The Headliners, Ranked
1. Ella Langley
Putting the host second is a choice, so here is the case. No act on this bill had a 2026 like Ella Langley's. "Choosin' Texas," written with Miranda Lambert, Luke Dick and Joybeth Taylor, became the first single by a woman to top the Hot 100, Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay at the same time, and it has since spent more weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 than any song in the chart's history. Her second album, Dandelion, opened at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in April. She's from Hope Hull, outside Montgomery, so this is a home-state show, and she played this beach in 2025.
2. Morgan Wallen
The festival takes its name from the song that opens Morgan Wallen's 2021 album Dangerous: The Double Album, and the lineup is his: he has told Billboard he wanted artists he enjoys and listens to regularly, and at least eight acts here have opened for him, sung on his records or written for him. In 2025 he closed the weekend with a 23-song set. He arrives with "Been By Now," his 23rd No. 1 on Billboard's Country Airplay chart; Billboard says no artist has reached 23 faster. He ranks second only because nobody here needs talking into his set.
3. Kings of Leon
Kings of Leon have played this sand before. On May 17, 2013, they closed the first night of the Hangout Music Fest here, the festival that held the site before Sand in My Boots, and Caleb Followill told the crowd it was the best American crowd they'd seen in a long time. Their 10th album, O My Beloved, the first they produced themselves, came out November 6, 2026, the day this guide was published; "Use Somebody" won Record of the Year at the 2010 Grammys. They rank third because they share the least with the rest of this bill, which is also the best reason to go if your weekend is otherwise all country.
The Ten Majors, Ranked
The majors show the bill's range: five country acts, two rappers, a Norwegian producer, an Australian synth-pop spectacle and a 1990s rock band.
1. Empire of the Sun
On the 2026 "Ask That God: Afterlife" tour, Empire of the Sun put Luke Steele on top of a heap of rubble with dancers who changed from red robes to mirror-ball suits to neon wigs, and at the Hollywood Bowl in October he ended "Tiger By My Side" by slamming his guitar into the stage. It isn't all costume: a reviewer at the Tampa stop left talking about Steele's guitar playing. Nothing else on a mostly country weekend looks like this.
2. Nelly
Rap and country on one beach is this festival's premise, and Nelly has been working that seam longer than anyone else booked. He has told Billboard that even in the Country Grammar era, he and the St. Lunatics were getting booked at fairs and rodeos. That 2000 debut sold more than 10 million copies in the U.S., "Over and Over" with Tim McGraw reached No. 3 on the Hot 100, and in 2021 he made Heartland, a country-inspired album with Kane Brown and Darius Rucker among the guests.
3. Koe Wetzel
Koe Wetzel's Jessie Murph duet, "High Road," was the most-played single at country radio in 2025, and his Columbia album The Night Champion followed in June 2026. He's from Pittsburg, in East Texas, and went from playing for beer to headlining Red Rocks. He ranks this high because he sits between the bill's country and rock halves more comfortably than anyone else on it.
4. Midland
Midland's fifth album, Stages (June 2026), brings back the fiddle and has more outside songs than they'd ever cut: "Marlboro Man" comes from Dean Dillon, Tim Nichols and Josh Thompson, and Clint Black sings on "Up In Texas." The Dripping Springs, Texas trio took their name from Dwight Yoakam's "Fair to Midland," "Drinkin' Problem" earned two Grammy nominations, and the CMA put them up for Vocal Group of the Year in September. For the most traditional country among the majors, start here.
5. Kygo
Kygo's 2026 singles explain the booking: "That's When You Know" with Carter Faith, who is also on this bill, "Heaven On Your Mind" with bluegrass singer Dan Tyminski, and "Take Me Back" with Max McNown. The Bergen-raised producer's older catalog is the bigger draw. "Firestone" and "Stole the Show" are both past a billion Spotify plays, and "It Ain't Me" with Selena Gomez went top 10 on the Hot 100.
