What is the All Things Go Music Festival?
The All Things Go Music Festival is one of the most distinctive and fastest-growing independent music festivals in the United States — a three-city, multi-day outdoor event celebrated nationally for its deliberately curated, women-forward, LGBTQ+-inclusive lineup and the community it has built around those values. Named for lyrics in Sufjan Stevens’ song “Chicago,” the festival was born in 2014 as a one-day event called the All Things Go Fall Classic, launched at Union Market in Washington, D.C., by four childhood friends — Zack Friendly, Adrian Maseda, Will Suter, and Stephen Vallimarescu — who had been running an online music blog since 2006. They reportedly had just $7 in their bank account when they organized the first edition, which drew approximately 3,000 attendees. Twelve years later, the festival operates as an independent production company without corporate backing from major promoters like Live Nation or AEG, making its growth trajectory one of the most remarkable stories in the modern festival landscape. The DC-area flagship event moved to Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland in 2021, expanded to New York City’s Forest Hills Stadium in 2024, added a Toronto edition at RBC Amphitheatre in 2025, and is now a full three-city, international festival operation for 2026.
Its 2018 all-women lineup, curated by Maggie Rogers and Lizzy Plapinger and headlined by Rogers, Billie Eilish, and Carly Rae Jepsen, is now cited as a foundational moment in indie pop’s feminist cultural turn. The festival has since elevated Chappell Roan, Ethel Cain, boygenius, Noah Kahan, Lucy Dacus, and Doechii to some of the most prominent festival-circuit moments of their careers. For 2026, the festival marks its 12th DC-area edition with a lineup that, by every available signal, is the most ambitious it has ever assembled — anchored by three headliners making their All Things Go debuts and a total of nearly 50 acts spread across three days at Merriweather Post Pavilion.
Key Facts: All Things Go Music Festival Statistics 2026
The following table captures the most important, current, and verified All Things Go 2026 facts — drawn from official festival announcements, Ticketmaster, Music Festival Wizard, Vivid Seats, Stereogum, Baltimore Fishbowl, Northern Virginia Magazine, and Wikipedia.
| Key Fact | Verified Data |
|---|---|
| Festival year / edition (DC) | 12th DC-area edition — 2026 |
| Year founded | 2014 (as All Things Go Fall Classic) |
| First attendance (2014, Union Market DC) | ~3,000 attendees |
| DC flagship dates 2026 | Friday–Sunday, September 25–27, 2026 |
| DC flagship venue | Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, Maryland |
| Merriweather Post Pavilion daily capacity | ~20,000 attendees per day |
| NYC edition dates 2026 | September 25–27, 2026 (same weekend as DC) |
| NYC venue | Forest Hills Stadium, Forest Hills, Queens, New York |
| Toronto edition dates 2026 | June 6–7, 2026 |
| Toronto venue | RBC Amphitheatre, Toronto, Ontario (waterfront) |
| Total confirmed acts — DC 2026 | Nearly 50 acts across 3 days |
| DC 2026 headliners (Friday) | Mitski & Ethel Cain |
| DC 2026 headliners (Saturday) | Hayley Williams & MUNA |
| DC 2026 headliners (Sunday) | Brandi Carlile & Lola Young |
| Toronto 2026 headliners | Kesha (Saturday) & Lorde (Sunday) |
| Friday gates open time (Merriweather) | 3:00 PM ET |
| Saturday & Sunday gates open time | 11:00 AM ET |
| Consecutive DC sellout streak | 5 years in a row |
| 2023 waitlist size (most recent disclosed) | 40,000+ people on waitlist after sellout |
| Combined 2024 attendance (DC + NYC, Pollstar) | ~70,000 across 4 days |
| Cheapest ticket — 1-day GA Lawn (2026) | $149 |
| 3-day GA Lawn pass (2026) | $349 |
| Priciest ticket — 1-day VIP Super Suite (2026) | $799 |
| 3-day VIP Super Suite pass (2026) | $1,995 |
| Presale start date (DC 2026) | May 6, 2026 at 10:00 AM ET |
| General on-sale date (DC 2026) | May 7, 2026 at 10:00 AM ET |
Data Sources: Official All Things Go Festival website — allthingsgofestival.com; Music Festival Wizard — All Things Go Festival 2026 entry; Northern Virginia Magazine — “All Things Go Music Festival Announces Star-Studded Lineup” (May 6, 2026); Baltimore Fishbowl — “All Things Go Festival 2026 Unveils Lineup of Performers” (May 2026); Stereogum — “All Things Go DC Announces 2026 Lineup” (May 2026); EDGE Media Network — “All Things Go Unveils 2026 DC Lineup” (May 2026); Our Culture Mag — Full DC lineup listing (May 4, 2026); Ticketmaster — All Things Go 2026 listing; Vivid Seats — All Things Go 2026 listings; Wikipedia — All Things Go Music Festival article (updated 2026); Baltimore Banner — “All Things Go: As music festivals struggle, this one keeps getting bigger” (September 25, 2025)
