When the first MAMMOTH Music & Arts Festival set up on Sixth Street in Newport in September 2024, the weather did everything it could to kill it. A hurricane swept through the region that weekend, scrubbing other events off the calendar entirely — including the Kroger Wellness Festival. Somehow, the skies cleared just in time. "Despite battling all the elements and everything working against us in year one of a festival production, it worked out quite well and was very well received by the community," co-organizer David Dalton, a principal at The Think Shop, recalled a year later. "We heard nothing but great things from the artists and musicians."
That first edition was a modest, one-day affair: a free street festival on Sixth Street between Monmouth and Saratoga, running from 1 to 8 p.m., with stages, local food and drink vendors, a bourbon experience presented by New Riff Distilling, art vendors, and street performers. The music spanned funk, punk, hip-hop, rock, country, bluegrass and DJs. Presenting sponsors — New Riff, the Devou Good Foundation, Hub + Weber, The Southgate House Revival, The Think Shop and the Newport Foundation — underwrote the whole thing so that admission could stay free. "Supporting and participating in the inaugural Mammoth Music Festival is a natural extension of our commitment to the Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati community," New Riff CEO Hannah Lowen said at the time.
By year two, the festival had found its footing and its scale. The 2025 edition expanded to five stages — three outdoors, two inside the Southgate House Revival — and more than 30 local, regional, national and international acts, with Los Angeles rock band Fishbone and New Orleans' Cowboy Mouth headlining. "We are very pleased with this year's musical line-up," said Mammoth talent buyer and co-founder Morrella Raleigh, who also owns and operates the Southgate House Revival. "We have a great representation of our amazing local talent across musical genres, as well as some really terrific, high-energy headliners."
Now comes year three, on Sunday, October 4, 2026, and it is the biggest yet. The footprint has grown well beyond its original single block: festival grounds now stretch across Sixth Street between Saratoga and York, plus two blocks of Monmouth between Fifth and Seventh. Music runs on five stages from noon to 8 p.m. outside, then continues inside the Southgate House Revival until 11 p.m. An opening ceremony kicks things off at 11:30 a.m. Admission remains completely free, with no ticket and no capacity limit — anyone can simply show up.
Headlining this year is Too Many Zooz, the New York City trio of baritone saxophonist Leo Pellegrino, trumpeter Matt "Doe" Muirhead and drummer David "King of Sludge" Parks. Pellegrino and Muirhead met at the Manhattan School of Music; Pellegrino and Parks had played together in a busking band called Drumadics. Teaming up in mid-2013, they started performing in New York City subway stations, playing a self-defined style they call "brass house" — a blend of jazz, Afro-Cuban rhythms, funk, EDM and house music. A passerby's video of them at the Union Square station went viral, and their career took off from there. In 2016 they backed Beyoncé and the Dixie Chicks on a show-stopping CMA Awards performance; Matt has said Beyoncé's team reached out after seeing that viral subway clip. They also appear on Beyoncé's 2016 album Lemonade. The trio plays the Saratoga Street Stage at 7 p.m.
The rest of the 2026 bill is deliberately genre-spanning, in keeping with the festival's stated mission. Texas honky-tonk country legend Dale Watson & His Lone Stars headline the Monmouth Street Stage at 5:45 p.m., preceded by the Laid Back Country Picker, the Dallas Moore Band, Jess Lamb & The Factory with Siri Imani, and The Turkeys. Indie-punk icons Ted Leo & The Pharmacists top the York Street Stage at 6 p.m. Ernie Johnson From Detroit, Joslyn & The Sweet Compression, Joe's Truck Stop, Heavy Hinges, Falls City Boys and others fill out the outdoor stages, while the indoor Sanctuary Stage runs from mid-afternoon until Black Signal closes it out at 10 p.m.
One of the festival's most distinctive traditions is the Jockey Club Takeover, returning to the indoor Lounge stage, hosted by Aurore Press' Chucky Byrd. It is a deliberate act of local memory. The Jockey Club was a legendary punk venue at 633 York Street, opened by brothers Hallman "Shorty" Mincey and Hayne "Tiny" Mincey, who bought the faded Flamingo Casino in 1971 and — encouraged by Billy "Blank" Leist and others — turned it into a home for the region's punk scene. During the height of 1980s punk, nearly every touring punk band made a stop in Newport at the club, which sat just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. It was demolished two decades ago, but Aurore Press keeps its memory alive with "Stories for Shorty: A Collection of Recollections From the Jockey Club 1982-1988," a 255-page anthology in which the cast of characters affectionately known as "the freak show" — including Joey Shithead of D.O.A. and Eerie Von — share their memories of the bands, the people and Shorty himself. The festival's Jockey Club Takeover lineup this year includes The Tigerlilies, Plush Machine, The Dummy Ups, The Carradines, Jaun Electro, Disturbance, Coffin Dodgers and the Ric Hickey Trio, with books, poster art and punk rock all day.
The festival has also grown its non-music programming. Artist Avenue, the fine arts area, has been extended farther south down Monmouth to fit more artist booths, and a larger Kids and Family Zone has been built for all-ages fun. A new Merchants Corner gives local vendors a place to set up and promote their businesses. There is a New Riff Bourbon Lounge and a Red Bull DJ Truck and Fan Activation Zone for recharging between sets. New this year is the Brighton Center "Thrifters" Fashion Show, which opens the festival at 11:30 a.m. And West Sixth Brewing has brewed a special "MAMMOTH Festbier" for the occasion.
For those who want more than the free general admission, New Riff Distilling has released a limited run of 100 VIP packages at a $100 donation to the festival. Each includes a bottle of MAMMOTH Select Single Barrel New Riff Bourbon, an official event poster, VIP area access, swag and more.
The festival also gives back. For the second year running, MAMMOTH has partnered with the Newport High School Creative Arts Program as the beneficiary of MAMMOTH Gives Back, supported by sponsors Mannequin Boutique, First National Bank of KY and Hummel and Leibel Insurance Agency. A portion of all sponsorships and donations goes directly to helping local students, with the remainder funding the free festival's operations. Mammoth Arts and Music Festival is a not-for-profit corporation, with the Devou Good Foundation hosting its fiscal activities so donations are tax deductible.
The energy isn't confined to Sunday. Local hotspots across Newport host live music and special promotions on Friday, October 2 and Saturday, October 3, creating what organizers call the ultimate MAMMOTH Weekend. "The city is excited for a third successful year of the Mammoth Music Festival," Newport City Manager John Hayden said. "The event brings people of all ages and walks of life to historic Monmouth Street for a great time and even better music."
That community spirit is the point. "Mammoth isn't just a festival. It's a feeling. A moment when music, art, food, and friendship fill the streets and remind us what makes this community so magical," organizers have said. Julie Kirkpatrick, president and CEO of meetNKY and interim president and CEO of Visit Cincy, framed it as part of a larger regional identity: "Signature events like the MAMMOTH Music & Arts Festival shine a bright light on the incredible creative talent across Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati. Through deep collaboration among local businesses, artists, and organizers, we are building a vibrant arts destination that welcomes new eyes to our community, draws thousands of visitors to support our local economy, and proves why the Cincy Region is the best place to live, work, and visit."
Newport has long been the entertainment capital of Northern Kentucky — a history that runs through gambling, the Jockey Club and the Southgate House, and continues today in venues up and down Monmouth Street. On the first Sunday of October, that history gets another chapter, free to anyone who walks down Monmouth and follows the sound.