Good Moon Festival is returning to downtown Durham on October 8–10, with Sylvan Esso and Tyler Childers headlining three nights at the Durham Performing Arts Center.
The festival, organized by Sylvan Esso members Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn through their music label Psychic Hotline, skipped 2025 after its first edition at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park in 2024. This year's run expands to four venues.
Sylvan Esso will headline two DPAC nights. Childers takes the third, joined each night by neo soul and jazz singer Meshell Ndegeocello, poet aja monet, and Mexican singer-songwriter Silvana Estrada. After each DPAC show, smaller performances continue at The Pinhook, Bay 7 at American Tobacco Campus, and the newly opened BOOM Club, with artists including Rodrigo Amarante, Leenalchi, Tash LC, and Circuit des Yeux on the bill.
The format is a shift. Earlier Good Moon events used Durham's ballparks. The 2022 three-night run at the Historic Durham Athletic Park, billed as "the greatest show on dirt," drew 12,000 people. This year's club-circuit structure brings the festival indoors and into smaller rooms.
Saturday, October 10 adds a free daytime option: a concert at the Amphitheater at American Tobacco Campus featuring North Carolina musician MJ Lenderman and Woke County Speedway, plus a screening of guitarist William Tyler's music film, "Time Indefinite."
"This Good Moon is our biggest and fullest yet, featuring so many of our favorite artists," Meath and Sanborn said in a joint statement. "It is a joy to bring them to our home in Durham."
Tickets go on sale Thursday.