Review and Photos by Fred Kuhlman
Promoter: C3 Presents (https://www.c3presents.com/ )
Venue: Tempe Beach Park (https://www.downtowntempe.com/go/tempe-beach-park )
Date: Friday & Saturday February 27th & 28th, 2026
Tour: Extra Innings Festival (https://www.inningsfestival.com/extra )
This is a tail of 2 weekends of music and sun. The weekend of February 20th to 22nd was the Innings Festival. The temperatures started out in the low 60s and by Sunday it got to the low 80s. Just 1 week later the temperatures were in the low 90s for the 2 days of the Extra Innings Festival. Like in prior years, the festivals are held in Tempe, Arizona at Tempe Beath Park next to Tempe Town Lake. The Innings Festival consists of Indi and Rock band performances. The Extra Innings Festival is designed around 2 days of country music.
Each day of the Extra Innings Festival started out slow. I couldn’t tell if it was because of the heat, possible work day for some people or just the lesser-known bands. But by about 4:30 the crowds started to arrive for the main performers.
For Friday that meant by the time (4:40) Phoenix Favorite Bret Michaels and his band hit the stage, the fields were getting packed. Up until Bret hit the stage, the bands had all been pretty subdued. But when Bret hit the stage, the crowd went wild. Especially when he performed “Sweet Home Alabama”. With Bret you can always assume you will get a high energy performance from him and his entire band. Personally, I thought his bass player was fantastic.
Following Bret were Dierks Bentley, Brothers Osborne and ending the night was Luke Bryan. All 3 bands put on a great performance. I am not a big fan of country music, but I do enjoy good performances and each of those band impressed me. For me it was a great day of music.
However, there was one band that made me smile and cringe at the same time, The Brudi Brothers. They were a through back to the old Country-Western performers on the 50s. They had that “Twang” in their music. As I was walking to the other stage, I heard a song where they were doing “Yodeling” like Slim Whitman’s “Indian Love Call”. I texted my wife saying. “I feel like I am in the ‘Mars Attacks!” movie and my head it about to explode”.
On Saturday, I made a big mistake. I didn’t have a good breakfast (just toast with grandkids) before I left for the festival. Prior to leaving I took my medication. Big Mistake. I need to only take it on a full stomach. So, by 2PM I was feeling the effects of the heat, the dehydration (even though I was drinking a lot of water) and the medication. I got something to eat, but the damage was already done. So, by 7PM after I photographed Hardy, I was feeling really bad and had to leave. Since I did not get picked to photograph Kane Brown, it was not a big deal. However, I did miss Jessie Murph who I really wanted to see. From what I heard she and the band put on a great performance.
Of the bands I saw on Saturday, Noeline Hofmann and Hardy were the standouts. Some people were complaining that Hardy really isn’t a Country artist and should not have been scheduled for the Extra Innings Festival but should have been part of the Innings Festival line-up. I disagree. There are a number of crossover country artists that mix country music and rock music into their performances. And Hardy was outstanding.
