Kaatsbaan Cultural Park announces Opening of 2026 Annual Festival

For three Saturdays in a row, Kaatsbaan Cultural Park presents the 2026 Annual Festival at 120 Broadway, Tivoli, NY 12583. The festival begins on August 29, 2026, and continues on September 5 and September 12. Each Saturday will feature a distinct lineup and focus.

The festival opener is an all-day celebration filled with live music and geared towards all ages. Dance performances include Calpulli Danza Mexicana, Ballez, and Anna Sperber, and an evening concert by Valerie June. Food available for purchase on site by Hudson Valley vendors.

The 2026 Annual Festival also marks the return of Kaatsbaan’s outdoor Mountain Stage with its expansive views of the Catskill Mountains and immersion in the natural beauty of the Hudson Valley. Most performances are an hour or less, are all ages, and the festival schedule permits an easeful and day-long schedule of art and nature alongside Tivoli’s walkable downtown amenities. Tickets will be offered on an incentive-based, affordable structure. Individual tickets and all-day passes are available at kaatsbaan.org/performances-festivals.

Kaatsbaan’s Managing Director, Naomi Miller, offers that “Kaatsbaan’s signature festival, which first gathered artists and audiences during the pandemic for collective healing, continues to grow and offer new ways to come together in creativity and celebration. Working with Michèle has expanded the scope of artists we present, to everyone’s benefit. Come for distinct moments of joy and transformation, stay for the power of community.”

Launching August 29 and available for free throughout the festival

Performance Lending Library

A curated selection of audio-guided physical experiences adapted for Kaatsbaan’s environment, each under 30 minutes. Bring your smart phone/tablet (data streaming required), earbuds/headphones, and be led into a range of embodied performance practices with your imagination as the site of the artwork. Do at your own pace in and around Kaatsbaan: 

• Bridget Fiske, Joseph Lau, Stelios Manousakis, and Stephanie Pan, A Concept Album of Architectural Choreographies: A guerrilla audio tour in semi-public spaces
• Terry Hempfling and Rachel Jendrzejewski, Backwards Walk
• GUTSOIL ARTS | Pramila Vasudevan, Mossing | Marrowing Vitality Scores

Laura Curry, Cita en Bici / Bike Date. From an earnest conversation while biking, choreographer and social practice artist Laura Curry has turned a seemingly simple research process, started in 2013 in South and North American cities, into a sisterhood of mothers, daughters, aunties, grandmas, and fem/trans individuals who are also cyclists. Share stories while on a bike ride with Laura on the Empire State Trail or your local neighborhood route. Book directly with the artist onsite during the festival or at BikeDateProject@gmail.com.

2026 Visual Arts Exhibition, Earthly Delights. Artistic works evoking planets, plants, insects, and other biological forms erupting out of the mystical Kaatsbaan landscape. These unique pieces created by nine contemporary artists working predominantly in the Hudson Valley offer an inspiring alchemy of structure, form, beauty, and soul. Artists include Laura Battle, Thea Berman, Sharon Broit, Gaston Lachaise, Ian McMahon, Virginia L. Montgomery, Portia Munson, Kris Perry, Aurora Robson, and Nadia Yaron. The exhibition is curated by Hilary Greene.

About Kaatsbaan Cultural Park

The mission of Kaatsbaan Cultural Park is to provide an extraordinary environment for cultural innovation and excellence by providing artists at any stage of their careers with creative residencies in state-of-the-art facilities, and presenting audiences and communities with annual festivals, educational programs, and events. As both an incubator for creativity and presenter for world-class artists in dance, theater, music, film, spoken and written word, and culinary and visual arts, Kaatsbaan provides artists with dance studios, accommodations, an indoor theater, and outdoor stages. Sited on 153 Hudson River-adjacent acres, Kaatsbaan is free of urban facilities’ space and time constraints, allowing for exciting levels of artistic exploration, creative action, and achievement—just two hours north of New York City.

Kaatsbaan Cultural Park is committed to the advancement of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the arts as we aim to present, promote, and embrace programming that accurately reflects our society. We encourage a broadly diverse group of individuals to participate in our programs and join our Board and Staff, and insist on being inclusive of all peoples regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, socio-economic background, or physical or mental ability.

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