The Sea.Hear.Now Festival has unveiled its 2026 lineup, with Mumford & Sons and The Offspring topping a bill that also features The Strokes, Goo Goo Dolls, Chaka Khan, Fontaines D.C., Pixies and more than two dozen other acts. As first reported by Rolling Stone and confirmed by Billboard, the festival returns to the beach at North Beach and Bradley Park in Asbury Park, New Jersey, on Sept. 19–20, 2026, across three stages. Beyond the music, the event will again host a two-day surf contest and large-scale art installations, including Asbury Park artists’ iconic jellyfish and surfboard pieces.
Sometimes we forget that the Best Coast, is not the only coast.
The announcement underscores how East Coast destination fests are locking in major legacy and alternative headliners early, banking on acts with broad cross-generational appeal. For Mumford & Sons, the Sea.Hear.Now booking sits alongside a busy late-2026 slate that includes Bourbon & Beyond in Louisville, Ky., the same month, as Rolling Stone notes. The Strokes, meanwhile, are also set to headline Shaky Knees in Atlanta in September, on top of appearances at Coachella and Bonnaroo earlier in the year.
Lineup and Ticket Details
Saturday’s bill will be led by Mumford & Sons and The Offspring, with support from Chaka Khan, The War on Drugs, The All-American Rejects, Shaggy, Men at Work, Bangles singer Susanna Hoffs, Fitz and the Tantrums, Tom Odell and a half-dozen additional artists. Sunday will be headlined by The Strokes and Goo Goo Dolls, with Fontaines D.C., Moby, Pixies, Ziggy Marley, Kim Gordon, Ben Howard and others filling out the day. The surf contest will showcase East Coast pros such as Sam Hammer, Cassidy McClain, Cam Richards and Balaram Stack, while Transparency Gallery will host pop-up performances and sell artwork to benefit local Asbury Park charities.
Tickets go on presale on March 26 at 10 a.m. ET, with a general on-sale at 11 a.m. ET for any remaining inventory, according to Billboard. The festival will offer two-day and single-day options in general admission, GA+, VIP and Platinum tiers; full pricing and purchase links are available through the festival’s official website.
Why It Matters for SoCal Fans
While Sea.Hear.Now itself is an East Coast event, several of the marquee acts are fixtures on Southern California stages, and their presence on this bill hints at how their 2026 tours may route through the region. Mumford & Sons have already confirmed two nights at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Oct. 6–7, 2026, giving local fans a chance to catch the band shortly after the festival run. Goo Goo Dolls will play the Yaamava Theater at Yaamava Resort and Casino in Highland on May 19, 2026, offering an early preview of the kind of catalog-heavy set likely bound for festival stages later in the year.
More broadly, the lineup reflects tastes that play strongly in Southern California: punk-leaning rock from The Offspring, indie and alternative from The Strokes and Fontaines D.C., and legacy pop-rock from Goo Goo Dolls and Chaka Khan. With The Strokes already booked for Coachella and multiple headliners maintaining active touring schedules, it’s plausible that additional LA- and Orange County-area dates, or last-minute festival adds, could emerge as routing firms up.
What Comes Next
As presale begins on March 26, watch for routing announcements from the headliners that will clarify whether any Sea.Hear.Now acts will tack on standalone Southern California shows around the festival dates. For fans weighing a trip east, the festival offers a compact, two-day format with a mix of music, surf and art, while locals can plan around the already-confirmed Kia Forum dates for Mumford & Sons and the Yaamava appearance from Goo Goo Dolls. Additional SoCal stops by The Offspring, The Strokes and other undercard acts remain possible as the 2026 touring calendar fills in through the spring and summer.
Last updated March 30, 2026.
Sources: Billboard, Rolling Stone
ref: 6011