PHILADELPHIA — Portugal. The Man, Dawes, and Little Feat will be the headliners at the 2026 XPoNential Music Festival.

This year’s festival, produced by University of Pennsylvania radio station WXPN-FM (88.5) at Wiggins Park on the Delaware River waterfront, will be staged on the weekend of Sept. 18-20.

On opening night on Sept. 18, top billing goes to Dawes, the Los Angeles folk-rock band featuring brothers Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith who have been frequent XPoNential performers, last playing the fest in 2021.

Also Friday night is Cyril Neville Plays the Dead, led by the percussionist and singer of New Orleans’ Neville Brothers, which has joined the swelling ranks of Grateful Dead tribute bands.

Delaware County-raised soul singer Devon Gilfillian, whose new album "Time Will Tell" is due out June 26, also plays Friday. As does Staten Island instrumental soul and funk ensemble the Budos Band, South Jersey melodic rock quartet Te Vista, and Panamanian and now Philadelphian psychedelic funk and jazz drummer Daniel Villarreal.

Saturday night’s XPoNential headliner is Portugal. The Man, fronted by John Gourley and featuring his wife, Zoe Manville. The band’s new album "Shish" is an homage to Gourley’s native Alaska. (Look out for a potential on-stage collaboration with Philly’s Snacktime, as the two groups have toured together.)

Saturday’s bill also includes Alabama soul band St. Paul & the Broken Bones, Canadian songwriter Leif Vollebekk, bluegrass mandolinist Sierra Hull, ace Kentucky songwriter S.G. Goodman, and Massachusetts pop-jazz band Couch. Philly artists on the bill are YouTuber MacKenzie Smith and violinist and songwriter Zoe Lemon.

The final day of the fest will be closed out by Little Feat, the Los Angeles group that released "Strike Up the Band" last year. That album is the band’s first of new material in 13 years, a full 46 years after the death of its co-founder and original frontman Lowell George.

Crowd pleasing New Orleans institution ReBirth Brass Band plays Sunday, as does Rat Boys, the Chicago indie band fronted by Julia Steiner. The band is also opening for Pavement at the Make the World Better concert weekend at the Dell Music Center in July.

Golden-voiced up-and-comer Tyler Ballgame is also on the Sunday bill, along with Bucks County-raised troubadour Langhorne Slim, South Jersey rock and roll band Fat Mezz, and Texas-born, Philly-based indie-folk singer Grace Gardner.

Tickets for the XPoNential Music Festival are on sale at xpnfest.org.

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