Photos by Jill Fulton and Zachary Sorrels
If you were like the rest of us whose jaw dropped when the Cotton Fest 2024 lineup dropped, get in line. Over the past few years, Cotton Fest has become a staple to the yearly Lubbock music lineup, pulling some of the most exciting acts in Country music to perform at Cook’s Garage for an awesome weekend. Former performers included Southall (fka Read Southall Band), Grady Spencer & The Work, Randall King, Giovannie & the Hired Guns, and Kevin Fowler.
This year’s lineup was an entirely different beast. Alongside the closing set of William Clark Green, The Panhandlers would perform their inaugural Lubbock show, The Red Clay Strays would return to Lubbock following their massive success with Wondering Why and their record deal to RCA, Mike Ryan, and Treaty Oak Revival would set the stages on fire, and artists like Slade Coulter, Jacob Stelly, and more would keep the party going. It was a fantastic lineup.
Due to other work conflicts, I have never been able to attend. With this year’s Cotton Fest being the last weekend of June, I could finally participate. Regardless of the 100°F heat that encompassed both days, it was worth it all.
It was a hot weekend. Cooks Garage was filled with RVs of the campers spending the night as well as food trucks like Mijo’s Tex-Mex BBQ and Nirvana Burger as well as a ZYN activation that fit a country festival like Cotton Fest. The Red Dirt Rebel was there as the hosts of the festival introducing each act who’d come on stage and keep the crowd energetic through the weekend. There was free water for anyone during the weekend, open A/C in the Bus Barn, and the favorite rule of the weekend enacted by William Clark Green: BYOB. Throughout the weekend, I was shocked to see what type of alcohol people would take in from full bottles of hard liquor to full bags of Franzia. You tell college kids to bring their alcohol, and they get to work.
Friday:
Aiden Logsdon
Aiden Logsdon opened the first day of the festival and rocked. It’s cool to see someone who you’ve seen working hard get to play on such a big stage and soak in their success thus far and Aiden seemed so grateful to be on such a huge stage.
Hudson Westbrook
Finding massive success on TikTok, Hudson Westbrook was the next artist to perform at Cotton Fest. Westbrook is a student at Texas Tech and is currently sitting over 150k followers on TikTok. The crowd, filled with other Tech students and fans, was already piling in to see Hudson Westbrook, and he put on a show. It has already clicked with him on how to be a larger-than-life presence on stage leading the crowd into each song. He performed some new material soon to be released and performed a cover of Jacob Stelly’s “Johnny Walker” which he said was one of his favorite songs. I am excited to see him again in the future.
Josh Weathers
Josh Weathers kept the party going. He has a fantastic voice and the crowd ate it up. Between his originals he also played a lot of fantastic covers including Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams, Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You, and The Isley Brothers’ Shout.
Jacob Stelly
After watching Hudson Westbrook perform “Johnny Walker”, it was super cool to then see Jacob Stelly bring out Hudson Westbrook to perform it together. Stelly always has put on a good show and seems to love the energy Lubbock brings, so to see him perform on a huge stage this year was such a treat.
Cooder Graw
Due to a last-minute pullout from 49 Winchester, Cooder Graw was quickly added to the lineup days before the festival, and they put on a fantastic set. The Amarillo-based band is known for their run in the early 2000s making “loud country” and they are just a ton of fun on stage.
Mike Ryan
Mike Ryan was one of the first big pulls on this year’s lineup. Every time Mike Ryan rolls into town, he puts on a show and controls the stage. In his set at Cotton Fest, he felt like one of the few artists who used as much of the stage as possible, singing to different sections of the crowd and bringing constant energy during his performance. Even after his performance, he jumped into the pit and signed a few things from people by the barricade and took some photos with some fans. He’s just a great guy alongside a great performer.
The Panhandlers
The first Panhandlers show in Lubbock. I’ve known people who had dreamed about this happening for years, and William Clark Green’s Cotton Fest just felt right. The live band combined touring musicians from Flatland Cavalry, Josh Abbott Band, and William Clark Green’s band and had plenty of stage antics prepared. A majority of the set featured songs from The Panhandlers, but they took a moment to each pick one song from their discography to play to the crowd including Flatland Calvary’s “Mountain Song”.
My personal favorites were hearing John Baumann-led “Caprockin’” and their cover of Charlie Stout’s “West Texas In My Eye” which feels like a staple to Lubbock. I’ll keep most of their surprises hidden, but I will say watching Josh Abbott make a Chilton on stage during “The Chilton Song” with a good helping of Tito’s in his cup was the peak of Cotton Fest.
