The Numbers: 21 Country, 12 Everything Else

Country holds two of the three headliner slots, half of the ten major-tier slots and 14 of the 20 undercard slots. The non-country acts sit higher on the poster than you might guess: the third headliner is a rock band, and five of the ten major slots go to two rappers, Kygo, Empire of the Sun and a 1990s rock band.

The 2025 edition set the pattern. Wallen, Post Malone, Brooks & Dunn and HARDY headlined, and the same bill booked Three 6 Mafia, T-Pain, Wiz Khalifa, 2 Chainz, Diplo, The War on Drugs and Future Islands. When Gulf Shores extended the site's franchise in late July 2025, the agreement told organizers to use the 2025 event as a benchmark for drawing a similar audience, and the late approval left too little runway for a 2026 edition. The 2027 mix keeps that formula. No day split, stage assignments or set times are out yet, so this guide sorts by sound only.

Country: 21 Acts

Start with the headliner's own circle, because much of the country bill has shared his stage. Morgan Wallen named the festival after the opening song on Dangerous: The Double Album and closed the 2025 weekend with a 23-song set. Fellow headliner Ella Langley is the Alabama act at the top, from Hope Hull outside Montgomery. Her "Choosin' Texas" reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 in February 2026, her Wallen duet "I Can't Love You Anymore" debuted at No. 7 that May, and she opened eight of his stadium shows. Three more acts spent 2026 opening his Still the Problem Tour: Gavin Adcock for 16 dates, Vincent Mason for seven, including Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, and Hudson Westbrook for the four shows that closed the tour. A year earlier, Corey Kent and Koe Wetzel split both of Wallen's NRG Stadium nights in Houston.

Other ties run through the songs. Jacob Hackworth co-wrote "Jack and Jill" on Wallen's I'm the Problem. Blake Whiten broke through on TikTok with a clip of himself singing Wallen's "I'm the Problem" that he nearly didn't post. Zach John King got to know Brooks & Dunn partly on the Wallen tour, and they sing on his debut album. And Jason Scott & The High Heat, an Oklahoma City band that runs honky-tonk into heartland rock, list Wallen in their press materials among the acts they've shared stages with.

The younger acts are just as tied to each other. Adcock put Westbrook on "Cheap Thrills," and Kent put Wetzel on "Rocky Mountain Low." Kenny Whitmire, a neotraditional singer from Woodstock, Georgia, co-wrote on Westbrook's new album and toured with him. Carter Faith and Waylon Wyatt wrote and released "I'm Sorry But I Love You" together in September 2026. Phil Kane, the Pawhuska, Oklahoma songwriter who reached Hollywood on American Idol with his own "Osage County," opens eight dates of Mason's 2027 tour. Kameron Marlowe spent the fall opening Langley's Dandelion Tour, five years after she opened for him in Huntsville, Alabama. Avery Anna, the Flagstaff singer who won the ACM's New Female Artist of the Year in April 2026, shares a 2026 CMA New Artist of the Year nomination with Faith.

The longer-running country acts round out the 21. Midland, the Dripping Springs trio, brought in Clint Black for their fifth album, Stages. Cole Swindell, from Bronwood, Georgia, has 13 No. 1 singles by his label's count, and AllMusic files him with the bro-country wave that pulled rock and hip-hop into country, which is part of why he sits easily on a bill with Nelly. Corey Smith quit teaching high school in Georgia at 28 and built a Southeast following on self-released records. And Kashus Culpepper, a Navy veteran and former firefighter from Alexander City, Alabama, recorded part of his debut, Act I, in Muscle Shoals, with soul and Southern rock mixed into the country.

Southern Rap: 4 Acts From Memphis and Atlanta

The four Southern rap bookings split evenly between two cities, and this is the lane that most directly continues 2025. From Memphis, Juicy J was half of the Three 6 Mafia lineup that played this beach in 2025, where he asked the crowd for a mosh pit in the sand. That group's "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" won the 2006 Oscar for best original song over a Dolly Parton nominee, and Parton later wrote to say she was glad somebody from Tennessee had won. His brother Project Pat had his national hit with "Chickenhead" in 2001, and in July 2026 the two released a 20-song joint album, Dem Goats.

From Atlanta, Gucci Mane was born in Bessemer, Alabama, and grew up in East Atlanta, and his Against All Odds came out in October 2026 through his own 1017 label. The Ying Yang Twins, Kaine and D-Roc, are the voices on Lil Jon's "Get Low" and the act behind "Salt Shaker" and "Wait (The Whisper Song)."

Hip-Hop: 3 Acts Who Already Cross Into Country

The three acts tagged hip-hop have each already walked into country. Nelly has done it longest. He told Billboard that even around Country Grammar, his 10-million-selling 2000 debut, he and the St. Lunatics were getting booked at fairs and rodeos. "Over and Over" with Tim McGraw reached No. 3 on the Hot 100, his remix of Florida Georgia Line's "Cruise" reached No. 4. Flo Rida opened Walker Hayes's "High Heels" in 2022 and in 2025 built "Carrying the Club" on George Strait's "Carrying Your Love With Me," which country fans did not universally love. Rick Ross is the one with a Wallen credit: he and Lil Wayne have verses on the version of Wallen's "Miami" released in July 2025. Ross's 2026 album, Set in Stone, also features BigXthaPlug, who played the 2025 festival.

Alt Rock: 2 Acts

Kings of Leon are the non-country headliner, and they have history on this sand. On May 17, 2013, they closed the first night of that year's Hangout Music Fest, the festival that ran on this beach from 2010 through 2024, and Caleb Followill told the crowd it was the best American crowd they'd seen in a long time. Like Wallen, a preacher's son, the Followill brothers grew up trailing their evangelist father between Pentecostal churches and tent revivals. Their self-produced tenth album, O My Beloved, came out November 6, 2026. Third Eye Blind are the singalong booking: their 1997 debut, with "Semi-Charmed Life" and "Jumper," is certified six times platinum, and Stephan Jenkins and drummer Brad Hargreaves remain from that era.

Electronic: 2 Acts

Girl Talk is the other link to the Hangout years. Gregg Gillis played the first night the Hangout ever ran on Gulf Shores Public Beach, May 14, 2010, and came back in 2011, when his crew fired rolls of toilet paper into the crowd with leaf blowers. His recent rap collaborations include records with Wiz Khalifa and T-Pain, both 2025 Sand in My Boots acts. Empire of the Sun bring the most theatrical production on the bill: their 2026 "Ask That God: Afterlife" tour put Luke Steele on a rubble heap with costumed dancers, and "Walking on a Dream" topped the US Dance Club Songs chart eight years after release.

EDM: 1 Act

Kygo looks like the strangest fit until you check his 2026 singles. "That's When You Know," out in April, is a house track sung by Carter Faith, who is also on this lineup; "Heaven On Your Mind" features bluegrass singer Dan Tyminski; and "Take Me Back" features singer-songwriter Max McNown. The older catalog still carries the set: "Firestone" and "Stole the Show" made him the fastest artist to a billion Spotify streams in 2015.

Planning Around the Mix

Passes are three-day wristbands only. There are two stages, the Sand In My Boots Stage and the Dangerous Stage, plus '98 Braves Park, which hosts Whiskey Jam and second sets from festival artists. Who plays which day and stage hasn't been announced; we'll add the split to the set times and schedule builder when the festival posts it. Until then, see the full lineup, the who to see guide, or the undercard picks for the country names lower on the poster.