2026 Annual Festival at Kaatsbaan
Kaatsbaan’s Annual Festival Returns with 3 weekends of live music, dance, and theater performances, visual art exhibitions, all-ages activities, and more!
August 29: The festival opener is an all-day celebration filled with live music and geared towards all ages.
11:00 AM – 12:30 PM: Community Free Activities including:
– Bike Maintenance Workshop with Laura Curry
– Wampum Belt Artmaking with Vickie Ramirez, Ty Defoe, and Jeanette Harrison
– Lacrosse Stick Handling Clinic with Bard College Women’s Lacrosse team.
1:00 PM: Calpulli Danza Mexicana – “Native Mexico: Dances of the First Peoples”
3:00 PM: Ballez – “Travesty Doll Play (after Coppelia)”
5:00 PM: Anna Sperber – “Bow Echo”
7:00 PM: Valerie June
** Food trucks on site all day including Samosa Shack, Yeah Dawg Vegan, and VanRoy’s Caribbean Grill!
September 5: Labor Day weekend programming centers on storytelling by individual playwrights, and a musical double-bill closes out the day!
1:00 PM: Playwrights’ Platform: Program 1
Rachel Jendrzejewski (through collaborators Terry Hempfling and Lauren Lewis), Vickie Ramirez, Ty Defoe, Jeanette Harrison, Rose Jarboe
3:00 PM: Playwrights’ Platform: Program 2
Sylvan Oswald, Lori Goldston, Chloe Alexandra Thompson, Jim Fletcher, Lucy Sexton, and Adrienne Truscott.
7:00 PM: The Bearded Ladies Cabaret sing-along and concert/dance party by CRICKETS (JD Samson, Roddy Bottum, and Michael O’Neill)
September 6: Free art walk with 2026 Exhibition Curator Hillary Greene. Free for all with an RSVP!
September 11: Artist talk with festival choreographers Courtney “Balenciaga” Washington (MasterZ at Work), and Ronald K. Brown and Arcell Cabuag (EVIDENCE), facilitated by choreographer Souleymane Badolo (Assistant Professor of Dance, Bard College) around their artistic lineages, dance influences, and daily inspirations. Free and open for everyone to enjoy.
September 12: The festival closes with a high-energy summer send-off. Large- ensemble dance performances by EVIDENCE and MasterZ at Work open the day and Sadonna and the Slutinos give a farewell evening concert.
1:00 PM: Ronald K. Brown / EVIDENCE Dance Company – “A Light Shines Through” and “Torch”
2:30 PM: Courtney Balenciaga Washington and MasterZ at Work – “24/7 Diner” and “ALL INCLUSIVE”
6:00 PM: SADONNA: The World Drowned Tour
The 2026 Annual Festival also marks the return of Kaatsbaan’s outdoor Mountain Stage with its expansive views of the Catskill Mountains and immersion in the natural beauty of the Hudson Valley. Most performances are an hour or less, are all ages, and the festival schedule permits an easeful and day-long schedule of art and nature alongside Tivoli’s walkable downtown amenities. Tickets are offered on an incentive-based, affordable structure. Individual tickets and all-day passes available now at https://kaatsbaan.org/performances-festivals.
