Born from a Surf Shop
Levitate Music & Arts Festival returns to Marshfield, Massachusetts on July 18-19, 2026 for its 13th year, bringing a lineup headlined by Alanis Morissette, Caamp, Trombone Shorty, Ziggy Marley, and Sammy Rae & The Friends to the South Shore town where the whole thing started as a party behind a surf and skate shop. Founded in 2013 by the team behind Levitate Brand — a Marshfield-based company rooted in surf, skate, and music culture — the festival has grown from a backyard gathering into a 20,000-per-day destination event without losing the community-first ethos that made people show up in the first place.
That origin story matters because it explains everything about how Levitate feels. This is not a festival conceived by a promoter studying market demographics. It was built by people who ride waves, skate parks, and listen to music obsessively — and who wanted to create the kind of weekend they’d want to attend. Thirteen years later, the scale has changed dramatically, but the sensibility hasn’t.
The Lineup
The 2026 billing captures the full range of Levitate’s programming instincts. Alanis Morissette brings arena-level star power and a catalog that spans three decades of cultural relevance. Caamp represents the folk-rock wave that has dominated festival lineups in recent years — warm, melodic, and built for outdoor settings. Trombone Shorty delivers New Orleans brass band energy with a funk and rock edge. Ziggy Marley carries a musical legacy that needs no introduction. And Sammy Rae & The Friends bring the kind of big-band indie energy that turns casual listeners into evangelists after a single set.
The undercard at Levitate consistently rewards exploration. The booking team programs deep, filling the two-day schedule with emerging acts that benefit from playing to a crowd primed for discovery. The single-weekend format keeps the energy concentrated — two days is enough to feel like an event without the exhaustion that four-day festivals inevitably produce.
The Experience
Levitate is explicitly family-friendly, with dedicated kids’ areas, art installations, and a general atmosphere that welcomes strollers alongside the craft beer crowd. Camping is available for those who want the full immersion, transforming a two-day festival into a weekend-long community. The grounds accommodate the activities that connect to Levitate’s brand roots: skateboarding, surfing culture, and the visual arts scene that has always orbited those communities.
The arts component is genuine, not decorative. Muralists, sculptors, and visual artists work on-site throughout the weekend, and the resulting installations give the grounds a texture that pure music festivals lack. Vendors lean toward independent makers and local businesses rather than corporate sponsors, which reinforces the community-market feel that Levitate has cultivated since its surf-shop days.
Getting There
Marshfield sits on Massachusetts’ South Shore, about 30 miles southeast of Boston and roughly three hours from the Capital Region. The coastal setting adds salt air and ocean proximity to the festival experience, and the South Shore’s beaches provide a natural extension of any festival weekend. With 20,000 attendees per day, Levitate has grown into one of New England’s signature summer festivals — large enough to book headliners who fill arenas, intimate enough to feel like a gathering rather than a production. That balance is the hardest thing in the festival business to maintain, and thirteen years in, Levitate is still holding it.