The number worth holding onto is seventeen. That is how many venues Sing Out Loud is using this month, and it is the number that explains why September sounds different here than any other month of the year: not one stage with a fence around it, but seventeen rooms running live music at the same time, for nothing, in a downtown small enough to walk between most of them.
The festival is ten years old this year. It launched in 2016, and its announcement of the full 2026 schedule, posted Aug. 11, puts more than 160 acts on those seventeen stages across three weekends: Sept. 4-6, Sept. 11-13, and Sept. 18-20. The Local Artist Showcases, which are the spine of the thing, are presented by PNC Bank and cost nothing to attend. The first weekend is already behind us.
Weekend three, Sept. 18-20
Eleven venues are listed for the closing weekend: Colonial Oak Music Park, Spinster Abbott’s, Dog Rose Brewing Co., Sarbez!, Prohibition Kitchen, Hornski’s Brewing Co., Ink & Barley, Casa De Vino 57, Bin 39 Wine Bar, Shanghai Nobby’s, and Jimmy Hula’s.
The festival posts the per-venue lineups and set times on its own site and through its app, and it changes, so check it the day of rather than the week of. What does not change is the shape of the weekend: you pick a street, you walk it, and you hear four bands you had not heard of by ten o’clock.
There is one more free thing worth marking. The festival’s August announcement says that on Friday, Sept. 11, Aoife O’Donovan performs with the St. Augustine Bluegrass Unit and Eowyn Sage at Spinster Abbott’s, free and open to the public. A Grammy winner in a room that size, on a Friday, at no cost, is not a normal occurrence in a tourist town, and it is the clearest argument the festival makes for itself.
What runs after the music stops
The month does not end on the 20th. Per the same announcement:
- Music Business Panel, Wednesday, Sept. 23, at Spinster Abbott’s. Free, RSVP.
- Sip Out Loud, Thursday, Sept. 24, at Bin 39. Ticketed.
- St. Augustine Songwriters Festival, Thursday, Sept. 24 through Sunday, Sept. 27, at multiple venues. Free. The festival’s event pages currently list Songwriters shows at DJ’s Clam Shack and Tradewinds Lounge on Sept. 25-26.
- St. Augustine Record Fair, Sunday, Sept. 27, 11 a.m. at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre. Free.
Eleven ticketed nights in nineteen days at the Amp
While all of that is happening for free downtown, the Amphitheatre is running one of the densest stretches on its calendar. Every date below is from the venue’s own events page as of Sept. 8. Start times vary show to show and the Amp does not publish prices on that page, so the box office is the call to make before the good seats go.
| Date | Show |
|---|---|
| Tue, Sept. 15, 5 p.m. | Fall Night Market, free |
| Thu, Sept. 17, 7 p.m. | Modest Mouse, with Robber Robber |
| Fri, Sept. 18, 7 p.m. | John Fogerty & Steve Winwood: The Legacy Tour |
| Sat, Sept. 19, 7:30 p.m. | Brad Paisley, with Charlie Worsham and The Band Loula |
| Sept. 22-23 | James Taylor and his All-Star Band, two nights |
| Fri, Sept. 25, 8 p.m. | Flipturn, with Winyah |
| Sat, Sept. 26, 7 p.m. | Rise Against, with Alkaline Trio and Teen Mortgage |
| Sun, Sept. 27, 11 a.m. | St. Augustine Record Fair, free |
| Tue, Sept. 29, 8 p.m. | Of Monsters and Men, with August Ponthier |
| Thu, Oct. 1, 7 p.m. | Sugarland, with Payton Sullivan |
| Fri, Oct. 2, 6:30 p.m. | Whiskey Myers, with The Ransom Brothers |
| Sat, Oct. 3, 6 p.m. | Gov’t Mule and Ziggy Marley, with a DJ set by YOLA |
Two nights of James Taylor at an outdoor amphitheatre in late September is a scheduling bet on the weather that I would take. The Fogerty and Winwood billing on the 18th is the one that will fill the lawn, and note what else is on that date: the festival’s closing weekend opens downtown the same evening. Two crowds, one Friday night. Leave early.
Ranked, if you are only leaving the house once
- Aoife O’Donovan at Spinster Abbott’s, Sept. 11. Free, and the smallest room on this page.
- Sing Out Loud weekend three, Sept. 18-20. Eleven venues, no cover, walkable.
- John Fogerty & Steve Winwood, Sept. 18. Two catalogs that do not need an introduction.
- Rise Against with Alkaline Trio, Sept. 26. The bill that treats the Amp lawn like it is supposed to be used.
- St. Augustine Record Fair, Sept. 27. Free, 11 a.m., and you will spend money anyway.
Also on the county’s calendar that weekend, for anyone who has had enough guitars: the Master Gardener fall plant sale at the Agricultural Center, Sept. 19-20, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
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