These 26 data points tell a story that is unusual in today’s festival industry. While dozens of other festivals have cancelled or scaled back since 2023 — what Music Festival Wizard founder Vito Valentinetti, who has covered 125+ festivals in 35 countries, described as more cancellations than he had ever seen in any prior period — All Things Go has done the opposite. It has grown from a one-day, one-city event in 2023 to a three-day, three-city international festival by 2026, all while maintaining independent ownership and a five-year consecutive sellout record at Merriweather Post Pavilion. The $149 entry point for a one-day GA Lawn ticket places it in what festival analysts describe as the “not cheap but not out of reach” tier — meaningfully more accessible than Coachella or Governors Ball, while the $1,995 three-day VIP Super Suite caters to the premium end of the market. With the DC, NYC, and Toronto editions all announced and ticketed simultaneously for 2026, All Things Go is now operating with the organizational footprint of a mid-tier major festival while retaining the curation sensibility of an indie music blog that just happens to sell out a 20,000-person venue five times running.
All Things Go 2026 Dates, Venues & Locations
All Things Go Music Festival 2026 — Three-City Schedule
TORONTO EDITION (First in 2026 calendar):
June 6–7, 2026
RBC Amphitheatre, Toronto, Ontario
Waterfront venue, Lake Ontario views + Toronto skyline backdrop
Headliners: Kesha (Saturday) | Lorde (Sunday)
Tickets: ~CAD $36+ payment plans available
DC / MARYLAND EDITION (Flagship):
September 25–27, 2026 (3 days)
Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, Maryland
Capacity: ~20,000 per day | 2-stage format
Friday gates: 3 PM | Saturday-Sunday gates: 11 AM
Headliners: Mitski + Ethel Cain | Hayley Williams + MUNA | Brandi Carlile + Lola Young
NYC EDITION (Same weekend as DC):
September 25–27, 2026
Forest Hills Stadium, Forest Hills, Queens, New York
Capacity: ~13,000 | 15 minutes from Manhattan
Lineup: TBA (many overlapping DC artists expected)
| Edition | Dates | Venue | City / State | Capacity | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Things Go Toronto 2026 | June 6–7, 2026 | RBC Amphitheatre | Toronto, Ontario, Canada | Not disclosed | 2-day |
| All Things Go DC 2026 | September 25–27, 2026 | Merriweather Post Pavilion | Columbia, Maryland | ~20,000/day | 3-day |
| All Things Go NYC 2026 | September 25–27, 2026 | Forest Hills Stadium | Forest Hills, Queens, NY | ~13,000 | 2-day |
| Merriweather address | — | 10475 Little Patuxent Pkwy | Columbia, MD 21044 | — | Outdoor |
| Forest Hills Stadium address | — | 1 Tennis Place | Forest Hills, NY 11375 | — | Outdoor |
| RBC Amphitheatre address | — | Harbourfront, Lake Ontario | Toronto, ON | — | Outdoor waterfront |
| DC venue type | — | Outdoor pavilion + lawn | Howard County, MD | Lawn + reserved | All ages |
| NYC venue note | — | ~15 minutes from downtown Manhattan | Queens, NYC | GA + reserved | All ages |
| Camping offered? | — | No — all three editions | — | — | No camping |
| Rain policy | — | Rain or shine — all editions | — | — | No refunds rain |
Data Sources: Official All Things Go festival websites — allthingsgofestival.com, allthingsgofestival.com/toronto; Music Festival Wizard — All Things Go Festival 2026 and All Things Go Festival Toronto 2026 entries; Music Festival Wizard — All Things Go Festival NYC 2026 entry; Ticketmaster All Things Go 2026 listings; Wikipedia — All Things Go Music Festival (capacity data)
The 2026 three-city festival architecture reflects a deliberate geographic logic that the organizers have built over the past three years. The Toronto edition arrives first, in early June, taking advantage of warmer weather at the RBC Amphitheatre’s waterfront setting along Lake Ontario — a venue that offers what the official Toronto festival site describes as “sweeping waterfront views and the Toronto skyline as its backdrop.” The Toronto edition is a 2-day format with no overlapping set times, meaning every attendee can see every artist — a structural choice that reflects All Things Go’s explicit commitment to its undercard as much as its headliners. With Kesha and Lorde headlining opposite days in Toronto, and secondary artists including Wet Leg, Del Water Gap, Rachel Chinouriri, and The Beaches, the Toronto 2026 bill skews slightly more pop-accessible than its DC counterpart. The Ticketmaster listing showed Toronto Sunday tickets at 1% of inventory remaining as of the May 2026 on-sale period, suggesting the Toronto edition sold nearly to capacity almost immediately.
