30. September 2026
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The 2027 Country To Country Main Acts have been announced – My & Your Thoughts

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

On Monday, 28th September 2026, the main acts and the Spotlight Stage artists of Country To Country 2027 have been announced. I wasn’t able to do an immediate reaction and my thoughts on the announcements, just due to my professional work and some concert report in my Flyctory.com backlog. Thus, I felt that I will take it as a chance and present the acts and schedules, as well as the also looking at your comments on the lineups. Therefor, I also scanned some social media and went for some prominent and popular comments.

I hope you like that kind of format. I do the posting (almost) chronologically, starting with the Continental European Events in Berlin and Rotterdam. In regards of comments, I looked at the events’ official social media pages (Facebook and Instagram), looked at some of partner and well-respected media socials like cntry.de in Germany or Holler Country in the United Kingdom. Obviously, I can only include a few of the comments and reactions.

 

The Central European Shows – Rotterdam and Berlin

I will alter the chronological order of the post slightly, just because the Berlin situation feels much more interesting to me.

 

C2C Berlin, Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th March 2027

There was rather indirect communication than real press releases around the festival in Germany. Two decisions have hit the Berlin version of the festival. There were surprisingly few reactions on a takeover on the promoter side: Semmel Concerts is out in Germany, AEG Presents moved from a partner to a leader. The Anschütz Group, who is also owning the Uber Eats Music Hall and the Uber Arena (the venue the local country community is dreaming of somehow…), take a step forward. It is uncertain how Semmel’s label Sound of Nashville will continue. But quite likely, it will be fading as slowly and quietly as the participation in the festival. The first effect people saw: the pre-sale of tickets which started on Tuesday, did no longer happen on CTS Eventim, the platform, which is part of the same group as Semmel Concerts, but an AEG’s platform AXS. The team behind the festival, by the way, will be the same. Sina Hall moved to AEG Presents – and took some of her people with her.

Another change felt being more surprising. At the end of the 2026 C2C in Berlin, the 2027 edition had been announced as a three day event, Friday to Sunday. There was no official statement about the Bluebird Cafe kick-off in the Passionskirche (see my 2025 report), but people expected it to happen on Thursday, 4th March, 2027. Same business as this year. Just some two weeks before the ticket pre-sale kicked off, the ads changed to a two day event, Saturday, 6th and Sunday 7th March 2027. This is a huge impact. I wonder whether this change was already known in March 2026 – or whether there have been some rather drastic short notice decision.

 

The Line-Up

Ashley McBryde is heading the Saturday line-up of the 2027 C2C in Berlin. She hasn’t been playing in Germany for a while. Since then, she even grew more. Ashley is a fabulous artist – also great to see that a female country artist is on the top of festival poster. Cooper Alan will be on stage before her. He did have some big songs like Plead The Fifth (2024), but his recent releases did not perform that well. Carter Faith jumps quite a bit on the C2C career ladder. In March 2024, I had seen her as second support act for Restless Road in Frankfurt. Blake Whiten and Mack Geiger are rising artists. Especially Black Whiten is regarded being an excellent live artist. The Spotlight stage is taken by Late Night Thoughts, Owen Riegling, Belles and Bec O’Malley. Just in line with the intention behind these intermission acts, they can grow their fan base with the Berlin appearances. Belles is a very interesting artist to me. I recently featured her song Son of Jolene.

Sunday likely features the biggest name of the line-up, Jelly Roll. The locals will be able to party until midnight with hin – Monday is a public holiday in Berlin (Women’s Day – however, Berlin is the only German state who has it). Jelly is coming back to the capital city after he supported Post Malone in 2025. Dasha is a safe choice for the German market. She is one of the few country artists who received a golden record in my home country in recent past. I featured her show in July 2025 in Cologne as well as her C2C Berlin gig the same year. She is an excellent performer on stage. Emily Ann Roberts is a very interesting country lady. I liked her performances during the 2026 C2C on the daytime stages. Drew Baldridge is another artist coming back to Berlin, after he had been there in 2025. The main stage opening act on Sunday will be Kashus Culpepper, who is not in my focus. Out of the Spotlight Stage artist, I especially focus on Laci Kaye Booth. The other artists there are Greylan James, Colin Lynch, and Chandler Walters.

 

Your Thoughts on Social Media

Obviously, quite some of the comments have been in German. I translated them for this posting.

  • Krysscross66 comments on the Instagram post by Cntry.de: The lineup doesn’t exactly blow me away: Dasha has already been a headliner, you could see Jelly Roll with Post Malone, and Ashley might come as a surprise, but otherwise it’s pretty weak. (9 likes)
  • On the same post, Anita.leashed even makes it shorter: That’s it? (15 likes)
  • The people were quite active commenting on the post by German country radio The Wolf on Instagram. For example, tjorventapken receives 44 likes for calling the lineup a heavy downgrade compared to the previous years. Like him, many users were surprised about that the Berlin event had been shortened again.
  • Other comments on the post feel especially disappointed that the event is just two days now, and that there was no proper announcement about it.
  • In several forums, people felt sad that Ella Langley is not on the line-up – a fact which some outlets already used as some running gag.

