The Muscle Shoals Songwriters Festival Mostly Plays in Florence. Its One Hometown Stop Needs Its Own Ticket.

"Set for Nov. 6–8 in Florence and Muscle Shoals." That's the line Visit North Alabama used on October 19 to announce the seventh annual Muscle Shoals Songwriters Festival. It's accurate. But the split between the two cities is far from even. Of the six venues named for 2026, five are across the river in Florence. The only one in Muscle Shoals is FAME Recording Studios, and it's also the one show a weekend pass won't get you into.

If you live on this side of the river, that changes how you plan the weekend. A festival with our town's name on it is a Florence weekend with one Muscle Shoals evening, and that evening has its own ticket.

Six Venues, One on Our Side of the River

The festival's published venue list is Swampers Terrace at Renaissance Shoals Resort, The GunRunner Boutique Hotel, FloBama, The Lava Room, On The Rocks and FAME Recording Studios. Each venue's address shows where the weekend really happens.

Four of the Florence venues are in or near downtown, close enough together that you can park once and walk between rounds. Swampers sits at the resort on Hightower Place, which also happens to be the festival's presenting partner. The official site bills the event as "presented by Renaissance Shoals Resort & Spa."

The educational side of the weekend is in Florence too. The Shoals Songwriter Workshop runs Nov. 6–7 at The Mane Room at the University of North Alabama, with masterclasses on songwriting craft, sessions on licensing music for film and television, and chances to pitch to publishers. Registration is separate, through shoalssongworkshop.com.

So in practice, the Muscle Shoals part of the Muscle Shoals Songwriters Festival is one studio on one night.

Why the Hometown Show Costs Extra

This is the part most worth knowing before you buy. According to the SquadUP ticket listing, the weekend pass covers three days of admission, more than 20 songwriter showcases and the after-parties. It specifically leaves out the FAME showcase, which is ticketed on its own. The Visit North Alabama release says the same thing: "The FAME Recording Studios showcase requires a separate ticket."

Here's how the passes were listed on SquadUP in October 2026:

1. Weekend pass: $175 plus a $21 fee, $196 total.
2. Friday-only pass: $89 plus a $9.50 fee, $98.50 total.
3. Saturday–Sunday pass: $109 plus an $11.50 fee, $120.50 total.
4. FAME Studios pass, Friday, Nov. 6: $75 plus a $9.50 fee, $84.50 total, with a commemorative FAME gift bag included.

Seeing the whole festival, hometown show included, costs $281 with fees: $196 for the weekend pass plus $84.50 for FAME. The FAME pass alone costs $84.50 and doesn't require buying anything else.

The FAME performers are still listed as TBA, and the ticket page gives no start time. SquadUP also still lists the full festival schedule as "To be Announced." Until round-by-round times are posted, you won't know whether a FAME ticket overlaps with Friday's rounds in Florence.

Who's Playing the Rounds

Once you know where the shows are, the lineup tells you which ones you'd cross the river for. The festival's headliners for 2026 include several names with ties to the Shoals.

• The Family Band: James LeBlanc, Dylan LeBlanc, Angela Hacker and Bay Simpson, billed as a "local powerhouse collective."
• Kashus Culpepper: an Alabama native and rising country-soul artist on Big Loud Records.
• Anthony Smith: another Alabama native, who wrote Chris Young's "Tomorrow" and Lonestar's "What About Now."
• Bridgette Tatum: co-writer of Jason Aldean's "She's Country."
• Steven Dale Jones: credits include Diamond Rio's "One More Day" and Jordan Davis' "Singles You Up."
• Jeff Cohen: award-winning songwriter whose work includes Evan and Jaron's "Crazy for This Girl," Martina McBride and Big & Rich.

Also on the bill are Jason Duke, Justin Wilson, David Fanning, Jeffrey Steele, Clare Dunn, Alyssa Flaherty, Jon Decious and Curt Chambers. The official lineup page adds Mark Nesler, Matt Warren and Victoria Banks. WHNT reported the lineup on September 27 as "dozens of artists."

Steele, Cohen and Banks are also teaching at the workshop. That means a weekend pass holder could hear a Saturday round in Florence from someone who spent Friday morning at UNA teaching the craft.

The venue list itself has changed from last year. According to the festival archive, the Shoals Theatre joined as a venue partner in 2025. It isn't among the six venues named for 2026.

Planning the Weekend From Muscle Shoals

Since the passes are split this way, a Muscle Shoals household has three realistic ways to do the weekend:

• FAME only. Buy the $84.50 FAME pass and stay close to home Friday night. It's the shortest drive of the festival and the only show held in a working recording studio in our own town.
• FAME Friday, Florence the rest of the weekend. The FAME pass plus the Saturday–Sunday pass comes to $205 with fees, about $76 less than the weekend pass plus FAME. You give up Friday's Florence rounds, which may be a small loss if they end up running at the same time as the studio showcase.
• Everything. Weekend pass plus FAME, $281 total, with the after-parties included in the weekend pass.

The second option plans best around the drive. For most of the weekend you'll be crossing the river into downtown Florence, and two of those nights, Saturday and Sunday, go to Florence anyway. If you've followed the bridge work this season, our post on the Patton Island route to Florence explains the crossing that will carry most of that traffic.

The official site gives travel information for flying in and finding a hotel, but no shuttle or parking guidance. Expect to handle your own parking downtown, where four of the venues are close enough to walk between.

Don't wait long to buy. Organizers say capacity at every venue is kept limited on purpose to keep performances intimate, and they encourage early purchases. A small room like a studio fills fastest, and FAME is the room with no backup on our side of the river.

Where the Pass Money Goes

The festival is run by the Muscle Shoals Songwriters Foundation, a nonprofit founded in 2019. According to the Visit North Alabama release, the foundation has reinvested more than $750,000 in the music community since its founding through education and professional development programs. WHNT reported the same figure.

The festival carries the town's name, spends most of the weekend in Florence and puts its proceeds back into music across the whole Shoals. If you want to see the festival in your own town, buy the separate FAME pass for Friday, Nov. 6.

At I Love Shoals Homes, we love a weekend that has Muscle Shoals and Florence sharing one stage. We follow these Shoals traditions because they're part of what makes home feel like home. If you're curious how the river towns compare day to day, or want to talk about a move on either side of the bridge, we'd love to visit over coffee before the first round starts. Work With Us.