The flagship DC edition at Merriweather Post Pavilion runs simultaneously with the NYC edition at Forest Hills Stadium across the same September 25–27 weekend — a logistical choice that reduces artist travel costs, allows many performers to appear at both venues, and keeps the cultural momentum of All Things Go weekend concentrated in a single media cycle. Merriweather’s address — 10475 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia, MD, roughly equidistant between Baltimore and Washington — gives the festival a geographic positioning that draws from both metro areas without being fully claimed by either. The DC-area festival’s 5 a.m. ET gates on Friday (opening at 3 PM, later than the Saturday/Sunday 11 AM opening) reflects a format where Friday is a shorter, more concentrated evening-oriented day compared to the full-day Saturday and Sunday programming. The NYC venue at Forest Hills Stadium — a 13,000-capacity historic outdoor amphitheater in Queens — offers the festival a New York footprint “just 15 minutes from downtown Manhattan,” per Music Festival Wizard, without the cost or logistical burden of a larger outdoor space.
All Things Go 2026 Full DC Lineup — Day by Day Schedule
All Things Go DC 2026 — Confirmed Lineup at Merriweather Post Pavilion
(Stereogum, Our Culture Mag, EDGE Media Network, Baltimore Fishbowl — May 2026)
FRIDAY, September 25 (Gates 3 PM)
══════════════════════════════════════
HEADLINERS: Mitski ● Ethel Cain
SUPPORTING: Rainbow Kitten Surprise ● Magdalena Bay ● Slayyyter ● Rico Nasty
ALSO: Robby Hoffman (comedian) ● Balu Brigada ● Ninajirachi ● SYML ● Wes Parker
SATURDAY, September 26 (Gates 11 AM)
══════════════════════════════════════
HEADLINERS: Hayley Williams ("The Hayley Williams Show") ● MUNA
SUPPORTING: Zara Larsson ● Suki Waterhouse ● Del Water Gap ● She & Him ● The Beths
ALSO: The Beaches ● Rebecca Black ● Hemlocke Springs ● Grace Ives ● Zolita
Naika ● Haute & Freddy ● Love Spells ● Susannah Joffe ● Glom
Kevin Atwater
SUNDAY, September 27 (Gates 11 AM)
══════════════════════════════════════
HEADLINERS: Brandi Carlile ● Lola Young
SUPPORTING: Sienna Spiro ● Father John Misty ● Tinashe ● Wolf Alice ● CMAT
ALSO: Flipturn ● Jensen McRae ● Ryan Beatty ● Stella Lefty
Rochelle Jordan ● Tiny Habits ● Trousdale ● Violet Grohl
Natalie Jinju ● googly eyes ● Jake Minch
| Day | Headliners | Key Supporting Acts | Gates Open | Mood / Genre Focus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friday, Sept 25 | Mitski, Ethel Cain | Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Magdalena Bay, Slayyyter, Rico Nasty | 3:00 PM ET | Art-pop, indie, alt — atmospheric & intense |
| Saturday, Sept 26 | Hayley Williams, MUNA | Zara Larsson, Suki Waterhouse, She & Him, The Beths, Del Water Gap | 11:00 AM ET | Pop, indie pop, queer anthems — biggest crowd day |
| Sunday, Sept 27 | Brandi Carlile, Lola Young | Father John Misty, Tinashe, Wolf Alice, CMAT, Flipturn | 11:00 AM ET | Rock, Americana, soul — more eclectic; rock-leaning close |
| Total confirmed acts | — | Nearly 50 acts total across 3 days | — | Indie, pop, alt, R&B, comedy |
