May 31, 2026, 5:02 a.m. ET
- The Carolina Beach Music Festival is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.
- The festival is tied to the history of The Shag, a dance with origins in the local Black community of Seabreeze.
- This year’s event runs June 5-6, featuring bands like The Band of Oz, The Tams, and Jim Quick & Coastline.
The Carolina Beach Music Festival celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.
Running June 5-6 in Carolina Beach, it has long billed itself as “the longest-running beach music festival in the United States still on the beach.” Another thing that makes the festival special is how it’s tied to the history of the area.
The popular beach music dance known as The Shag — a kind of modified, laid-back jitterbug — can trace its origins to the 1940s and ’50s and the Black community near Carolina Beach known as Seabreeze, where such dancers as Malcolm “Chicken” Hicks learned dance steps and brought them to the White community.
Of course, one of the ironies of the “beach music” sound is that it was born in Black urban centers like Detroit and Atlanta and came to the coast via bands like The Drifters, The Tams, The Temptations, The Four Tops and many more, spawning White bands playing music inspired by their idols.
The first Carolina Beach Music Festival was held in 1985 (2020 and 2021 were skipped during the pandemic) on the north end of Carolina Beach. Originally called the Budweiser Beach Music Festival thanks to its then-sponsor, Jackson Beverage Co., by the early ’90s the festival, which was free in its early days, was drawing crowds of 40,000 or more, a fraction of today’s audience.
The festival has been produced by the Pleasure Island Chamber of Commerce since 1993.
Here’s everything you need to know about the 2026 Carolina Beach Music Festival.
Sun, sand, schedule
This year’s Carolina Beach Music Festival starts 6:30 p.m. on June 5 with a free “’80s Boardwalk Bash” and concert on the Carolina Beach Boardwalk’s Gazebo Stage. The band, Hair Trigger, an ’80s cover act, will play till 9:30 p.m.
The festival proper runs on the Carolina Beach strand by the Boardwalk on June 6 with gates opening at 10 a.m.
Beach music bands play at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., and the festival wraps up at 4:30 p.m.
Kids and coolers are allowed, but Shibumi shades are not. To reserve a 10-by-10-foot canopy tent, call 910-458-8434.
The bands
Carolina Beach Music Festival openers The Band of Oz (11 a.m.) are North Carolina music legends. The band formed in Greenville in 1967 and has gone on to help define the beach music sound in the state with such songs as “Shaggin’.”
The Tams (2 p.m.) out of Atlanta are another longtime act that formed in the 1960s, scoring hits with such smooth soul tunes as 1964’s “What Kind of Fool (Do You Think I Am)?”
But it’s The Tams’ 1968 song “Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy” that’s been a beach music standard for decades now, with its exuberant vibe and worry-free lyrics capturing the genre’s vibe.
The 2026 Carolina Beach Music Festival will close with a beloved hometown act, Jim Quick & Coastline. Led by singer and frontman Quick, the band plays a mix of beach music classics alongside its own potent originals in a genre the band calls “swamp soul.”
Tickets
Tickets to the Carolina Beach Music Festival are $35 in advance, $40 day of the event, and are non-refundable. Children ages 10 and under can attend for free.
Purchase advance tickets online at PleasureIslandNC.org.
Parking
There is no reserved parking for this event.
Street parking is available for $5 per hour. Rates for private lots range from $6 to $7 per hour or $25 to $35 for the day.
Details at CarolinaBeach.gov.
