CBGB isn’t coming back as a venue — but the name’s clearly not going anywhere.
The CBGB Festival has just announced its 2026 return, landing Saturday, September 26 under the K Bridge Park in Brooklyn.
It’s the second year they’ve run it in this format, and while it’s obviously a long way from the original club that shut in 2006, the lineup is doing a decent job of carrying the weight.
Up top, it’s Patti Smith, Morrissey and Interpol — a mix that leans more post-punk and legacy than pure chaos, but still makes sense on paper.
Smith is the obvious centrepiece. She played the final show at the original CBGB back in 2006, so having her headline something carrying the same name — even in a park — feels like a pretty deliberate full-circle moment.
Elsewhere, it’s a solid spread of old and new. You’ve got first-wave staples like Buzzcocks and Sex Pistols (with Frank Carter stepping in on vocals), plus Bikini Kill holding it down on the riot grrrl side.
Then there’s the deeper, more hardcore-leaning end — Circle Jerks, Agnostic Front, Sleater-Kinney — which at least nods to the scene CBGB actually helped build.
The newer names — Mannequin Pussy, Militarie Gun, High Vis and Violet Grohl — give it some current context, even if this still leans heavily on legacy appeal.
That’s kind of the balance the festival’s trying to strike. It’s not pretending to recreate CBGB – you can’t really do that – but it is trying to connect that history to what punk and alt look like now.
Tickets go on presale Thursday, April 23 at 10am ET, with general sale the day after. If you’re planning to go, it’s probably one to jump on early.
It might not smell like stale beer and busted amps anymore, but for a day at least, CBGB is back in some form.