The reactions on the official accounts are limited. The original C2C accounts are driven by Semmel Concerts and obviously don’t feature the show. For example, at the time of writing, the official Facebook account of the 2027 Festival under the new management just comes with 96 followers at the time of writing.

 

My Thoughts on the Line-Up in Berlin

Let’s start positive. I am very happy with the headliners. Ashley has never been playing C2C Berlin before, she will be a blast. She is also having the highest number of positive comments I saw throughout all channels. Jelly Roll does an honest, energetic show. Some of the other artists have been on the Berlin stage rather recently. I personally love Dasha (she is also great to work with as a photographer), but I do get that if people don’t like her or some of the other acts the festival hosted before.

The key hit is the reduction to two days. Being able to see some of the acts several times on the daytime stages for three days was an absolute treat. The two day event will reduce musical diversity. It will also be interesting to see if the rather high number of daytime stages will stay – or whether organizational or financial limitations lead to a reduction. If AEG Presents can have a similar number of stages as in 2026, it will still be harder for you to build your schedule featuring all the artists you would like to see (it could become stressful during a three day event already). In general, previous C2C events in Berlin were lovely community meetings, but many people doubted whether the rather low audience can drive the event economically. Thus, I am especially looking forward to the changes AEG Presents will potentially do on the daytime side.

 

 

C2C Rotterdam, Friday 5th and Saturday 6th March 2027

After the long section about Berlin, I can have a much shorter view on Rotterdam. The line-up is equivalent. However, Rotterdam is now the unique kick-off event of the C2C Festival series, starting on Friday (with more or less the same lineup as Berlin on Saturday). No organizational changes, the festival will stay at the RTM Stage, Greenhouse Talent and AEG Presents are the promoters.

 

The Line-Up

Apart from a different order of the acts named for the Spotlight stage, the only difference between the two line-up announcements of Berlin and Rotterdam is on Sunday. According to the order given on the festival announcements, Drew Baldridge and Kashus Culpepper change their order on the second day. The RTM Stage at Rotterdam Ahoy is significantly larger than the Berlin one, come 7,500 compared to some 4,500 in Berlin. Berlin might be easier to reach for many visitors, though. The daytime stages might make a difference. However, the running order of those is released rather short before the festivals.

 

Your Thoughts about Rotterdam on Social Media

The comments I found were very similar to the Berlin ones. Again, Ashley McBryde feels to be the people’s favorite act on the line-up:

  • At the official C2CFestivalNL post on Instagram, catchingmagiceverywhere is disappointed: Oh, what a bummer… IMHO, it’s a pretty weak version of the UK line-up… 😢 No Riley Green, Midland, or Cole Swindell… Dasha and Jelly Roll were both in the Netherlands just recently… I’d really hoped for Ella, Bailey, or Hardy, too, seeing as the last two cancelled their shows here. (55 likes)
  • On the same post, ninakaalverink receives 22 likes for the briefer C2C, we need to talk 😢. Apparently, I had expectations that were too high. 😂
  • Fabulousvintageb is also negative: Well, you certainly can’t deny that C2C is thinking of us! After all, this saves us a lot of gas on the trip from Groningen to Rotterdam. Thanks a million for this lineup—because we won’t be coming! (26 likes)
  • On the Facebook post of the Dutch website NewCountry.nl, Jerry Pauwels criticizes the line-up in general: What does the line-up in fact has to do with country music? (1 like)

 

 

My Thoughts on the Line-Up in Rotterdam

Rotterdam comes with the larger venue, the country community is maybe also larger in the Netherlands. If you factor in major metropolitan areas like the Ruhrgebiet or even Greater Paris, Rotterdam might also have more potential visitors. After Berlin had three days last year, Rottterdam and Berlin are back on the same level now.

It’s a key question to me whether Rotterdam can become the stronger festival of the two Central European ones (so far). The Rotterdam Ahoj complex might be less charming than the Uber Platz in Berlin, but it does offer a lot of growth potential – even though it feels fairly close to London.

 

The British Shows – London, Glasgow and Manchester

I just put all the British shows into one post. In fact, London has more to offer, but that’s rather due to the large number of daytime stages. The main stage and Spotlight stage line-up rotates through the venues. Again, I will rather concentrate on the differences compared to Rotterdam and Berlin.

 

C2C in the U.K., Friday 12th to Sunday 14th March 2027

C2C 2026 in the United Kingdom ended with a bang. After the promoters tried out Belfast and Dublin in the past, they kicked out the island of Ireland entirely for 2027. Manchester’s AO Arena will replace the Northern Irish capital. This will do the logisitics significantly easier as the ferry and air transfer between Belfast and Glasgow or London was a challenge – and likely also quite pricey. However, the three venues, including the O2 in London and the OYO Hydro in Glasgow feel being rather close to each other now. It is a 220 miles / 4 hour drive from the London to the Manchester venue, high speed rails allow to travel within some two hours between the city centers. Drive times between Glasgow and Manchester are even slightly shorter.This means that if you are a big fan of one of the main acts, you may now see this acts twice or thrice on the same weekend, potentially without the need for air travel.