| Festival comedian | Robby Hoffman (Friday) | First time a comedian has been on ATG DC bill | Friday | Queer-affirming comedy |
| ATG debut headliners | Hayley Williams, Brandi Carlile | Both making first-ever ATG appearance | — | Debut performers 2026 |
| ATG veteran returnees | Mitski (3-yr gap), MUNA (4th appearance), Lola Young (3rd year running) | — | — | Festival family acts |
Data Sources: Stereogum — “All Things Go DC Announces 2026 Lineup” (May 2026); Our Culture Mag — “All Things Go Festival Announces 2026 Lineup” (May 4, 2026); EDGE Media Network — “All Things Go Unveils 2026 DC Lineup” (May 2026); Baltimore Fishbowl — “All Things Go Festival 2026 Unveils Lineup of Performers” (May 2026); Northern Virginia Magazine — “All Things Go Music Festival Announces Star-Studded Lineup” (May 6, 2026)
The 2026 DC lineup is the most deliberately layered All Things Go has put together in its 12-year history, and the day-by-day architecture rewards attention. Friday leads with Mitski and Ethel Cain — two of the most critically serious, lyrically intense artists on the modern indie circuit — creating an opening night that sets an emotional and artistic high bar before the weekend has even fully begun. Mitski last appeared at All Things Go in 2022 and is returning after a three-year absence, headlining in a more prominent role than her previous appearances. Ethel Cain, whose 2025 performance was widely cited as a highlight of that year’s festival, returns for what fans are already calling a defining set. The Friday supporting cast — Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Magdalena Bay, Slayyyter, and Rico Nasty — covers the full spectrum from dreamy indie folk to hyperpop to rap, making Friday perhaps the most genre-diverse single day of the three. The addition of comedian Robby Hoffman to the Friday bill marks the first time All Things Go has placed a comedy act within its music programming, reflecting the festival’s growing ambition to be a full cultural event rather than solely a concert experience.
Saturday shapes up as the largest crowd day, headlined by Hayley Williams — described in coverage as “The Hayley Williams Show,” a retrospective spanning her solo work and her Paramore catalog — alongside MUNA, whose fourth All Things Go appearance earns them what the Baltimore Fishbowl described as “festival family status.” Saturday’s support tier of Zara Larsson, Suki Waterhouse, She & Him, and The Beths covers international pop, indie rock, and folk-inflected alternative in a way that keeps the crowd fed across 12+ hours of programming. Sunday closes with Brandi Carlile — making her All Things Go debut alongside Lola Young, who has now appeared at the festival in both 2024 and 2025, cementing a remarkable rising-artist story. The Sunday bill’s inclusion of Father John Misty, Wolf Alice, Tinashe, and Flipturn alongside artists like Violet Grohl and Ryan Beatty marks it as the most rock-leaning and eclectic of the three days, offering a notably different sonic closure to the weekend than the pop-dominated Saturday.