6. Cole Swindell
Cole Swindell's label counts 13 No. 1 singles, "Chillin' It," "You Should Be Here" and "She Had Me at Heads Carolina" among them. AllMusic files the Bronwood, Georgia singer among the linchpins of bro-country, the strain that pulled rock and hip-hop into country, which is why he fits a bill that also books Nelly. His June 2026 single, "Girl Dad," is about a daughter his late father never got to meet.
7. Third Eye Blind
Third Eye Blind's 1997 debut, the one with "Semi-Charmed Life" and "Jumper," is certified six times platinum, and it is most of the reason to go. This is no reunion booking, though: their 2024 Summer Gods tour ran 37 shows, and they headlined Musikfest in Pennsylvania in 2025 and again in August 2026.
8. Hudson Westbrook
Hudson Westbrook's second album, Made You Look, came out the same day as Kings of Leon's, November 6, 2026, and he co-wrote all 16 songs. The Texan spent summer 2026 in stadiums with Wallen, including the four dates that closed the Still The Problem Tour. He sits at eight only because the album is brand new.
9. Gavin Adcock
Gavin Adcock works fast. Own Worst Enemy opened at No. 14 on the Billboard 200 in 2025, a covers record called Country Never Dies arrived in March 2026, and The Day I Hang It Up, more than two dozen songs long, followed in October. The Watkinsville, Georgia singer played 16 dates on Wallen's Still The Problem Tour in 2026; "A Cigarette" and "Run Your Mouth" are the two to know going in.
10. Flo Rida
Flo Rida has 29 Hot 100 entries, 11 of them top 10s, and that catalog is the draw. He ranks last here only because his recent country turn is still finding its footing: "Carrying the Club," built on George Strait's "Carrying Your Love With Me," got a very mixed reception from country fans in 2025. The better crossover was 2022's "High Heels" with Walker Hayes.
If You Like X, See Y
Each pairing below rests on a documented link between the two acts, and most of them cross genres.
If you like Kygo, see Carter Faith
Carter Faith is the voice on Kygo's house track "That's When You Know." Her own records lean the other way, toward the country of Cherry Valley, and she's a 2026 CMA New Artist of the Year nominee.
If you like Morgan Wallen, see Rick Ross and Jacob Hackworth
Rick Ross has a verse, alongside Lil Wayne, on the 2025 version of Wallen's "Miami." Jacob Hackworth co-wrote "Jack and Jill" on I'm the Problem and released his debut EP, What Took You So Long, in October.
If you like Ella Langley, see Kameron Marlowe
Kameron Marlowe and Langley released the duet "Strangers" in January 2024, and he spent fall 2026 opening her Dandelion Tour. In 2021, in Huntsville, she was opening for him. His self-titled album is due January 22, 2027.
If you like Koe Wetzel, see Corey Kent
Wetzel sings on Corey Kent's "Rocky Mountain Low," from Heartland Rock and Roll, an album that owes as much to Springsteen and Petty as to Nashville. The two also split both of Wallen's NRG Stadium nights in Houston in 2025.
If you like Kings of Leon, see Girl Talk
Like Kings of Leon, Girl Talk is a Hangout veteran: he played the first night it ever ran here, May 14, 2010, and came back in 2011, when his crew fired rolls of toilet paper into the crowd with leaf blowers. Gregg Gillis has said an hour onstage can trigger 300 or 400 samples off a laptop.
If you like Flo Rida, see Corey Smith
The Georgia songwriter Corey Smith played a cover of Flo Rida's "My House" at a January 2023 bar show in Chicago. He quit teaching high school at 28 and put out his first record, Undertones, on his own imprint in 2003.
What Isn't Known Yet
No act's day or stage is announced, so there's no telling yet which of these sets overlap. The festival also runs '98 Braves Park, where it promises music from Whiskey Jam and second sets from Sand in My Boots artists; which artists hasn't been said. For the rest of the bill, see our undercard picks and genre guide, and if it's your first time on the beach, start with the first-timer's guide.