Country Calling Festival in Ocean City, Maryland, is set for its inaugural year in October. The festival is the week following Oceans Calling Festival, and will feature the same setup with a different lineup.
The festival features four headliners across two days, Friday and Saturday. Eric Church and Jelly Roll will headline Friday, and Tyler Childers and Lainey Wilson will headline on Saturday.
For New Jersey country fans making the trip, there will be some exclusive acts. Jelly Roll played TidalWave in 2023 and is performing at the Prudential Center this year, but Tyler Childers has never done a show in New Jersey.
Both Eric Church and Lainey Wilson performed in Jersey in 2023, with Wilson playing at Barefoot Country Music Festival. Each artist has played a set in Maryland in the past two years.
The undercard for the festival is very strong, according to the majority of fans on the Internet.
Friday:
Riley Green, Warren Zeiders, Clint Black, and Martina McBride are the subheadliners for the festival. Warren Zeiders last played a set in New Jersey in 2022 at Asbury Lanes. The undercard actually gets stronger on day one as the lineup goes down.
The Red Clay Strays, who performed at Boston Calling and will be playing at Caveman Fest and Hinterland this year, are on the next line along with country band NEEDTOBREATHE.
Ingrid Andress, Ella Langley, Alexandra Kay, Hueston, and Jimmy Charles round off the lineup on Friday.
Saturday
The final day is Saturday, which is unconventional for most festivals, but C3 Presents has begun using this format recently.
Innings Fest, in Tempe, Arizona, along with Extra Innings Fest both use a Friday/Saturday festival format. The two fests in Arizona are the closest comparison to the new double weekend fest in Ocean City.
In Tempe, Innings is a standard rock lineup, which featured Red Hot Chili Peppers headlining in 2023, and Extra Innings featuring Dave Matthews Band and Noah Kahan.
Saturday features headlining sets from Tyler Childers and Lainey Wilson. The top line of subheadliners features strong acts: Bailey Zimmerman, who is subheadlining Barefoot Country Music Festival in Wildwood, Brothers Osborne, and Dwight Yoakam.
A lot of the overlap from Barefoot Country comes on Saturday, with artists like Priscilla Block and Alana Springsteen performing.
Tanya Tucker, Parmalee, Paul Cauthen, Nikki Lane, Dasha, and Drayton Farley are the final acts who round off the day. There are 13 performances on each day.
Every ticket option for the festival is completely sold out, but tickets for a 2-day general admission pass started at $199. This is an objectively good price for a C3 Presents festival. If you are interested in going, you can still join the waitlist for a chance to get tickets later.
NJ Music Festivals 