All Things Go 2026 Tickets — Prices, Types & Availability
All Things Go DC 2026 — Ticket Tiers at Merriweather Post Pavilion
Single-Day Tickets:
GA Lawn (1 Day): $149 ████████████████████
VIP (1 Day): Not specified (between GA and Super Suite)
VIP Super Suite (1 Day): $799 ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
3-Day Pass Options:
GA Lawn (3 Days): $349 █████████████████████████████
VIP Super Suite (3 Days): $1,995 ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
Toronto Edition:
Payment plans from: CAD $36/month
Limited ticket types remaining at time of reporting
On-Sale Timeline (DC):
Presale: May 6, 2026 at 10:00 AM ET
General: May 7, 2026 at 10:00 AM ET
| Ticket Type | Single Day Price | 3-Day Pass Price | Key Inclusions |
|---|---|---|---|
| GA Lawn | $149 | $349 | Access to both stages, interactive art, 9:32 Club, Skylawn |
| VIP (mid-tier) | Not separately specified | Not separately specified | Enhanced access; between GA and Super Suite |
| VIP Super Suite | $799 | $1,995 | Reserved seats, exclusive viewing areas, concierge bar/food service, commemorative merch |
| Ticket tiers total | 4 types | — | Varying experience levels |
| Toronto GA (approx) | CAD $36+ payment plans | — | GA areas, food vendors, bars (19+ for alcohol) |
| Presale launch (DC) | May 6, 2026 — 10:00 AM ET | — | Email sign-up required for presale code |
| General on-sale (DC) | May 7, 2026 — 10:00 AM ET | — | All remaining inventory |
| Platform for DC tickets | allthingsgofestival.com + Ticketmaster | — | Official channels recommended |
| Platform for Toronto | allthingsgofestival.com/toronto | — | Payment plans available |
| Age restriction | All Ages — all three editions | — | Bars 21+ (US) / 19+ (Toronto) |
| Re-entry policy | No re-entry at Merriweather | — | Plan accordingly |
| Rain policy | Rain or shine — no refunds | — | — |
| Sellout risk | High — 5 consecutive sellouts | — | Buy early strongly advised |
| Secondary market | Vivid Seats, StubHub (caveat: MD speculative ticket law) | — | Maryland: speculative tickets now illegal |
Data Sources: Baltimore Fishbowl — ticket pricing breakdown (May 2026); Official All Things Go DC website — allthingsgofestival.com/dmv; Official All Things Go Toronto website — allthingsgofestival.com/toronto; Ticketmaster All Things Go 2026 listings; Vivid Seats All Things Go 2026 listings; WTOP — “All Things no-go? The ticketing nightmare” (May 2024, Maryland speculative ticket law referenced)
The 2026 ticket structure for All Things Go DC reflects the careful pricing balance that festival director commentary has flagged as essential in the current market: affordable enough to maintain the loyal, young, fan-first audience the festival has built, while premium enough at the upper tier to generate the revenue needed to pay for headliners of the caliber that Mitski, Hayley Williams, and Brandi Carlile represent. The $149 single-day GA Lawn floor — which includes access to both festival stages, interactive art installations, the 9:32 Club, and the Skylawn — delivers between 10 and 11 hours of live music per day, making it one of the stronger value propositions in the mid-Atlantic festival market. The $349 three-day GA pass offers 30+ hours of music across the full weekend for roughly the price of a single general admission ticket at Coachella. At the top, the $799 single-day VIP Super Suite provides reserved seating in exclusive viewing areas with concierge bar and food service plus commemorative merchandise — the kind of premium experience that has become essential for festivals to offer given the rising segment of older and higher-income music fans who attend festivals but require more comfort than a lawn spot provides.
The ticketing history context is important for anyone planning attendance. All Things Go has sold out at Merriweather for five consecutive years. In 2023, the festival documented a waitlist exceeding 40,000 people after tickets sold out — more than double the venue’s daily capacity. In 2024, the two-day pass sold out before presale was even finished. In 2024, WTOP documented multiple cases of fans sitting in a Ticketmaster queue of 8,500+ people within minutes of presale opening. Maryland has since passed legislation making speculative ticket listings illegal — meaning secondary market platforms can no longer legally list tickets they do not actually possess — which represents some consumer protection improvement over 2023–24 conditions. Still, secondary market prices on Vivid Seats show even limited remaining DC inventory commanding significant premiums, and Vivid Seats’ own listings show “only 20 tickets remaining” for the 3-day pass and “12 tickets” for individual days at the time of this article’s research. The practical advice from five years of sellout patterns is unambiguous: buy through the official site at presale if at all possible.
