Singing the Bridge
Singing the Bridge
Where we’ve been, and where we’re going during the 2026 Concert Season at Hayden Homes Amphitheater
Written by Amanda Bird-Zimmerman
Assistant Marketing Director
We're in the middle of our 25th season of summer concerts. Twenty-five summers of watching thousands of people lose their minds, in the best way, on the lawn. With each other. With seeming strangers. With their favorite, or new favorite, artist a few feet away. Shows at the HayHo are more than a box to check on a summer bingo card. They're catharsis, epiphanies, dreams realized, friendships fostered, and for many, medicine for the soul. We're deep into the 2026 season and the back half is stacked. Here's what we've been living in, and what's to come.
The Shows That Stuck With Us:
Brandi Carlile gave us two nights, and we would've taken more. Before taking the stage each night, Brandi, Kristin Key and the Bramily took to the field at Vince Genna Stadium for what can only be described as the most uplifting, hilarious community softball games that stadium has ever seen. The Bend Elks might want to reconsider who's announcing their games as Brandi threw out some wise sport-ball references, just sayin'.
Her run at the venue celebrated her eighth studio album, "Returning to Myself,” and worth noting, Carlile's voice during "The Joke" is capable of things that should be scientifically studied. Opener Kristin Key set the tone perfectly, declaring before she took the stage, "Bend, Oregon, are you ready for the Lesbian Army Bramily invasion?"
Bend absolutely was.
Bailey Zimmerman doesn't need a lot of explaining. When he opened the show jumping off a 15-foot stack of speakers onto a stage lit with pyro, we knew he meant business. The sheer size of the show impressed the sold-out crowd: flames, lights and a band who understood the assignment.
In addition to how many lyrics they knew, these country fans surprised the heck out of us with their appetite. All in, they ate 545 pizzas from our in-house pizza truck. Five hundred and forty-five. From our single pizza truck. Bailey Zimmerman fans, we respect the commitment! Needless to say, the lawn was fueled and singing loud for the duration.
AJR hit on July 8, harder than expected and more emotionally complicated than anyone was prepared for. When lead singer Jack Met popped on stage, arms flailing, fully committed to "Bummerland" and the fans, the thought crossed my mind, "Wait, why am I uncontrollably happy and feel like I might burst into tears? Get a hold of yourself. Or don't…this is awesome." There's a reason those three brothers keep filling venues, and anyone who was on that lawn that night now knows exactly what it is.
Moving on to another mind-blowing night, quite literally, with the horn section, was last Saturday's Tedeschi Trucks Band with special guest Lukas Nelson. At one point Lukas was on his knees, growling and howling the words to "Find Yourself," hitting high notes that remind you he's Willie's son, and then commanding the stage in a style so uniquely his own. His hour-long opening set could've gone on for another hour, and no one would have minded, as long as Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks also got to join.
Two of music's greatest guitarists, and yes, Susan earns that distinction right alongside her husband Derek, backed by their dynamite 12-piece ensemble and a sold-out crowd, delivered a night of Southern soul-meets-jam band, except in a league all their own. The Rolling Stones' "Loving Cup" is one of my all-time favorites, which they went right into after a duo with Lukas Nelson on CSNY's "Helpless." In those moments, reality slipped away. We had all joined the band.
Things Worth Knowing:
2026 marks 25 years of music on this stretch of the Deschutes River. Bob Dylan played here. So did Dave Matthews Band, Lainey Wilson, Sting and ODESZA. If only the lawn could talk.
Travel + Leisure once called us one of America's coolest venues. The river was flattered.
Our Green Team continues to lead the nation in sustainability efforts. We're currently at a 94% diversion rate. The piles of compost can prove it.
Bend’s Source Weekly readers voted us "Best Spot for a Night Out With the Crew" in 2025, and this week named us "Best Locals' Hangout" for 2026!
What's Left:
Goose fly in for two nights, Friday and Saturday, Aug. 21-22. If you've been paying attention to the band this year - Madison Square Garden for two nights, Red Rocks for two nights, a fan base that treats their setlists like scripture - you already know what this means. We’re about to transcend.
The material from "Everything Must Go" and "Chain Yer Dragon" has been living in Goose sets in ways that keep getting more interesting. A fan overheard in the pit at their last show put it perfectly, "Their jams are so incredibly on point and intense right now, we gotta keep dancing, man." Which pretty much covers it. Friday night, Greensky Bluegrass deliver a fiery opening set, and Saturday, Buffalo Traffic Jam will show us what all the hype is about.
ROLE MODEL launches his fall tour right here on Sept. 9 with special guest Samia. His new album "Chuck Timely & The Hourglass" just dropped, and "High Hopes 3000" is already doing what "Sally, When the Wine Runs Out" did, making people who've never heard of him stop mid-scroll and ask who that was. This will likely be one of those shows we talk about in November when someone asks which artists we caught before they took off. ROLE MODEL just appeared on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" for the second time, so the launch window may already be closing.
Stick around, because Bleachers with The Linda Lindas happens Sept. 20. Jack Antonoff built a career writing songs that feel bigger than whatever room you hear them in, and the live shows are the proof. The New York Times describes their shows as "anthemic, life-affirming pop rock," and right now, we could all use a night of exactly that. If you love The 1975 or early fun. (Antonoff's previous band), or if big, emotional, '80s-inflected pop is your thing, Bleachers is where it’s at. September nights in Bend were made for exactly this.
Black Label Society helps to close out the season Oct. 2, which means Zakk Wylde is coming, which means you need to be there or spend the following week hearing about the unhinged hard-rock metal circus from everyone who was. Folks at recent stops have described the show as "epic guitar slaying with tributes to Ozzy and Dimebag Darrell Abbott."
Wylde has said he gets as much joy fronting Black Label Society as he does playing alongside his hero Ozzy Osbourne and in his Black Sabbath cover band, Zakk Sabbath. As for his philosophy, "Less is more with everything, except the guitar solos and coffee!"
Jack Johnson with G. Love. Sold out. Comedian Matt Rife. Sold out. Country star Riley Green. Sold out. Empire of the Sun is nearly there. This town knows what it wants. The rest of the season will prove it.
Reminder:
The best price on concert tickets is available in person at the Ticket Mill in the Old Mill District, where service fees are capped at $7. Open seven days a week, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and weekends, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
We'll see you out there!
