A popular music festival in a major city is taking a gap year in 2026, and its potential return might come with a whole new look.
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St. Louis’s Evolution Music Festival recently announced it will be taking a break this year. The news comes after its 2025 festival, where headliners included major acts like Lenny Kravitz and Sublime.
It seems upcoming events are a major factor sidelining the fan favorite music festival.
“Evolution Festival is on pause due to the number of major events already scheduled across our region in 2026 — our nation’s 250th birthday, World Cup, and Olympics,” the festival’s website explains. “We want to underscore our unwavering commitment to the community and express our deep gratitude for the tremendous support received from the state, city, sponsors, partners, and you, our valued fans.”
Founder and Executive Producer Steve Shankman said the pause will help avoid competition for corporate sponsorships next year, especially with events planned for the nation’s 250th birthday at the Gateway Arch.
“We did a lot less people than we thought [we would in 2025]. But money wasn’t the issue,” Shankman told St. Louis Public Radio.“Instead of everybody hitting up Anheuser-Busch and Worldwide Technology, we feel the right thing to do is to step aside.”
Shankman also noted that other major events, like the World Cup matches in Kansas City and the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, will be competing for the same sponsorship dollars. He added that a World Cup team might even train in St. Louis.
St. Louis’s Evolution Music Festival Saw Attendance Dip in 2025
According to St. Louis Public Radio, the Evolution Festival drew 17,000 attendees over two days in September 2025. This was a decrease from its inaugural year, which saw 25,000 ticketholders. Despite the lower turnout, organizers donated $100,000 to the United Way of St. Louis to support tornado survivors.
Shankman said that during the festival’s hiatus, he and the board will consider potential changes. These could include moving the event to a new venue or adopting a multi-location format like South by Southwest.
“It’s all up for grabs, and we have more than a year to plan for it,” Shankman explained. “What I really want to do with Evolution is make an evolution of the city. So that may entail doing things downtown, doing things north, south, accentuating the great neighborhoods we have, accentuating the great architecture we have.”
The Evolution Festival was the first large-scale music event in Forest Park since LouFest was canceled in 2018. LouFest had been a premier St. Louis attraction for eight years.