The St. Augustine Songwriters Festival begins at 4:30 this afternoon under the live oak at Colonial Oak Music Park on St. George Street, runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday in four more rooms, and costs nothing at any of them, which the festival’s own site states three separate ways: as a tile reading $0 Admission, as a line reading all rounds are free and open to the public, and as a footer that says the same thing again.

This is the ninth year. Thirty-six acts are named on the lineup page, by this paper’s count, and the page says more are to be announced.

The pitch is the writers rather than the singers. The site lists Jeffrey Steele, the Warren Brothers, Anthony Smith, Wynn Varble, Marla Cannon-Goodman, Mark Irwin and Gordie Sampson among others, and prints a credit line under each name instead of a discography: a song title, or a number of cuts, or the artist who had the hit. Its own description of what happens in the room is “you, a songwriter, an acoustic guitar, and the real story behind the song.”

Where, and what each room is

Five venues, and two of them carry a New for 2026 note on the festival’s page, which means the run grew by two rooms this year.

Colonial Oak Music Park, 27 St. George Street, is the only room open tonight and the only one that is not primarily a bar or a kitchen. It is open-air, under the oak, with seating its own page puts at more than 250 and a full bar on site. That page gives its own address twice as 27 St. George Street and once, in the footer under FIND US, as 21 St George St, and the festival uses the 27.

Prohibition Kitchen, 119 St. George Street, takes the Friday and Saturday middays. Its own page describes a two-level room with booths on the first floor and a balcony level overlooking the stage and the bar.

Tradewinds Lounge, 124 Charlotte Street, takes the two late slots on Friday and Saturday, and it holds the only sets in the festival that begin after ten at night. Its own page dates the house from an early period as a folk lounge to a present mix of rock and roll, blues and a little country.

DJ’s Clam Shack, 21 Hypolita Street, is new to the festival this year and takes Friday and Saturday afternoons. Its posted hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Boat Drinks, 123 San Marco Avenue, is also new, and it has the whole of Sunday to itself.

The set times, which are not where you would look for them

The festival’s own site carries a section headed The Schedule with four dated tabs on it, and under the tabs, where the set times ought to be, a block headed “Unlock the full set times” that asks for an email address before it will show a reader what time anybody goes on. The same four days of set times are published in full on the Sing Out Loud schedule page as a single image, 2400 pixels by 1800, in four dated columns, and that page asks for nothing at all, which is worth knowing about a festival whose entire proposition is that it costs you nothing to attend.

What that image shows is a run that thickens and then stops. Tonight is one room and four rounds, from 4:30 to 9:15 under the oak, opening with Poor Life Choices, Jacob Rice and Mick Fury and closing with Craig Campbell and Taylor Austin Dye. Friday and Saturday are each four rooms and fourteen rounds, running from 11:05 in the morning at Prohibition Kitchen through six rounds at Colonial Oak in the afternoon and evening to the two late sets at Tradewinds at 9:15 and 10:30, with the Warren Brothers closing the Oak on Friday at 9:30 and Anthony Smith and Jeffrey Steele closing it on Saturday at 8:40. Sunday is one room again, three rounds at Boat Drinks between 11 and 3, and then the ninth St. Augustine Songwriters Festival is over.

One thing on tonight’s column is worth reading twice, because it sits against the venue’s own posted hours: Colonial Oak publishes 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., daily, and the last round tonight is booked to 9:15.

Who pays for it

The festival lists its sponsors in three tiers. The presenting partners are the Sing Out Loud Festival and Bozard Ford Lincoln. Under them sit Tequila Black Sheep, the Pirate and Treasure Museum, Jalaram Hotels and Tibbs Tees, and under those the Hilton St. Augustine Historic Bayfront, the St. George Inn, Old Town Trolley Tours, Turtlebox and Chris Lucero Bail Bonds.

Of those eleven, five sell lodging, tours or admission to visitors: Jalaram Hotels, the Hilton, the St. George Inn, Old Town Trolley Tours and the Pirate and Treasure Museum. A separate Where to Stay section names five properties as festival partners, the Hilton, the Hampton Inn, the St. George Inn, Jalaram Hotels and the Renaissance, and tells readers to book early because September is peak season. Every one of the five performance rooms sells food, drink or both, and none of them sells a ticket to the music.

The lineup page says acts are subject to change. The Sunday rounds at Boat Drinks finish at 3 p.m., and that is the last of it until next September.