All Things Go Festival Growth, History & Attendance Statistics 2026
All Things Go Festival — Attendance Growth Timeline
2014 | Union Market, DC | 1 day | ~3,000 attendees | Founded with $7 in bank
2016 | Yards Park, DC | 1 day | 15,000-cap venue | First major venue upgrade
2021 | Merriweather MPP | 1 day | ~20,000-cap | Columbia, MD move
2022 | Merriweather MPP | 1 day | ~20,000 attended | 1 of 3 total sellouts
2023 | Merriweather MPP | 2 days| ~40,000 total | First multi-day; 40K+ waitlist
2024 | DC + NYC launch | 4 days| ~70,000 combined | NYC added (Forest Hills)
2025 | DC + NYC + TOR | 6 days| ~100,000+ est. | Toronto added; 3-city debut
2026 | DC + NYC + TOR | 7 days| 100,000+ projected | 3-day DC; 2-day NYC; 2-day Toronto
| Year | Location(s) | Format | Attendance / Notes | Headliners |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Union Market, DC | 1-day | ~3,000 (first edition) | Future Islands, Tove Lo |
| 2016 | Yards Park, DC | 1-day | ~15,000-cap venue | Expanded capacity |
| 2018 | DC area | 1-day | Notable | All-women lineup: Maggie Rogers, Billie Eilish, Carly Rae Jepsen |
| 2021 | Merriweather MPP | 1-day | ~20,000-cap (first sellout) | Major venue move |
| 2022 | Merriweather MPP | 1-day | ~20,000 | Lorde, Mitski, Bleachers |
| 2023 | Merriweather MPP | 2-day | ~40,000 total; 40,000+ waitlist | Lana Del Rey, boygenius, Maggie Rogers |
| 2024 | DC + NYC (debut) | 4-day total | ~70,000 combined (Pollstar) | Laufey, Hozier, Janelle Monáe; NYC debut: Chappell Roan |
| 2025 | DC + NYC + Toronto | 6-day total | ~100,000+ estimated | Noah Kahan, Lucy Dacus, Doechii; Toronto debut: Kesha |
| 2026 | DC + NYC + Toronto | 7-day total | Projected 100,000+ (sold-out pace) | Mitski, Hayley Williams, Brandi Carlile (DC); Kesha, Lorde (Toronto) |
| DC sellout streak | Merriweather MPP | 5 consecutive years | 2021–2025 all sold out | On pace for 6th in 2026 |
| Founders | — | — | Zack Friendly, Adrian Maseda, Will Suter, Stephen Vallimarescu | Independent; no Live Nation/AEG |
Data Sources: Wikipedia — All Things Go Music Festival (verified with cited sources); Grokipedia — All Things Go Music Festival (detailed attendance sourcing); Baltimore Banner — “All Things Go: As music festivals struggle, this one keeps getting bigger” (September 25, 2025); Pollstar data cited in Baltimore Banner; River Hill Current — “All Things Go Music Festival Comes to Merriweather Post Pavilion” (2023 attendance data); TicketSmarter — festival history notes
The growth trajectory of All Things Go from a $7-bankroll, 3,000-person, one-day music blog event in 2014 to a three-city, seven-day-total, projected 100,000+ attendee festival in 2026 is, by any reasonable metric, one of the most compelling independent growth stories in the American live music industry during that period. The journey was not linear — the pandemic forced cancellations like virtually every other festival — but what distinguishes All Things Go is that it responded to the post-pandemic landscape not by retreating but by aggressively expanding. The 2023 expansion from one day to two days immediately doubled the audience to approximately 40,000 while simultaneously generating a 40,000+ person waitlist that confirmed unmet demand was enormous. The 2024 addition of Forest Hills Stadium in New York City — at 13,000 capacity, a substantially smaller venue than Merriweather’s 20,000 — brought combined 2024 attendance to approximately 70,000 across four days, per Pollstar reporting. Adding Toronto in 2025, with its inaugural edition headlined by Kesha, extended the brand internationally and pushed estimated combined attendance toward 100,000 for the first time.
What makes this growth particularly notable in context is the environment it has occurred within. The Music Festival Wizard analysis cited in Baltimore Banner reporting notes that across the broader industry, festivals have been cancelling at historically high rates since 2023 — with high artist fees, inflation in production costs, and audience attention fragmentation combining to make the economics of festival production increasingly precarious. Festivals once considered anchor events — including several that preceded All Things Go by decades — have cancelled editions, sold to corporate promoters, or been discontinued. All Things Go has achieved the opposite of that trend: growing revenue, expanding geographically, maintaining independent ownership, and preserving its curatorial identity intact. Ian Kennedy, executive director of the Merriweather Arts and Culture Center — the nonprofit that owns the venue — described All Things Go as his “favorite of the venue’s festivals,” praising its “youthful energy” and “very open and inclusive and accepting crowd.” That community character, documented consistently across five sellout editions, is the intangible that ticket prices and attendance figures cannot fully capture.