Saturday:
Haydon Wiginton
I have seen Texas Tech Football Wide Receiver Haydon Wiginton quite a few times as he has stepped into country music from his debut performance at The Blue Light and numerous shows since then. His biggest show up to this point was opening the second day of Coton Fest. He constantly seems to look more and more confident and more and more like someone who is one big hit away from traveling across the United States to play his music. His accompanying band also absolutely elevates his sound with elements of rock and classic country sounds.
Carter Faith
Carter Faith was the only woman on the main Cotton Fest lineup. In addition to a great performance, Carter Faith seems to also be a great storyteller giving brief and fun explanations to her songs before she rocks out. This year’s Cotton Fest, as much as the lineup rocked, did feel like it was missing some great female artists on the bill, so it was nice to see Carter Faith on the bill and her to ultimately play a fantastic set on a loaded Sunday.
The BBQ Awards
In between Carter Faith and Slade Coulter were the awards for the BBQ Cookoff and a live auction where a ton of crazy things were auctioned off in support of the High Cotton Relief Fund. Each year they auction off a real baby goat that I believe they said was even potty trained. Watching people in VIP fight back and forth to win a goat was insane and a ton of fun.
Slade Coulter
The great Slade Coulter took the stage next to kick off the final block of acts for the night. In a surprise to no one, Slade Coulter played a fantastic set getting the crowd amped up and ready to throw down. With pure charisma on display, Slade and his band looked like they were having the time of their lives on stage with his guitarist Thomas Evans having the time of his life all while catching beers thrown to him on stage.
The Red Clay Strays
The Red Clay Strays seems like one of the hardest-working bands in music. Heading off to do a bunch of shows and festivals throughout the United States and Europe throughout 2024, their song “Wondering Why” blew up, and the band was signed to RCA Records. Still committed to their intense touring schedule, the band continued to play festivals and shows that seemed smaller than the demand. The band seems to bring such a huge crowd with them to each date they perform like they are the Chappell Roan of Southern Rock playing set times that might be too early for the demand.
I say all this to gush about how much I love the band. After getting into them following their debut album Moment of Truth and adoring the singles for Made by These Moments up to that point, I was so excited to see them again. The band seemed to have been mostly moved past their debut album and excited to play a ton of new music from their forthcoming album including the singles “Wanna Be Loved” and “Devil In My Ear”. They opened with the song “Ramblin” which is mostly about traveling and touring which fits their busy tour schedule. The crowd was so excited to hear their set including cuts like “Stones Throw” and “Don’t Care”. Of course, their breakout hit “Wondering Why” was a crowd favorite with the audience belting out every word along with Brandon Coleman. They are still growing and will probably find even more success in the future. Get on the hype train before it’s too late.
Treaty Oak Revival
I could be long-winded about Treaty Oak Revival as well, but I’ve praised them enough through my time at KTXT almost as much as Andrew Watters. The band loves coming to Lubbock multiple times a year because Lubbock adores them as well. Treaty Oak Revival frontman Sam Canty seems to have an absolute grasp on the crowd every time they return because he makes the crowd as rowdy as humanly possible when the band graces the stage. With 12 songs on their setlist for a festival set, time was of the essence and they knew they needed to play a killer no-filler type of show. Opening with “Stop and Stare” and “In Between” from Have a Nice Day was a cheat code to getting the crowd riled up. During their 60-minute set, the band played their best hits from “Have A Nice Day”, “No Vacancy”, “Ode To Bourbon”, and of course “Boomtown” which has one of the best drops in all of Country music regardless of subgenre.
They closed with my favorite song “See You in Court” which rips live. They are coming back to Lubbock for the third time this year opening for Koe Wetzel, so if you missed them twice this year, you have another chance to rock out with them.
William Clark Green
Of course, if you are the host of the festival, you are probably going to headline the festival. William Clark Green ultimately performed three nights in a row with the VIP show alongside Pat Green, The Panhandlers performance, a performance with his live band to close out Cotton Fest. He, of course, played his big songs like “She Likes the Beatles”, but WCG also debuted the song “Whole Lotta Lubbock”, an ode to the city he came up in. One of the best moments of any William Clark Green show is when he performs “Ringling Road”, but this time around he brought out Aiden Logsdon, Hudson Westbrook, and Haydon Wiginton who all came on stage to do the always epic “La da da da da da” section of the song.
This is the first year Cotton Fest sold out, and it probably won’t be the last. Each year they seem to improve the lineup. Performing amid the summer makes the festival hotter than ever before, but completely removes the obstacle of dust. If a summer festival is what helps them bring in artists like Treaty Oak Revival and The Red Clay Strays, there is no reason for them to not keep up the new date.
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