 

The Line-Ups

Friday almost in line with Berlin and Rotterdam

I will base my line-up sum-up on the London schedule (which is in line with the one given on the ad above). Friday in London does not differ that much to the Day 1 schedule in Rotterdam and Berlin. Mack Geiger will open Saturday. The free slot is taken by Jackson Dean. He is definitely the more attractive option. However, he is also a rather frequently featured artist on European stages. With Colin Lynch and Chandler Waters, there are also two very interesting artists on the CMA Spotlight Stage.

Saturday and Sunday in London

Day 2 in Continental Europe somehow falls into Saturday and Sunday in London. Dasha and Emily Ann Rogers are featured on Saturday. However, they are pushed down in the line-up by additional headliner Riley Green and Midland. Riley is the true added value to the U.K. line-up to me. I love the Midland shows. However, they have been touring Europe regularly the last years. However, they at least add some traditional/neotraditional country touch to the line-up.

With Jely Roll, London, Berlin, and Rotterdam share the same closing act. London, however, is having Cole Swindell and Chase Matthew as well on Sunday. In Berlin 2025, Matthew has been the second artist on Saturday main stage, though. Both are really interesting artists and will boost the country fans in England and Scotland. The fourth artist on the list is Kashus Culpepper again. Quite interestingly, London’s Sunday opening act on main stage is Laci Kaybe Booth, who is a Spotlight stage artist in Berlin and Rotterdam. Drew Baldridge is not listed for the major stages on that weekend.

 

Your Thoughts about the U.K. Shows on Social Media

I felt that overall, the mood on social media on the British dates was slightly more positive. Still, there are also some quite straight – and popular – negative thoughts.

  • In general, there are fewer positive comments, likely based on the fact that she did tour the U.K. in the meantime. Fraserb72_ is not happy and comments the Holler Country announcement on Instagram: What a fucking disgrace of a lineup. Apart from the Saturday, it’s mostly jumped-up AI-sounding pop with an underwhelming Friday headliner. Ashley McBryde is incredibly talented, but she’s not a festival headliner. I get they have a budget, but spunking a huge chunk of it on a pop artist like Jelly Roll is a fucking joke. (2 likes, despite Insta is hiding the comment)
  • There are a lot of positive comments and over 10k likes on the Instagram post by the C2C Festival. However, 16 people like when elpresidente76 is asking When will the headline acts be announced?
  • Even more likes are received for the comments of hetisemmaa, Expectations: not met (381 likes), and __91alb, This was NOT worth the wait (184 likes).
  • At the same post, karisalundberg receives 29 likes for comparing C2C with the BST Hyde Park Festival held every summer in London: Good lord. What has happened to C2C?? How is country having a moment, and this is the lineup we get? BST got Garth Brooks. C2C uses BST opening acts.
  • Absolute Radio is the major country music radio station in the U.K. There are quite a lot of negative comments on their announcement on Instagram, but smoff4547 also states They could raise Dolly Parton from the grave and announce her as headliner and these people in the comments would still complain 🥱 (7 likes).

There are, by the way, less requests on Ella Langley, as she is playing a festival in the United Kingdom in April.

 

My Thoughts on the Line-Up in the United Kingdom

The British country music market is much more developed than any in Continental Europe. Thus, they do deserve a better line-up. Just looking at the artists, they do get it. However, especially getting to London, including higher ticket prices and a not that easy hotel situation, you also pay a lot more to get it. This excludes the higher expenses for drinks etc. in and around the O2. The U.K. C2C festivals do have a higher value, a better experience. However, in regards of the value for money, Berlin had been the better option in 2026 already – maybe even if you are British and have higher travel costs to Germany than domestically.

Just looking at the main stage and comparing London to the weekend before for 2027, the reduction of the Berlin weekend to a two-day event might suggest to compensate that. There are three key artists, Riley Green and Cole Swindell, who do make a difference on main stage to me. The real deal is that you have three days of daytime stages in London. Still, I feel the gap is not big enough from a U.K. perspective – or the weekend in Rotterdam and Berlin still has some advantages over the main event.

 

 

C2C 2027 – The Dates

Fr 05.03.2027 –
Sa 06.03.2027		 Rotterdam (Netherlands) – RTM Stage
Sa 06.03.2027 –
Su 07.03.2027		 Berlin (Germany) – Uber Eats Music Hall
Fr 12.03.2027 –
Su 14.03.2027		 London (United Kingdom) – The O2
Fr 12.03.2027 –
Su 14.03.2027		 Manchester – AO Arena
Fr 12.03.2027 –
Su 14.03.2027		 Glasgow – The OVO Hydro

 

Flyctory.com about Country To Country

Here are more postings related to the Country To Country festivals in the UK, Netherlands, Ireland and Germany:

 

Country Music Interviews on Flyctory.com

Here are all country music related postings in my Spotlight interview section:

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