The 12th edition of the Levitate Music and Arts Festival has come and gone. The Marshfield Fairgrounds hosted the festival and all the bustling crowds that came with it on the weekend of July 18 and 19. The 2026 edition featured a lineup of Levitate regulars and other familiar faces, but it was no secret that day 1 headliner Alanis Morissette was a huge draw.
Saturday was a decidedly female-forward day, with the main stage hosting sets from Bebe Stockwell, Larkin Poe, Sammy Rae & The Friends, and of course the headline performance from Alanis Morissette. The secondary stage featured an assortment of funk, reggae, and jam performers well-placed at Levitate, including Ziggy Marley, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, and The Movement. The third and smallest stage, (relocated to its usual spot near the food trucks after last year’s experimental location directly across from the main stage), featured the local up-and-coming winners of the Levitate Foundation’s Emerging Artist Showcase: Copilot, hailing from Boston, Hey I’m Outside, from Medford, and Owen Howes and the Night Call, based in Portland, Maine. The weather for day 1 was an unfortunately damp affair, with rain varying widely from light sprinkle to full-on downpour throughout the late afternoon. Isn’t it ironic that it would rain on the Alanis day of the festival? It figures however that the fans chose to weather the storm to see her headlining set, and she was worth the wait.
While Saturday was female-forward, Sunday was the back end of that scheduling choice. The bulk of the female representation on day 2 was present only in the ranks of the Emerging Artist Showcase, with Laney Power and Casey Rivers performing on the third stage. The main and secondary stages were host to the likes of some familiar performers on Sunday. Hans Williams enjoyed a promotion from the small stage at last year’s festival to the main stage this time around, while Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country returned after performing at Levitate 2024. Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue also returned after 11 years for a brilliantly energizing performance that was a highlight of the weekend, and The Elovators were back on the main stage for their inevitable yet always extremely well-attended appearance at the festival. Caamp rounded out the night and concluded the festival with their highly anticipated headline set that captivated the crowd until the very end.
By design and perhaps a result of its location, the Levitate Music and Arts Festival has a remarkably local flavor to it. Whole families flood the fairgrounds together, and a small ecosystem of impromptu concession stands and private parking lots (some might call them front yards) springs up in the surrounding neighborhood. Year after year, a quick conversation with almost any festivalgoer will reveal someone from Marshfield, or from nearby Duxbury, Scituate, or any of the other surrounding towns. Most of these locals will happily tell you all about how they attend every year and how they have done so for years. That strong sense of community does a lot to explain the consistently large turnout for Marshfield’s hometown heroes, The Elovaters, who are rightfully guaranteed a spot on every Levitate lineup. In a time where music festivals are tightening belts, going on hiatus, or even shutting down altogether, it’s a boon for Levitate to have a built-in core group of attendees, and there are no signs of stopping.
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