oak for the event, and a local economic development official at the time estimated the festival generated around $700,000 per day in economic activity, according to news.wfsu.org. That earlier reporting found grocery stores, hotels and gas stations saw the biggest impacts from the influx of visitors. Current attendance and economic figures for the 2026 edition have not been reported.
Whatever changes have come to the festival's VIP offerings and ticket tiers this year, the core draw remains the same: four days of music and art installations tucked into the Florida woods along the Suwannee River, anchored by three nights of The String Cheese Incident and a lineup that spans from veteran jam-band staples to first-time festival acts.