All Things Go 2026 Venue Guide — Merriweather Post Pavilion
Merriweather Post Pavilion — Key Venue Facts (All Things Go DC 2026)
Address: 10475 Little Patuxent Pkwy, Columbia, MD 21044
Capacity: ~20,000 (lawn + pavilion combined)
Venue type: Outdoor amphitheater — forested suburban setting
Stages: 2 (main Pavilion Stage + smaller Chrysalis Stage)
No overlapping set times at All Things Go
Parking: Pre-registration required; multiple lots
Transit: Car / rideshare primary; MARC train + Uber option available
Re-entry: NO re-entry once you leave
Rain policy: RAIN OR SHINE — no refunds
Food/drink: Curated food vendors + bars (21+ for alcohol)
9:32 Club: Included with all tickets
Skylawn: Included with all tickets
VIP areas: Separate reserved seating sections
| Venue Feature | Detail | Notes for Attendees |
|---|---|---|
| Venue name | Merriweather Post Pavilion | Iconic outdoor venue in Columbia, MD |
| Address | 10475 Little Patuxent Pkwy, Columbia, MD 21044 | Howard County; between Baltimore & DC |
| Daily capacity | ~20,000 people | Lawn + pavilion seating combined |
| Number of stages | 2 stages — Pavilion Stage + Chrysalis Stage | No overlapping set times |
| Parking | Pre-registration required | Multiple assigned lots; follow signage |
| Transit options | Car / rideshare primary | MARC Camden Line to Savage/Laurel + rideshare |
| Food & beverage | Curated vendors; craft cocktails, beer, wine | Bars for 21+ only; food for all ages |
| Included with all GA tickets | 9:32 Club, Skylawn, both stage access, interactive art | As listed on official ATG site |
| VIP Super Suite inclusions | Reserved seats, exclusive viewing area, concierge F&B, commemorative merch | Separate area from GA |
| Re-entry policy | NO re-entry | Plan all essentials before exiting |
| Rain/weather | Rain or shine — no refunds | Bring weather gear as needed |
| Accessibility | Available — contact festival directly | Official ATG site for accessibility inquiries |
| Venue notable history | Used by ATG since 2021; previously DC area’s 40-acre outdoor music hub | Home to major concerts year-round |
Data Sources: Official All Things Go DC website — allthingsgofestival.com/dmv; Official Merriweather Post Pavilion website — merriweathermusic.com; WGMU Radio — “All Things Go Festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion” review (2024 attendee account, venue description); Wikipedia — All Things Go Music Festival (venue history)
Merriweather Post Pavilion has been the home of All Things Go’s DC-area flagship edition since 2021, and in the five years since, the two have become almost synonymous with each other in the minds of the festival’s fanbase. The venue itself — set within a forested suburban park in Howard County, Maryland — offers a natural outdoor amphitheater environment that gives All Things Go a visual and acoustic character that few comparable festivals can match. The combination of a pavilion seating section (covered, reserved) and an expansive lawn (general admission) gives the festival a dual-tier spatial experience: the lawn at full capacity is described by multiple attendee reviews as a dense, communal shoulder-to-shoulder environment during headliner sets, while the pavilion offers a more structured sightline for those who prefer fixed seating.
The two-stage format — the main Pavilion Stage and the smaller Chrysalis Stage — is a distinctive element of the All Things Go experience that has drawn both praise and some criticism over the years. The absence of overlapping set times means every attendee can, in theory, see every artist on the bill without having to choose between simultaneous performances. In practice, this has created a documented attendance pattern where the smaller Chrysalis Stage can feel underattended during high-profile headliner sets, as noted in multiple 2023 and 2024 attendee reviews. For 2026’s nearly 50-act lineup across three days, the scheduling logistics of fitting that many acts onto two non-overlapping stages means some changeover gaps and dense back-to-back programming, particularly on the longer Saturday and Sunday days with 11 AM gate openings. The festival’s confirmed amenities — the 9:32 Club (a branded festival area included with all tickets), the Skylawn, curated food vendors, craft cocktail bars, and interactive art installations scattered throughout the grounds — combine to make Merriweather All Things Go weekend a full-day experience designed to hold an audience for 10 to 11 consecutive hours, not merely a concert with supporting acts attached.
Disclaimer: The data research report we present here is based on information found from various sources. We are not liable for any financial loss, errors, or damages of any kind that may result from the use of the information herein. We acknowledge that though we try to report accurately, we cannot verify the absolute facts of everything that has been represented.
