Tempe Beach Park & Arts Park in Tempe, AZ — February 20-22, 2026

Innings Festival returned for its eighth edition at Tempe Beach Park & Arts Park, once again bringing music lovers and baseball fans together in the desert – and back to a three-day format for the first time since its inaugural run. Set along the river with the mountains stretched across the background and downtown Tempe just steps away, the festival feels distinctly local while still expansive enough to hold a weekend of music, movement, and shared experience.

The relatively compact footprint of the park concentrated the energy, with something always happening everywhere you went. During the day, festivalgoers spread out across the green tarp that covered the main viewing area in front of the main stage, and by evening, those same areas tightened into dense, shoulder-to-shoulder sing-alongs. Picnic benches and built-in patios provided natural gathering points and welcome relief from the sun. Food vendors blended seamlessly into this atmosphere, with Sonoran-style bites to festival staples having long but fast-moving lines throughout the day and fueling long afternoons. With the Phoenix airport just minutes away, planes roared overhead all day long, a steady backdrop of engines adding yet another rhythm to the weekend.

The festival layout continues to define the music experience: two stages, Home Plate and Right Field, positioned on opposite ends of the park. Sets alternated between them with just five minutes in between, creating a constant current of movement. All weekend long, fans streamed back and forth across the grounds to catch every possible minute of music. Across three days, Innings delivered a stacked lineup, with Mumford & Sons closing out a cool Friday night, Twenty One Pilots putting on an absolute banger of a show on Saturday, and pop-punk icons Blink-182 closing out Sunday. Each brought a distinct tone to the desert – sweeping folk-rock harmonies, genre-blurring arena spectacle, and high-octane nostalgia – anchoring a weekend that never slowed down.

Throughout the weekend, baseball caps and jerseys dominated the festival fashion. Teams like the Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Los Angeles Dodgers were visible throughout the crowd, from longtime fans to families with kids who played in Little League. Under shaded patios and picnic tables, strangers struck up conversations about their teams, swapped tips for taking kids to spring training games, and connected over shared memories of the sport. The result was a casual, communal energy that felt as much a part of the festival as the music itself.

True to its name, Innings is as much about the diamond as it is about the stage, the baseball presence remaining a core part of the experience. The baseball activations and Left Field stage were situated on a mini baseball field, reinforcing the theme not just conceptually but physically – you were quite literally standing on a ballfield while listening to conversations about the game. The Batting Cage and Speed Pitch booths remained busy throughout the weekend, with fans stepping up between sets to test their swings and throws. Hosted by 2013 World Series champion Ryan Dempster, Off The Mound did multiple sessions on the Left Field stage and featured live conversations with former Major League Baseball players, artists playing at the festival, and other sports personalities. Throughout the weekend, former MLB players held meet and greets, and we were able to catch the meet-and-greet with Mark Grace, where longtime fans showed up in Cubs gear and swapped stories while waiting for a photo and autograph. The baseball programming gave the weekend a uniquely interactive rhythm – a reminder that this festival lives at the intersection of two spaces built around shared experience.

For more information, visit the festival’s official website here.

DAY 1

Thanks to a cold front from California, Friday had cool, sunny skies and a rare crispness for Arizona in late February. OK Go brought kinetic energy and sharp visuals to the afternoon crowd, a reminder of their knack for blending performance and creativity. Grouplove leaned into colorful, carefree anthems that felt tailor-made for a sunny lawn crowd. Peach Pit, notably more forceful live than their melodic studio recordings might suggest, delivered one of the day’s most dynamic sets, stretching their songs into grittier, guitar-forward moments that added weight and urgency to the afternoon. Veteran alt-rockers Goo Goo Dolls sparked one of the weekend’s biggest early sing-alongs before Mumford & Sons’ sweeping finale.

DAY 2

Saturday warmed up noticeably, though the breeze still cut through at times — just enough to keep things comfortable as the crowd grew even larger. With Twenty One Pilots set to headline, fans arrived dressed in the band’s unmistakable aesthetic, many sporting custom baseball jerseys and handmade shirts that cleverly merged the festival’s baseball theme with the duo’s iconography. Catie Turner opened the day on the main stage with sharp lyricism and candid charm, later shifting to a more intimate acoustic set on the Left Field stage that emphasized her expressive presence. The Fray brought piano-driven nostalgia, while Dashboard Confessional tapped into early-2000s catharsis. Cage the Elephant injected grit and restless movement, Lord Huron layered in atmospheric calm, and Twenty One Pilots anchored the night with a massive, meticulously choreographed set that held the crowd’s focus from start to finish.

DAY 3

By Sunday, the desert had returned to form. The temperature climbed back to its usual heat, and shaded pockets of the park filled quickly as people paced themselves for the final stretch. Common People opened the main stage with emphatic delivery, pushing their set forward with conviction and pulling early arrivals firmly into the moment. Artikal Sound System followed with sun-soaked reggae-rock that felt especially fitting against the rising heat, their bass-heavy grooves and dynamic vocals steadily building momentum across the lawn. Switchfoot balanced introspection with uplift, while Public Enemy brought high-energy hip-hop to the Right Field stage. The day then culminated with Blink-182, whose nostalgia-heavy closing set had the entire festival on its feet one last time.

Words & Photography: Carolyn Wang